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University Daily Kansan, October 21. 1982
Program helps resolution of social issues
By KATE DUFFY Staff Reporter
Universities have been called ivory towers of learning, separated from the concerns of the day-to-day world. But for the past four years, staff members are centered for Public Affairs Community. Development has been working to dilute that motu-
The Community Development program has generated a wealth of information on human services, potential legislation and city planning that has been put to use by community, state and national groups, said Stephen Fawcett, the program's coordinator, recently.
"The principle of equality argues that the University should actually seek out underrepresented people and do these public service works." Fawcett said. "We create tools that allow people to work on social issues."
NINETY PERCENT of the program's projects are financed by external grants or contracts with other organizations. The program prints booklets and papers about its findings and attributes them to interested groups.
One branch of the program, the Community Technology Project, "focuses on low-income and self-help groups as well as neighborhood assistance and employment," accepts an associate professor of human development and family living.
"Our longest standing relationship is with Penn House, a low-income neighborhood service center," he said. "It's run by and for poor families and offers such crisis services as emergency food and medicine."
OVER THE YEARS, Faewett said, the project staff has collaborated with Penn House staff members to work out many problems. Some solutions to these problems have included developing a community barter system, an innovation in training for leadership training system and low-income peer counselor training.
For the peer counseling project, Fawcett and his students spent 1 1/2 years studying counseling literature to find the best methods.
“There were no real simple procedures locally to do this.” Fawcett said. Of course, we could have used a fancy, of course, that would cost thousands of dollars.
"IT WOULD have done the job, but it would be impractical, most of the time if it were a good offer."
One of Penn House's founders and former staff member, Oocee Miller, said that the community technology company was invaluable to Penn House over the years.
"When you have non-professionals in helping roles," she said, "it's especially valuable. It teaches the staff to clients carefully and respond to them."
Fawcett said he stressed finding solutions that could be used by different
communities. Two students currently working in the Community Development program are adapting another staff project, the Community Concerns survey, to be used in their native lands, Columbia and Kenya.
THE SURVEY was originally developed to identify strengths and weaknesses in a community, as well as ideas for improvement from the perspective of its citizens. Its first use was for neighborhood associations and city libraries. A few years ago, program staff members used it at a state mental institution.
Fawcett said the Kansas commissioner of mental health heard him describe the concerns survey at a clinic and try to it at the Topeka State Hospital.
At the hospital, project members used the survey to determine the most pressing concerns of patients and staff personnel.
THE RESULTS were so successful the Legislature passed a resolution last spring to implement it in all the state departments. That project is nearly finished.
Fawcett said Charles Maui, the staff member in charge of the mental health project, would return to Kenya and use his time up the first mental health system there.
Another project undertaken by the program's staff for Penn House was a leadership training seminar. Miller said this program was especially important.
Miller said, "With low-income groups, the meeting chairman has to have training if they are going to have democratic meetings."
She said that participation in the Community Technology groups' programs had increased Penn House staff members' self confidence, and, "it has put us in touch with resource people we wouldn't have met otherwise."
FAWCETT TRACED his interest in community problem solving to his days as a VISTA volunteer in a public housing project in Kansas City, Mo. While working with tenant groups, he became frustrated at the hit or miss approach used to solve the neighborhood's problems.
This was typical of many situations. Fawcett said. Community organizers would hit upon a good idea, but by the time they had perfected it, they would have moved on to a new area. He said they simply were no systems designed for garden organizers and residents in working out their neighborhood's problems.
OTHER COMMUNITY Development program clients have included the cities of Lawrence and Atchison, the office and the Kansas Legislature. Lawyers presented survey results to legislators concerning the child passenger safety act. After the bill, which was not expected to pass, did get through the Senate and said organizations from six states called an office wanting to replicate the survey.
"It was all word of mouth," he said.
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