Group 2: Community Based Education
Mishele Adams
Kim Clist
Joe DeGraaf
April 2, 2017
Group Member
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Roles
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Commented On
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Mishele Adams
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Planned roles, structure of paper and timeline. Edited paper and completed summary table.
| Group 1. |
Kim Clist
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Planned roles, structure of paper and timeline. Researched and interviewed Blackwood. Wrote and edited paper, completed summary table.
| Group 1 and Group 4. |
Joe DeGraaf
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Planned roles, structure of paper and timeline. Wrote and edited paper, created references and citations.
| Group 4 and Group 1. |
Introduction of the Organizations:
United Way’s mission is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities around the world to advance the common good. A factoid from their website touts “8,000 people trained for in-demand jobs in Cincinnati Ohio” (United Way, 2016). The conduit for bringing employers, nonprofits, government, faith organizations, educators, labor, health providers, community leaders, youth and individuals together for positive change; United Way is probably best known for its funding support, raising billions of dollars every year to be allocated to local programs across the world. A large part of achieving their mission of improving lives and advancing the common good is done through funding educational programs.
Two of the United Way’s educational efforts are Circles of Delaware County, and CASA of Rock County. Circles is aimed at ending hunger and hunger insecurity in the community by providing financial literacy education. The Circles program began as a part of the Teamwork for Quality Living organization.
Teamwork was founded by concerned educators and healthcare workers in Delaware County in 1996 (TEAMwork, 2017). Their areas of focus were “Citizenship, Community Services, Education, Family Development and RACISM (Reaching Across Cultures and Investing in a Successful Muncie and Delaware County)” (TEAMwork, 2017).
In 2005, Teamwork found its primary focus in alleviating poverty in the Delaware County community. Since that time, they have embraced the Circles program, adopted out of the Circles USA program, in an effort to “empower individuals to build the resources needed to get out of poverty” (TEAMwork, 2017).
Then, in 2016, Teamwork for Quality Living merged with Second Harvest Food Bank in order to broaden their impact on the local community (Second Harvest, 2016). Second Harvest saw the merger as an opportunity to better address issues of hunger by focusing on its root causes in poverty and financial illiteracy (TEAMwork, 2016a).
Together, Teamwork and Second Harvest formed their new direction of “Help for Today, Hope for Tomorrow” that works to address immediate needs as well as attempts to eliminate future struggles (TEAMwork, 2016a). The Circles program is central to the Hope for Tomorrow aspect of the new organization, seeking to build relationships with those seeking to become financially independent and help them achieve their goals (Second Harvest, 2016).
CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) started in 1977 due to the efforts of Washington Judge David W. Soukup. Over the past 40 years, the program has grown to over 1000 local offices in 49 states (CASA for Children, 2017b). It is their mission to train and support local volunteers to be advocates for victims of child abuse. Each volunteer, once trained is appointed by the judge, matching them up with one child or a set of siblings. They become involved in all aspects of the child’s life, from home to school and even medical needs. They often become the only reliable constant in the child’s life during a very tumultuous time. They foster a relationship of trust with the child in addition to being their advocate in court. In order to be a CASA volunteer, an individual must be 21 years or older, have a high school diploma, complete an application, background check and an in person interview. Once approved, they must successfully complete a rigorous training program. The training program includes 30 hours of face to face training over the course of several weeks in addition to a training manual and asynchronous on-line modules. The face to face classes include discussion, interactive activities and role playing.
In an interview with CASA Child Advocacy & Outreach Coordinator, Brittny Blackwood, we were given more specifics about CASA of Rock County. CASA of Rock County, located in Southern Wisconsin, is affiliated with Family Services of Southern Wisconsin & Northern Illinois and the National CASA Association. Costing $1200 to provide a child with a CASA volunteer for one year, the funding model for this type of program is complex. Ms. Blackwood explained that CASA of Rock County receives financial support through individual and corporate donations, federal funding, grants and organizations like the United Way.
The main programs/learning activities within the organizations:
Teamwork’s primary program is Circles. It is based on the idea that, in order for families to improve their financial situation, “they must have bonding social capital within the community, bridging social capital to access the resources contained by higher income networks, and linking social capital that connects the first two with public institutions” (TEAMwork, 2016b).
Families in the Circle program work to step out of poverty alongside middle and upper income individuals, known as “Allies,” who befriend and support them in their efforts (TEAMwork, 2016b). Each family defines their own needs and goals and then works alongside their allies to accomplish these goals in the community setting. Furthermore, Circles is designed to assist families and individuals “by setting Smart Goals with accountability and growth in expanded relationships with committed allies” (Second Harvest, 2017).
Families participating in Circles receive educational training on how to build up their financial, emotional, and social resources (TEAMwork, 2016b). This takes a twenty-two month commitment by families and includes the fifteen week training (TEAMwork, 2016c). They also research the causes of poverty in their specific community, identifying needs and the different means to meeting them. Teamwork and Second Harvest work to provide families with resources to help them meet their current needs as well as the resources to help them to financial self-sufficiency (Second Harvest, 2016).
Muncie’s Circles community is led by a “Guiding Coalition,” which is comprised of “community leaders, families with low income, elected and appointed officials, and volunteers” who work together to change mindsets and policies within the community (TEAMwork, 2016b). Overall, the Circles program in Muncie brings together the community in a way that educates low income families on how to meet their needs and middle to upper income individuals on how to better their community and environment. Their goal is not only to bring about financial change, but to change the mindsets of affected community members in order to effect lifelong change (Second Harvest, 2016).
CASA’s training program is solely for the purpose of supporting their mission:
“The National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association, together with its state and local member programs, supports and promotes court-appointed volunteer advocacy so every abused or neglected child in the United States can be safe, have a permanent home and the opportunity to thrive” (CASA for Children, 2017b).
After being approved to be a CASA volunteer, individuals take part in the training. There are 2 instructors that volunteers will interact with over several weeks in addition to online asynchronous learning modules and an extensive training text. The goal of the training is to give the volunteers a solid base of knowledge and skills in order to navigate the complex judicial and family court system, and to be an advocate for victimized children.
The training manual states, “Each chapter centers on a series of activities. The activities are designed to help you learn new material, relate it to what you already know, apply what you have learned, and consider how you will use it in the future” (Independent Study Manual, 2007, p. 3-4). The comprehensive training program contains activities that address kinesthetic, auditory, visual learners; from role playing, to group discussions, text and video clips. Blackwood explains that CASA of Rock County also has a strong focus on experiential learning. Through the strong support from a local judge, volunteers have an opportunity for practical observation in the courtroom in addition to the national training materials. The local judge also meets with volunteers during their training for conversations and questions. And finally, as they move into independent practice, each new CASA volunteer is also paired up with someone who will coach them through their first case.
States receiving federal funding are required to evaluate the effectiveness of child-advocacy efforts, however, on a national level, there is little research on the effectiveness of CASA. One of the biggest challenges is the scarcity of federal funds for research of CASA programs (Leung, 1996, p. 270). In addition to the funding, it is challenging to evaluate the success of training when the situations where the learning is applied are so complex. The following table is an example of a small portion of variabilities that may occur in a child’s judicial case and ultimately affect the outcome of their circumstance no matter what action the CASA volunteer takes on their behalf.
(Leung, 1996, p. 276)
The Rock County program does not currently have an evaluation model in place. They acknowledge that while they can measure immediate retention of information, they do not have a practice in place that can measure the new knowledge in practice. However, Ms. Blackwood told us that they have recently received a federal grant that will give them the opportunity to focus on outreach and to take steps to evaluate their training practices and whether or not they are successful.
The significant support CASA of Rock County receives is most likely because people believe in its value and effectiveness, not all counties have the same situation. CASA of Columbia County, located less than 100 miles north, was forced to disband in 2013 due to a lack of funding (Green, 2013).
Comparison:
Community education to address financial illiteracy is difficult for many reasons, not least of which is that much of low income individual’s poverty is based on environmental factors. As stated by Fernandes, Lynch, and Netemeyer, “the financial behavior of the poor is arguably more controlled by circumstances independent of intention” (2014, pg. 1874). Simply providing a cognitive education to individuals, then, will have less effect than changing the environment. The Circles program seeks to bring the community into play, using networking to encourage not only financial literacy, but also community progress and development.
Financial knowledge has been shown to have a strong relationship with positive financial practices, such as paying bills on time, budgeting, saving money, and setting financial goals (Hastings, Madrian, & Skimmyhorn, 2013, p. 358). With a better understanding of how to manage one’s own money, there is a better likelihood of them doing so. However, “the current literature is inadequate to draw firm conclusions about if and under what conditions financial education either works or is cost-effective” (Hastings et al., 2013, p. 361).
Financial literacy education for low income individuals has focused primarily on teaching them the basic skills associated with responsible wealth management. “Low-income workers and poor people in general often lack relevant information about how to gain access to mainstream banking and related opportunities, which impedes their ability to accumulate financial assets” (Engelbrecht, 2008, p. 253). Financial literacy education’s purpose is to account for these gaps in understanding, empowering people to practice informed decision making related to their financial situation and future (Engelbrecht, 2008, p. 253).
Circles attempts to provide this financial literacy to the community members of Muncie and Delaware County. They do so by providing educational resources that help individuals and families better understand how to protect and sustain their financial progress. More than this, they seek to influence social change that might improve the community at large and help shield low income families from the challenges of job loss and economic displacement. As Engelbrecht identifies for the social work profession, financial literacy can be a tool for poverty alleviation where social change is a primary mission to enhance financially vulnerable people (2008, p. 259). Circles seeks to do just the same by bringing together community members of all income levels to work together toward a brighter future.
Like the work of Circles, advocating for children’s rights is also devastatingly complicated and difficult. As Bartholet explains, “It is particularly uphill in the United States, with our tradition of individual autonomy which keeps the government largely out of the family, limiting its role in protecting children. There’s a reason that the U.S. stands alone among nations in refusing to adopt the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child” (Bartholet, 2004, p. 216). This is why it is essential that children who are victims of abuse and neglect have an advocate whose sole purpose is to protect and support them. And while few would argue against having someone represent a child in cases of abuse, it takes a very specific person, with very specific knowledge and skills to do so effectively. Programs like CASA must train volunteers in areas of law, psychology, social work, health, and education. By focusing the learning around the base principles of “best interest of the child” and “minimum sufficient level of care,” CASA provides the most applicable and practical training possible (Independent Study Manual, 2007, p. 8-9)
Implications:
Adult community education, particularly around issues of family wellbeing and sustainability, like Circles and CASA, is extremely complex. In addition to all the aspects that make up effective adult education, including activities that engage all types of learners, well thought out objectives, and measurable results; funding and support from partners in the community matter as well. Interestingly, not only does research show a strong link between parental poverty and child abuse, the relationship is also reflexive, in that child abuse has been shown to be an indicator of future poverty when the child becomes an adult. (Frederick & Goddard, 2007). This is why organizations like the United Way, while not actual providers of the education, are still imperative. Without their ability to facilitate collaborations and gather funding from a broad audience of donors for distribution, programs providing life supporting education could not continue.
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Name of Organization 1
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Name of Organization 2
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Circles
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CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates)
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Locations
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Muncie, IN and Delaware County
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over 1000 local offices in 49 states (specifically Rock County, located in Southern Wisconsin)
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Year it was founded
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2005
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1977
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Mission and goals
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aimed at ending hunger and hunger insecurity in the community by providing financial literacy education.
“empower individuals to build the resources needed to get out of poverty”
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The National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association, together with its state and local member programs, supports and promotes court-appointed volunteer advocacy so every abused or neglected child in the United States can be safe, have a permanent home and the opportunity to thrive.
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List of the main programs
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Teamwork’s primary program is Circles.
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Training of volunteers to be Court Appointed Special Advocates for children who are victims of abuse.
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How were the programs organized?
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The program began as a part of the Teamwork for Quality Living organization and adopted out of the Circles USA program.
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The program is affiliated with Family Services of Southern Wisconsin & Northern Illinois and the National CASA Association.
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Goals these programs wish to achieve through these programs?
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The Circles program in Muncie brings together the community in a way that educates low income families on how to meet their needs and middle to upper income individuals on how to better their community and environment. Their goal is not only to bring about financial change, but to change the mindsets of affected community members in order to effect lifelong change.
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The goal of CASA is to provide volunteer advocates for children who are victims of abuse, to keep their best interests as the only priority, and to help in assuring a physically, mentally, and emotionally safe home life. CASA volunteers are the constant safe adult relationship in their lives, giving them a voice in the complex family court system that is often skewed to protect the rights of adults before the wellbeing of the child.
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Why were they organized differently/similarly?
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Both organizations are supported financially by the United way, and the training they provide is intended to lead toward healthy and safe lives within a community. Although there is not causality between poverty and child abuse, research has shown a strong correlation, from current circumstances to predictive of future circumstances.
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Implications
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Both organizations provide education that can be life-changing and life-sustaining. They set out to improve the wellbeing of individuals and families. They do not charge for their services and are focused on the greater good of an individual or family. As such, there is far more to be done in order for them to be successful and sustainable than just being good at teaching. Programs such as this need to build strong relationships within their communities. They need support from organizations like the United Way, local law enforcement, the courts, professionals, businesses, and individuals. This support means volunteers to do the work and perhaps most importantly, funding. People looking to take part in community education at this level must recognize that their role will be more than just to educate and mentor. They must also be an advocate for their programming and be a part of building those sustaining relationships.
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References
Drexler, A., Fischer, G., & Schoar, A. (2014). Keeping it simple: Financial literacy and rules of thumb. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 6(2), 1-31. doi:10.1257/app.6.2.1
Engelbrecht, L. (2014). The scope of financial literacy education: A poverty alleviation tool in social work? Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 44(3). doi:10.15270/44-3-239
Fernandes, D., Lynch, J. G., & Netemeyer, R. G. (2014). Financial literacy, financial education, and downstream financial behaviors. Management Science, 60(8), 1861-1883. doi:10.1287/mnsc.2013.1849
Frederick, J., & Goddard, C. (2007). Exploring the relationship between poverty, childhood adversity and child abuse from the perspective of adulthood. Child Abuse Review, 16(5), 323-341. doi:10.1002/car.971
Hastings, J., Madrian, B., & Skimmyhorn, W. (2012). Financial Literacy, Financial Education and Economic Outcomes. Annual Review of Economics, 347-373. doi:10.3386/w18412
Independent Study Manual. (2007). Volunteer Training Curriculum, National CASA Association, 1-15.
Leung, P. (1996). Is the court-appointed special advocate program effective? A longitudinal analysis of time involvement and case outcomes. Child Welfare, 75(3), 269-284.
United Way. (2017). United Way of Delaware County. Retrieved from http://www.invitedtoliveunited.org/
