RC 008'833 The Appalachian Commdnity-iipact Project. A Development with a DiscussiOn of ...

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DOCUMENT RESUME
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RC 008'833
AUTHOR
Duff, Mike
-
.
The Appalachian Commdnity-iipact Project. A
TI"'LE
'.Fescription of an Integrated Approach in Rural',
--:--
Development with a DiscussiOn of Integrated Effo
,--,
And Principles Vital to,Cotcunication:and
__,----
Faucation.
,
PUB DATE
2 Dec 74
,-/'.__,
.
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.
NOTE
29p.; Paper presented
itnternational Meeting
Integrated CommuniCation for Rural Development,---iTid,
"t,--the
_,,----
East-West CommUni cation Institute-,:_Honblult, Hawaii,
December 2--6-,'1974)
MF-$0.76 HC-$1.95 Plus Postage
EDRS PRIC=E
DFSCPIPTORS
*Change Agents; Communication (Thought Transfer) ;
*Community Development; Community Leaders;
-7-Evaluation; Extension Education; Integrated
Activities; *Nonprofessional Personnel; *Program
Descriptions; *ural Development
ACIP; *Appalachian Community Impact Project;
Community Contacts; Kentu
ABSTRACT
resigned to help bridge the gap between selected
Appalachian communities (17 control and 18 experimental-Kentucky
communities) and the more affluent U.S. society, the Appalachia
-n
.Community Impact Project (A6IP) used/indigenous paraprofessionals,
backed by Extension personnel, to work at the community level. It
was
hypothesized that by _using '!community contacso in an hol'isti6
approach for a period of 4 yeats (1969-72), communicative linkage
Would be established between professional resource people and local
community leaders who, thereafter, would continue to solve community
problems without benefit of liaisons. ACIP attempts at integration in
the power structure. included efforts to assure: broad administrative'
support; broad legitimization; interdisciplinary inV61vement;
integrated community approaches; interdisciplinary references; and
informal organizations. Utilizing the principles of communication and
education which suggest that who expresses an idea is often
as
important as the idea itself, ACIP eMphasized communicatkves-kills.
It was concluded that by design and action ACIP was sup5e-gsfulE0c
an evaluation by non-Extension staff revealed that wheff compared with
the control communities, the experimental communities made
significant, improvement in the social institutions an -the economy,
developing both self awareness and self-reliancer<JC)
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THE APPALACHIAN COMMUNITY IMPACT PROJECT
A,Deecription of an n;,cgrated Approach
in Rural Development
with a Discussion ofrIntegrated Efforts and Principles
Vital
to Communica
and Education
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
U S
EDUCATION WELFARE
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
EDUCTION
BEEN REPRO
THS DOCUMENT HAS
FROM
DUCE() EXACTLY AS RECEIVED
T.E PERSON OR ORGANIZAI,ONOR,GIN
OPINIONS
ATNG IT PO,NTS Or v,EW OR
REPRE
STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY
Or
SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE
EOUr AT,ON pow ION OR POLICY
by
Mike
Professor and Specialist for Development
'University of Kentucky
Presented at
Third International Conference
:Integrated Communication for Rural Development
East-West Communication Institute
Honolulu, Hawaii
December 2-6, 1974
IOI )! )
alb
THE APPALACHIAN COMMUNITY IMPACT PROJECT
A Description of an Integrated Approach in Rural Development with a Discussion
Of Integrated Efforts and Principles Vital to Communication and Education
A Paper Presented
by
Mike Duff
Professor and Special4t for Development
College of Agridulture
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
at
The Third International Conference on Communications
for Integrated Rural Development
Honolulu, Hawaii
December 2-6,.1974
INTRODUCTION
The ACIP (Appalachian Community Impact Project) was a social experi-
ment designed to help bridge the gap between selected needy Appalachian
The ACIP
communities anti the more affluent society of the United States.
used indigenous, paraprofessionals called "community contacts" to work at
They were backstopped by prbfessional
the community (or village) level.
sing
It was hypothesized that by
Extension and other resource people.
paraprofessionals in a wholistic approich in community development for a
period of four years, communicative linkage would beestablished between
local community leaders and professional resource people, and', thereafter,
local people would continue their efforts to solve community problems
The ACIP was
without the continued presence of the community contacts.
.
This paper presents the
evaluated by competent non-Extension persons.
situation in the three pilot counties, a description of.the ACIP including
an evaluation, a statement on integrative efforts and a discussion of rele-
vant principles vital to communication and education.'
Those persons responsible for the ACIP were aware of community devel-
opment effort by village level workers in other parts of the world, especi-
ally India and Chile.
vv-
1()(13
THE SITUATION IN THE THREE PILOT COUNTIES
rural America as
in 1969', conditions of poverty which characterized
behind;1 also'characterized Appa-
indicated by the 14,000,000 people left
Leslie counties
lachian Kentucky,2 and especiallyPerry, Breathitt and
Appalachian.Community Impact
of the Quicksand Extension Area* mbere the
four years beginning in 1969.
Project was carried out over a period of
in which 50-80 percent
The pilot counties contained. umerous communities
of adequacy.3
of the families were living below national standards
terrain
The geographic area was described as rough, mountainous
Less than
where 70-90 percent of the land was suited only fdr forestry.
production.4
d was level and adaptable to row crop
five percen
surface strip
re marred from the results of
Hillsides and creek bottom
mining gperations.
economically
The area was recognized as a part of one of the most
The percentage of families and unre-
deprsssed regions of the nation.
$3,000, the 0E0 poverty
lated individuals having incomes of less than
level, was 54.6 percent in Perry county, 76 percent in Breathitt county
primarily on
and 73 percent in Leslie county.5 Many families lived
Attitude toward money- _
gOvernment food stamps and transfer payments.
credit institutions.
o spent it or hoard it and to distrust
was
articipating
egards communication systems, a study of fa
t\As
employed
he pro ram of Aid to Families with Dependent Children o
in
showed that, "over
ven eastern Kentucky counties in 1967
Parents in
the families had no member who read a newspaper regularly,
four-fifths o
half the famil es seldom or never saw television and a third had no
"6
radio--a fifth had no newspaper, radio or T.V.
t
revealed very poor,houllipg
A tour of the communities in the area
-
conditions.
s was as follows:
The population distrubutionlin the thre
cent were between
forty-ftve percent were under 20 years of ages 37
of age or older.?
20 and 54 years of age and 18 percent were 55 year
of
For the area, the educational level of all adults over 25 years
lower for adults among poor families.8
age averaged 8.6 grades but was much
The
The culture of the area was characterized as family oriented.
sociali-
family was patriarchal and unrestricted in size with strong family
The religion of many people.
zation and little community participation.
situation was the will of God,
was based primarily on a belief that the
Many of the adults distrusted politicians and did not
so why struggle.
They avoided the courts and law officials
believe their votes counted.
There are 120 counties
*The county is the basic unit of state government.
Kentucky has a land area of 40,3g5-uquare miles
in the state of Kentucky.
The Quicksand Extension Area is an
and a population of 3,219,311 people.
administrative unit of ten adjoining counties.
-2-
They rejected science with a preference for folk
Bible.
as much as
They respected
'ble for high powered advertisement.
lore and were gu
physical labor but had little respect for mental work as an occupation.
Reurding property, they-hnd a feeling of security 'in ownership of tan-
gible prop rty but little appreciation of intangibles such as stocks,
Sociological studies characterizO the people as fami-
bonds, etc 9
/
Some sociologists_concluded that such people
listic and fatalistic.10
they respond the
have a frUstration instigated behavior which
resisting any change, good or bad, making their
same to All stimuli
One sociologist described the people as present
problem
i1
insoluble.
.12
In fact, some sociologists considered the people as living
orients;
a froz n life style.l3
he Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service had carried out an eight
Project" which
program called the "Appalachian Resource Development
yea
This program had taken an area
uded these counties and 27 others.
in
disciplines in
ap roach with a team of ten specialists in a variety of
effort to try new approaches to bring about social and economic preg-
a
On the area basis there had been improvements in roads and
ess.14
However, while
ocational schools and even some industrial development.
the major towns adopted developmental changes, many small rural commu-
The
nities remained isolated and continued to exist at a poverty level.
concept of dualism15--that is, poverty existing along side affluence- -
was a reality.
Kentucky's Cooperative Extension Service long had attempted to work
iiAme economics
with the people in these small communities through 4-H,
of success.
degr4
and agricultural programs, independently, with a low
-Slacjalogists maintained that beyond the family, the ne ghborhood,
anization.
formed around kinship groupings, was the strongest social o
communities,
Kinship groupings characterized many subsistence farming
coal mininenammunities
open country communities and partially abandoned
Yet, the people had not attempted to solve
in the three pilot counties.16
their problems through the organized local community approach :\
1
AppaAichian
With a small amount of seed money left over from the
Resource Development Project and with the follow-up of full finAncial
support from Extension Service/Washington, Kentucky's Cooperativ?
This ACI1) made
Extension Service initiated and carried out the ACIP.
three pilot
use of.six community contacts working $.n 18 communities in
counties.
DESCRIPTION OF ACIP
The ACIP components discussed in this section are objectives, prob-
lem a d description of the ACIP in terms of geographic areas, admiti-
'-1
1\-
%'i 7)5
-3-
community organization,
strative organization, staffing,, roles, training,
community programming and evaluation.
OBJECTIVES
selected needy
The purpose of the ACIP was to provide the people in
learn ways of
eastern Kentucky communities with the opportunity to
Specifically, the objectives were to:
improving their situation..
Stimulate the people to learn the techniques of group organi-
1.
zation and activity--how to work together and how to organize
themselves to reach common goals.
institutions--family,
Stimulate improvement of the local social
2.
church, school, health, recreation and government.
expanded '
Stimulate improvement of the local economy--new and
3.
enterprises and job placement.
Stimulate greater involvement in the total society--using
4.
appropriate technical, financial and educational resources
and becoming more informed and active regarding pertinent
public affairs,issues.
Stimulate more self-realization and self-reliance through
5.
learning and applying new attitudes, knowledge and skills
in work and play.
leaders
Establish such effective communication between the
6.
that'the
of the community and professional resource people
paraprofessional community contacts would not be needed after
three or four years.
Extension Service
In addition to the above objectives, Cooperative
made commitment to:
learnings
Develop a publication on how to do it, based upon
1.
for use in
from the ACIP and make this publication available
other
other parts of Kentucky, other parts of Appalachia,
of the world.
states of the nation and possibly other nations
objective
Select competent outside resource people to do an
2.
compared to
evaluation of the impact of the ACIP communities as
similar communities not served,
THE PROB1EM
First, there was inadequate
The overall problem was twofold.
of the standards
individual,,,social and economic develoOment in terms
01--;
-4-
In'the three counties this problem
of adequacy in the rest of society.
related to inadequate use of local resources, ineffective leadership,
scarcity of the organized approach and thereby, a lack_of cooperative
action and communication and education both within the small community
and between the small community and the greater society.
Second, although Extension had a legal mandate to serve all the
people, it did noto0ave an educational program which had proven successful
in bridging the gaps between the needs of such Appalachian communities and
the resources of the rest of society.
,DESCRIPTION OF THE ACIP
Geographic Area
The objective was to select a representative geographic area in
which the ACIP could be implemente4-and, by generalization, whereby the
findings would be applicable in the test of Appalachia and possibly
beyond.
The criteria used in selecting the pilot counties were that they be
in one Extension administrative area, that they be adjoining counties,
that, there be mining camps, open country and subsistence farming com-
munities and that there be verbal acceptance by the local Extension staff
and the community leaders.
Control and experimental communities were to be characterized by
having not less than 30 families per community, by having a place for
community meetings, by having observable poverty living conditions and
There was to be no
by demonstrating an attitude of working together.
Also,
other community-wide organization in any of these communities.
no two communities, control or experimental, were to be adjoining each
Thirty-five control and experimental communities were selected.
other.
The 18 selected experimental communities were in the counties of
The 17 matching control communities were
Perry, Breathitt and Leslie.
selected both in the pilot counties and in four adjoining counties;
Administrative Organization
The objective was to have an administrative organization which
would be the.most effective medium for implementing the ACIP and yet
one that could be replicated in other states with the least amount of
organizational change.
Although thete4sting administrative organization was used (see
organization chart, p.8), a part-time position of project coordinator
After about six months, this position was supplanted by
was created.
Also, an area specialist in community develop-
a coordinating council.
The added complement consisted of positions
ment was assigned to the ACIP.
for paraprofessional community contacts to operate at the level between
tstrolo
-5-
community.
staff and the local
the county Extension
Staffinr,
Extension staffs and to
make use of the existing
The objective was to
community.
the paraprofessional
through the addition of
extend their impact
two contacts
contact in one county,
The plan was to place one
contacts.
deter-
county, and try to
three contacts in another
in another county and
team.
alone or together as a
better when officed
mine if they worked
Extension
January, 1969, all professional
When the ACIP began in
However; a professional
on-board.
used were already
staff members to be
coordinator.
selected as,project
person was to be
selection and placement
the recruitments
The major staffing task was
Because of the
contacts.
paraprofessional community
of six indigenous
of suitable comnuni-
population and numbers
difference in size of county
County, two in
three in Perry
placements were to be
ties, the contact
contacts were
Leslie county. The community
Breathitt county and one in
following criteria.
the basis of the
to be selected on
to the county but
of age and be indigenous
Be over 18 years
1.
She worked.
communities in which he or
not live in the
be a college
school education but not
Have at least a high
2.
graduate.
work reputation.
Have a good moral and
3.
good health habits.
Have good health and
4.
personality.
and a pleasing
Have good general appearance
5.
the objec-
including the belief if
Have a positive attitude
6.
tives of the ACIP.
night and on
week including work'at
Agree to work 40 hours a
7.
Saturday.
showing signs of
training and supervision,'
Be willing to take
8.
initiative and creativity.
member of a team.
Be willing to work as a
9.
automobile.
Have access to an
10.
where he or
county agent in the county
Be acceptable to the
11.
she was to work.
classified
yearly contract as a temporary
.
Be willing to sign a
12.
employee.
color, creed
discrimination on the basis of race,
There was to be no
1()1)8
-6-
or nationality. 'Furthermore, provision was to be made for equal opportu-
nity under civil rights and fullest compliance with the Affirmative Action
(These were requirements for employment under federal laws.)
program.
the con-
The above criteria were used in selection and placement
tacts.
A,count'y agricultural agent of Leslie county, who had recently
received a master's ddgree,in adult education, was made project coordi-
Later he was supplanted by a coordinating councir Onsisting
nator.
of the area Extension director, the county agents in the three pilot
counties, an area community resource development specialist and a state
Extension sociologist who served ds a resource person.
A team,of a
This staffing pattern seemed to work very effectively.
resulted in highest
man and woman officed"together and working together
However, personnel turnover became
moral and most community achievement.
The area Extension director accepted a job in Thailand and
a problem.
One of
the ACIP.
was replaced by a specialist who had worked some with
the county agents died and was replaced by another agent who had a com-
Three of the six community con-
munity resource development background.
tacts had to be replaced after they resigned, all for higher paying jobs.
Roles
The objective was to have clarity, flexibility and good relation-
Assigned
ships for most effective individual and team performance.
responsibilities werdcis follows:
The state chairman for development programs was to have respon-
1.
,
sibility for the ACIP plan, the budget and overall operation.
The area Extension director was to be responsibild for field
2.
administration.
The coordinator'(later the,coortlinating council) was to have
3.
responsibility for coordinating the efforts of the community
contacts in the experimental communities.
The area Extension specialist in community resource development
4.
and a 'state Extension sociologist were to give instructions
through training and follow,up in the community development
process.
4
Other subject matter specialists were to be available when
5.
their expertise was/needed.
The county' Extension staff members were to provide the local
6.
-7-
the
backstop, both technical information and supervision, of
community contacts.
community
The community.contacts were to work to stimulate
7.
the practice and
awareness, to assure proper assistance at
organization
project level-, to assure success of community
carried out
meetings and to provide follow-up as lay leaders
their community development programs.
ThroughOut the life of the ACIP, efforts were made to see that the
Through verbal and written communications, a
roles were well perfotmed.
role relationships.
constant effort was made to clarify roles and
good, there
Although overall role, performance could be described as
level. .A few
developed some role conflict and overlaP.at the field
attempted to perform a
times the paraprofessionaa community contacts
selecting,projects which
professional role and guided the community in
An attempt by local people in one community
they could not implement,
In
hasedupon^an inadequate water supply.
was to develop a water system
see'community*results, went
a few cases, the Extension agent, eager to
employed to do.
into a community and did what the community contact was
paraprofessionals.
This tended to nullify the whole purpose for using
1 0
)