Leadership
Development
Rural
Action continued to work with several community groups that participated
in the PLD program in previous years, with projects as varied and interesting
as the communities from which they grew. Trimble held a township-wide
Halloween party, while Corning and Haydenville held Chautauquas featuring
traditional music, an old-time medicine show, and arts and crafts. Amesville
focused on the Coonskin Library project, receiving a $9,000 grant from
the O'Bleness Foundation to restore the original Coonskin Library building.
In Glouster, the Chile Pepper Festival is now held annually and has
become a major cultural event in our area. The New Straitsville group,
which began by building a shelter house, expanded its project into a
full-fledged park, with playground equipment from the recently closed
elementary school and a footbridge that connects the park to the adjacent
community library across a ravine.
CommUNITY
Pride, the rural Pike County group we've worked with for five years,
was one of three stops in Ohio on a national Economic Justice Tour which
featured actor Danny Glover along with state and national politicians
and activists. Members of CommUNITY Pride testified about the impact
of welfare reform on their community. The group is currently building
a community center with funds from multiple sources, including the Appalachian
Regional Commission.
In November we held a reunion of all the community groups we've assisted.
We learned of their successes and their struggles, and we appreciated
their guidance on how Rural Action can continue to help them reach their
goals.
Rural
School and Community Organizing
In
April 2000, Rural Action began the Rural School and Community Organizing
(RSCO) project to organize citizens and develop strategies to strengthen
rural communities through their schools. Because Ohio's school funding
relies almost entirely on local property taxes, high poverty rates in
Appalachian Ohio have resulted in gross inequities in school funding.
RSCO brings together students, parents, educators, and community members
to work toward an equitable system for funding public schools and school
facilities in Ohio.
In
2000, we hired two coordinators for the project and established an advisory
committee of area residents, school personnel, and education experts.
A curriculum guide was published for classroom use to help students
understand and respond to school funding and facilities issues.
Arts
and Cultural Heritage
The
Arts and Cultural Heritage Program saw the completion of youth murals
in Athens and Albany over the summer and the start of a Glouster mural
in the fall, bringing the number of our community mural collaborations
to nine. We produced a postcard featuring the New Straitsville mural,
which will be sold to support future arts projects. We once again participated
in planning for the Glouster Chile Pepper Festival and the Hock Hocking
Heritage Festival.
Our
Traditional Music Preservation project held monthly jam sessions and
recorded elderly musicians to preserve their unique traditional sounds.
A new "shape note" traditional singing group was also formed in 2000.
Our new coordinator was hired in April 2000.
Service-Learning
Rural
Action completed the third and final year of our Learn & Serve Partnership
with Ohio University to develop and support new service-learning partnerships
between university faculty and students and community-based projects.
With a focus on developing research-based partnerships, we presented
the Community-Based Research Workshop, which was attended by more than
thirty community project leaders, and funded five new partnerships,
four of which conducted research otherwise unavailable to community-based
projects. The five projects were the Raccoon Creek Watershed, the Environmental
Learning Program, Good Works, the Sunday Creek Watershed Group, and
Rural Action Media. Altogether, we worked with 18 Ohio University and
Hocking College staff and faculty and 38 community groups; we brought
142 students to new service-learning projects and awarded $1758 in mini-grants
to new projects. Ohio University did not receive continued funding for
this project, so the Learn & Serve Partnership terminated at year's
end.
Rural
Action's K-12 service-learning project is drawing to a close. The state
office of the Corporation for National Service did not receive funding
to continue K-12 service-learning projects in 2001.
Job
Skills Training
During
the year 2000, in collaboration with the Athens County Department of
Job and Family Services, Rural Action continued job skills training
for people on public assistance, working with thirty-eight trainees.
Of these, fourteen are now employed and nine are still in training with
us; the rest left the program for one reason or another. In October
some public assistance recipients reached the end of the three-year
benefits eligibility period imposed by Ohio's welfare reform laws. We
continued our work with the Ohio Empowerment Coalition and Organize!
Ohio to advocate for needed changes in the welfare laws.
Safe
Pest Control
In
2000, approximately 200 staff members in six school districts were educated
about Integrated Pest Management. Nine educational presentations were
made: two two-hour workshops with district maintenance and kitchen staff
(Tri-County and Wellston); three presentations to teachers (Trimble
Elementary, Trimble Middle, and Alexander High School); three presentations
to district principals (Alexander, Wellston, and Nelsonville-York);
and one meeting with a maintenance supervisor and superintendent (Minford).
Two small educational posters were developed which could be easily copied
and posted in staff rooms, as well as a video guide to accompany an
Ohio University-produced introductory video. These materials were requested
by and distributed to eleven districts.
Environmental
Learning Program
This
program received funding from the Ohio Environmental Education Fund
in 2000, and two part-time coordinators were hired. With assistance
from VISTA volunteers, interns, and community members, the coordinators
worked with over 1100 elementary and middle school students this year.
ELP conducted hands-on, inquiry-based learning sessions, either in the
schoolyards or at Lake Hope State Park, for Vinton County, Alexander,
Trimble, and Federal Hocking school districts. ELP continued its partnership
with Lake Hope, using the Lake Hope Nature Center and hiking trails.
The
ELP Advisory Board, composed of school teachers, Ohio University professors,
a Hocking College instructor, former ELP staff members, and other community
members, met twice in 2000 to advise and guide the program. More than
forty teachers were involved in the project, and two teacher in-service
trainings were held.