E-Archive

Group Member	Roles	Commented On
Mishele Adams	Planned roles, structure of paper and timeline. Created Prezi structure. Created video #1. Final viewing/editing before submission.	Group 1.
Kim Clist	Planned roles, structure of paper and timeline. Created Video #2. Wrote and inserted all content into Prezi. Final viewing/editing. Published to blog.	Group 1 and 3
Joe DeGraaf	Planned roles, structure of paper and timeline. Wrote summary information in blog. Final viewing/editing before submission.	Group 1 and 3.

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Our group was assigned the topic of Community Based Adult Education. We examined several areas of community education and how it benefits and educates adults throughout the country and world. We discovered that much of community education was spawned from government programs as federal funding was required to get them off the ground.

These federally funded programs began in the late 1800’s as industrial and agricultural training for rural Americans. The Cooperative Extension System helped promote community education and advocated for individual communities to strengthen individuals in their own environment.

Similar programs continued throughout the 1900’s, many of which began to focus on problem solving for communities. Programs like Head Start were aimed at alleviating poverty and helping low-income families provide education for their children. Independent organizations, such as the Black Panthers and the Highlander Institute, also began their own community education efforts that fought injustice and sought to help individuals understand social and civil rights issues.

Literacy became another focus for federal programs, seeking to address root causes of poverty throughout the country. Programs looked to center their efforts on individual communities as they sought to improve the quality of community education. This required programs to understand their community’s demographics, issues, and resources and to facilitate effective methods of education for each environment.

Educators like Dr. Nicelma King and Dr. Ching Mey See have demonstrated many of these trends in community education throughout their storied careers. Each of them looked to address issues relevant to their specific situations. Where Dr. King looked at mental health nutritional education for diverse communities in California, Dr. See sought ways to educate the underprivileged and those with mental disabilities throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

The United Way organization is a great example of the progress of community education, bringing funding away from a more centralized federal budget to the communities themselves. United Way helps sponsor programs like Circles and CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates). Each of these programs looks to educate community members toward solving the problems of their environment.

Circles seeks to help alleviate poverty and financial illiteracy by bringing communities together and providing basic financial education. CASA educates volunteers on how to support and defend victims of child abuse who cannot otherwise navigate the complex judicial and family court system.

All of our research and studies this semester have indicated the vast importance of community education. Each community has its own issues and struggles where community education plays a vital role in identifying and solving. Community educators are the means by which individuals can rise up and move beyond their current environmental issues and pursue a better life. Community education allows an opportunity for truth and practical skills to be learned, as opposed to the randomized and often false information people may find online.

Community education is the glue that helps hold communities together, uniting people of all genders, race, and income in the common cause of bringing about progressive change and development. Educators help facilitate the learning process and provide the resources for understanding the issues facing their environment and the means for solving them.