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Support Increased Opportunities and Improved Quality of Life in
Rural America
Life and Job Skills Training: "The Extension Connection"
Impact Nugget
Over the past four years more than 500 high-risk adults from a low-income
Phoenix community (more than 80 percent of those enrolled) have graduated
from “The Extension Connection” workforce development program;
200 have been employed for more than a year, and many of the participants
have overcome drug addictions and gang affiliations.
Issue
There is a need in the Phoenix metropolitan area for “welfare-to-work”
type programs. Extension Connection was developed when a local Cooperative
Extension agent recognized a dire need for the addition of life management
skills along with nutrition education in programs for families. The
Extension Connection components added a special touch to an already
existing program called Successful Training Resource Individual Development
or otherwise known as Project S.T.R.I.D.E. at Keys Community Center.
This program promotes workforce development in a South Phoenix high-crime,
at-risk area.
What has been done?
The Extension Connection program enhances life skills and promotes workforce
development of low-income families by providing a series of educational
experiences that promote self-sufficiency. Families learn job development
skills, nutrition, and money management. The program uses a variety
of Cooperative Extension programs such as Money Management, Life Skills
and Nutrition and a series of educational experiences called Challenge
to enhance the skills and abilities of families towards self-sufficiency.
Participants in the program have ranged from former gang members to
newly arrived immigrants to the United States whose lack of English
and American job skills caused significant barriers to employment. Ninety-five
percent of the program graduates are members of racial or ethnic minorities,
40 percent have had less than a high school education; many have criminal
records.
Impact
During the past four years more than 500 high-risk adults from a low-income
community (80 percent of those enrolled) have graduated from the Extension
Connection program. More than 200 have been employed for over a year.
Many participants have returned to the site to help as volunteers and
mentors, and some are now employed at the site as staff. For some participants,
this was the first time they were free of drugs, free of gang affiliations
and showed up daily for classes. In 2004, of the 25 people who completed
the program, 100 percent showed improvement in working with others positively;
more than 90 percent learned at least two skills that boosted their
self-esteem and completed the goals they set at the beginning of the
session.
One STRIDE/Extension Connection graduate became a counselor at a drug
rehab home helping other women get off the street. “STRIDE put
pride in my eyes,” she says. Another graduate credits the Connection
program with helping her focus on goals, setting reachable steps and
believing she could succeed. She connected with a local small business
development center after her training, and now owns and operates her
own neighborhood beauty salon.
Regarding dietary changes, upon graduation, 74 percent of the participants
in 2002 reported that they ate a more balanced and nutritious diet,
including increased amounts of fruits and vegetables and fewer foods
high in fat and sugar. In 2003, 49 percent of participants planned meals
ahead of time more often.
“The Extension Connection helped me to bridge the gap in society
for me, to make the transition to a new life smoother.” –former
prison inmate who wanted to improve his life with skills for living
and get a decent job.
Funding
EFNEP
Southwest Leadership Foundation
Contact
Ruth Jackson, extension EFNEP program coordinator
The University of Arizona
Maricopa County Cooperative Extension
4341 E. Broadway Road
Phoenix, AZ 85040-8807
Tel.: (602) 470-8086, FAX: (602) 470-8092
Email: rjackson@ag.arizona.edu
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