Local Heroes

Dear Readers and Friends,

I have been taking time away from the blog to read and write non-blog projects lately.  The book I am reading is a scholarly and well written book about the impact that being undocumented has on children's development.  I will dedicate an upcoming entry to that.  I am almost finished with the book and want to do a complete review on this site.

I have been working with a group of colleagues on digesting some data we gathered from youth alumni of our Fortaleciendo Familias program.  We conducted focus groups with youth at three sites.  Overall 512 youth completed the program.  We managed to pull in 17 for follow-up focus groups.  It was a learning experience for all of us and as we have digested the meaning of the transcripts and explored the themes expressed by the comments, we discovered consistency across the sites.  Our youth expressed increased understanding of their parents and conversely, that they were able to communicate their thoughts and feelings with their parents with more trust.  My writing group (AnaMaria Diaz Maritinez, Jennifer Crawford, Irene Overath and I) identifies four major themes that emerged from the data.  We saw that the youth acknowledged the changes that occurred in their family systems as a result of participating in our program, we saw a number of competencies that lead to positive youth development emerging in the youth, the youth told us about scenarios that were indicators of increased resilience in their lives and they told us that the craft projects that they did with their families that were designed to raise awareness about family strengths and their values were still important symbols in their homes.  Our article is on version two and we are almost ready to send it off for review.  I am really glad we put collective minds to the task of refining this important data. I see the youth and their parents as well as the dedicated facilitators who conduct the program as the local heroes.

The program has been really popular in my county and in other places where funds are available to offer it.  On my sabbatical task list is designing a process and cost estimate to remake the video portion of the curriculum and to find support for that process.  I have already found out that video production is expensive and it will take creative funding to make it happen.  I am diving into the waters of making connections for future funding this week.

Shuksan Middle School Graduation, March 2014

I often share this picture because it holds out the promise the program has for people.  Isabel Meaker who organizes the Shuksan program told me recently that at 6th grade orientation she signed enough families up for a full class that will take place in early 2016!

Isabel is another local heroine.  I met Isabel through Lindsey Karas, the last of the local heroines I would like to shout out to today.  Lindsey coordinates resident services at Sterling Meadows - Farmworker Housing run by Mercy Housing Corporation.  Mercy Housing Northwest oversees a number of properties throughout the west.  Our local WSU Extension team supports Sterling Meadows by embedding nutrition and gardening programs there and by serving residents in our Fortaleciendo Familias Program at Shuksan.  Lindsey is the fulcrum for the services that are designed to wrap around the children and their families at Sterling Meadows.  There are many collaborators that work with Lindsey and she deserves the recognition she received at a recent reception held as a fundraiser for her programs.  She works with Western Washington University (WWU) faculty and students to support the ongoing education of the students.  The success of the program is simply expressed.  They went from a 0% graduation rate among resident teens to a 100% graduation rate over the past seven years.  I was amazed and really proud to witness the speech from the polished and proud young woman who shared what Lindsey's program meant to her.  There were numerous examples of youth who not only completed their high school degrees but went onto college.  The word excelling was used to describe some of the youth in the program.  The homework club that utilizes WWU students is part of the reason these youth succeed.  The safe and supportive and predictable housing they grow up in also provides an atmosphere that lowers stress and allows the kids to focus.

I do not have a picture of Lindsey and her lovely student Crystal to share.  I received a lovely thank you note from Mercy Housing thanking me for my donation that has a photo of these local heroines.  There are some great videos that share what Mercy Housing NW is doing to support residents in having a successful and healthy life path.  They are short and sweet and worth seeing.  I recommend them.

Part of my passion for housing comes from my nine (yes 9!) years of board service at Lydia Place.  One of our big fundraisers takes place June 4th at Depot Market Square in Bellingham.  I am excited to go.  If you are interested in attending, tickets can be found at the website above.  It is a joyous and colorful event!  

Enjoy your early June!

Thanks for reading.

The Long and Winding Road Home

We are back in Bellingham!  I am grateful to be at home despite the broken furnace, the broken washing machine and the funky power issues that happened while we were away.  Mike and I are both hoping that when you add the little repair we had to make to the car while we were in Tucson that we are done with repair and replacement for now.  The best news for me is the new washer and dryer that will arrive on Wednesday.    (The old washer died a noble death and the dryer was operating at half strength.)

We diligently kept track of the total miles we put on our car over the 41 days we were gone - 5210 miles.  Such a long way for us.  Mike is used to riding his bike as much as he can and I have been spoiled by living 2 miles from my office.  We are used to doing most things within about 5 miles of our home.  Even my little airport is 5 miles from my house.  One of the things I realized is that I really do not like road trips that much.  Maybe if the trip can be completed in one day and is no more than 5 hours.  Maybe if the stay on the other end is long and leisurely, like the snowbirds we saw and met all over California and Arizona, it makes sense.  By the end of the trip I would look longingly at airplanes and think about how quickly those people are going to get to where they are going.  I look forward to flying to and from Arizona next week for a short visit with the Arizona State University Latino Resilience Enterprise team.

I am sure that some of my bias against long road trips on fast moving interstate highways is that I walked away from a horrific high speed rollover accident almost 31 years ago.  I was 6 months pregnant.  Seat belts saved my life and that of my husband and now nearly 31 year old son Ben.  To this day large trucks cause me some anxiety.  We were hit by a semi-truck, thrown across all lanes of I-5 and then broadsided and flipped into a ditch.  We hung upside down while we waited for rescuers.
I had some amazing visits on this trip that made it worthwhile.   I am really grateful for all the people who agreed to give me their time and energy and I learned a great deal.  I was surprised by the generous hearts and the colorful art I saw all along the way.  I will write again in the next couple of days about the last couple of days of visiting in NorCal.  In the meantime I will post a couple of pictures I took on a brief visit we made to the state capital in Sacramento.

Cesar Chavez is honored in a variety of places in California and Arizona.  We spent some time in the Central Valley near where he lived and worked and met people who were connected to him through their relatives.  This plaza was in downtown Sacramento.  We were lucky to walk through it after we parked the car.

All capitol buildings are majestic.  This is no exception.  We found our way inside and enjoyed displays from each county lining the walls on the visitors' floor.

The floor on the outside of the capitol building.  The marble was beautiful and spoke to me esthetically.

The golden bear, state mascot.  This fellow is brass and is touched by many school children each day.  A nearby state trooper advised us to skip touching for the sake of our health.  He is impressive.

Thanks for reading my ramblings!

Preparing for the Journey

I recently met with some of our Whatcom Latino team and allies to find out what they would like to know from my trip and what questions they would like me to ask while I am visiting programs in the SW.  They also helped me focus on creating the questions that I want to use in my interviews and visits.

Front row left to right: Janae Hodge, Bellingham Schools, Christina Ortiz, Fortaleciendo Familias (FF) facilitator, Sylvia Mendoza, Nooksack Valley Schools, FF facilitator and FF coordinator, Isabel Meaker, Bellingham Schools and FF facilitator and recruiter extraordinaire.
Back row: Sharece Steinkamp, Bellingham Schools, Manuel Padilla, FF facilitator and fathering advocate.

Here are a few of the questions they came up with and I edited for the purpose of my interviews:

For program staff and allies:

How do parents and programs deal with the fear of deportation/detention?  What do think could be done that is not? 

How do you talk to kids about immigration and the risks associated with it?

How do you talk to parents about drugs, alcohol, sex?  Internet safety? Bullying?

How do you talk to youth about the above issues?

How do you involve fathers?  How do you make it more interesting for fathers?

What are some models that we can use to support kids and families where they are at?  How can we best bring families to the resources?

With which programs/agencies/schools etc  do you collaborate to reach the families?

What do you see as the key protective factors for early school years: 5-10 and how you are addressing them?

What are the results of your programs and how are you measuring them?

And here are a few of the questions I created for scholars:

Tell me about your research and what you are finding that would have implications for serving immigrant populations.

What are the key issues around immigration that you think need to be understood in order to be effective in a community based program with Latino families?

If you were asked to address a group of community professionals that may have limited knowledge of what recent Latino immigrants are experiencing, what topics would you speak to?  Can you give me an elevator speech version of your top two or three points?

And two last questions - these are for parents:

What are your dreams and wishes for your children and your family?

What is the biggest challenge for you?  For your children?

If you are reading this and you would like to comment on these questions or have one of your own, please let me know via e-mail or FB or some other channel.  I do not believe I have turned on the comment function on this blog.  You could always try.  

One of the greatest privileges of the sabbatical is having the time to think through and to pack not just material things for the journey but also the tools to make the learning experience as rich as possible.

Thanks for reading!