8
Friday, September 8, 1972
University Daily Kansan
1
Social Welfare Students Studv Sunflower Village
BY WENDIE ELLIOTT Kansan Staff Writer
A leisurely drive past Sunflower Village might prompt concern, wonder, pity or even contempt, but this does not constitute a fairness to the residents. Paul Brotsman, assistant professor of social welfare, looks at the inhabitants of the village in the closer vantage point and his class of social workers follows his lead.
Bristolman is the director of the University of Kansas social welfare project at Sunflower Village.
"My people are interested in the way people make do with what the environment provides them," he said. "The need for education," the said Wednesday.
A group of three to four social work students will begin their fieldwork in Sunflower Village Sept. 11, Brotsman said. This group has had one year of similar experience and service units open to students.
LAST YEAR according to Brotman, four students went to the village during the year. The volunteer worker, he said.
In addition to his students, Brotsman said, he would like to enlist two volunteer men to help with teenage boys.
The students who work in the village are chosen on the basis of their expressed wishes, acclimatize to work, work committee, made up of two social welfare faculty members and representatives from two or three social work agencies, discusses the issues of the unit, he said. On the basis of their findings and the students' wishes, Brotsman said, Margo Shcutz, field director, assigns each student to a service team.
The students receive credit for their work, Brotsman said. Undergraduates must work 10 to 15 hours a week and must work 20 hours per week.
"THE WORK is geared to
the relationship to a reliance on for one or
two people with extreme personal
or group problems." Brotsman
Over the years, Brotsman said, the staff has learned what kind of people to work with and people at the village. The staff's ability to choose good workers has resulted in a good, effective team of people at the village, he said.
"They don't want to be patronized," he said. "This leads to a very careful selection of who we send out there. There is a need to know who we need the low-key person who is not patronizing."
Sunflower Village was constructed as part of a munitions plant during World War II, according to Bette Cooper,
executive secretary of the Sunflower CIVie Association. The plant closed down in 1948, leaving a vacant office in the village, she said.
BEFORE THE PLANT reopened in 1968 at full capacity, the government sold the rows of housing units, Cooper said. The units changed hands in 2015, and a motel for workers living there.
Cooper said the plant was now on "standby maintenance." This allows plants to maintain minimum levels to allow resumption of production on other days.
The Village is fully occupied even though there are no jobs available. Most of the families who live in the village, she said, are mostly migrant workers who come north in search of opportunities. The job opportunities are not in the village, but access to cheap labor. The cheap workers seek jobs in Kansas City, while some find work in Lawrence or Eudora, she said.
THE UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT created by the constant turnover of families is of special concern to Brostman's class. Those most seriously hurt by their environment are the students. A major emphasis of the program will be education, he said.
Brottsman said the small white school house in the village probably would begin with 200 to 250 children in the fall. Because he said, the school will teach 350 students in a matter of weeks.
Brotsman said a similar plan had been tried a few years ago and hadn't worked as well as had just done. The next year he will continue to try, he said.
"If you were a migratory worker you wouldn't want to have to do anything. You'd come your name is Lewis and the boy's name is Blue, Brotman撕 your pocket and if you make it you'll stay—if not you'll leave in
BROTSMAN'S PLAN is to reach out aggressively, but pleasantly, to the migrants.
"People will call long distance to see if there is a place to live," he said. "In two days they blow in in an old Dodge."
"We want to provide a
man with a tool that
for the early school days."
Brotman said. "These are
the easiest to get started and
the most effective."
"In the past, those who had difficulties or were trouble-makers walked away. With guidance, they stay" he said.
The Neighborhood Youth Corps works to get jobs for teenagers during the summer. Cooper said, "We had a program for low income families. The social workers from KU and Brotman have joined in this."
"I THINK a big reason kids love to wear dresses and book rental, clothes and book rental," Cooper said. "This way they have money and they feel more acclimatized."
In addition to the summer jobs, Brotsman wants to get volunteers on the job with these children.
"I want two men with 'ideal images' who can talk the right way and who can do things with them, to come to the village and work with the boys in these diffrent situations between 13 and 18," Brotsman said.
Bristow's group also is interested in making personal experiences valuable to the Social workers, in connection with the Civic Association, work together to set up groups for the support of the young people. The groups are educational and help to increase experience in assuming responsibility, Bristow.
IN THE WOMEN do "arts" things, Brotsman said, they develop useful skills such as weaving and sewing. They make a variety of toys, who all family—things they sell or give as gifts, he said.
"This is better than what we've had before." Cooper said. "People really want jobs, but the jobs they pay hourly wages and transportation."
Through a new branch of the Johnson County Library the people of the Village receive pieces of a Job Bank, Cooper said.
The entire process is done by telephone and film, she said. Each morning, Cooper said, she receives a film listing possible job opportunities. When a resident wishes to apply for cooperated, Cooper said, she calls the agency to make an appointment for an interview.
The agency accepts only three to five applicants at a time for each job, she said. In this way, she said, the applicants do not have to compete with a large number of other people for the job.
THEERE ARE TWO new buildings in Sunflower Village that house the operations of the Civic Center. Both buildings were built by volunteer work from the village, Cooper said.
"Kids and parents are more interested in education now," Brotsman said.
Cooper said young social workers had seemed a little scared when they first came to the village.
"They just watch at first," she said. "Then they go to work."
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