09/30/2022
If we dream it - We can be it ... Agree? Many times, this is not the case. Over three dozen communities in the Greater Pittsburgh Region have been below the poverty line for over 35 years. Regardless of the party in power or the myriad community-based organizations (CBOs) and other non-profits focused on community literacy and capacity building. As a community educator, we can visualize what the community is calling for and what it can be to improve the lives of the people and creating a supportive and sustainable community for all. The Learning Cities Guiding Documents states, "stakeholders and citizens are more likely to contribute to building learning communities if decisions are made in a participatory way" (p. 8).
However, stakeholders also have visions and ideals based on their observations and experiences in the community, the people, and what they believe are the associated needs for a community education program. And many of them are either a community leader or a business owner in the community. The tension between individuals (or factions) as opposed to the vibrancy of the greater community becomes the conflict. This is where adult and community educators must balance the line between the complexity of competing interests leading from conflict to complementarity visions and chaos to community cohesion.
So, the question / concern becomes how resiliency is established, promoted, and sustained if there are conceptually diverse ideals and little movement towards operationalizing the idealism (vision) through an actionable plan with accompanying formative assessments.
Community educators can appreciate the people and the various stakeholders and dream what the community is calling for and what that will look like. However, they must negotiate what they have identified as the ideal in what the community and its people are calling for leveraged against the pragmatic side of time, energy, resources, buy-in, etc. Being a steward brings with it walking the fine line between "vision and reality." How many times have you heard the phrase - we have always done it that way? When developing community education programs, even those that are informed by an insightful and complete needs assessments and credible analysis, are met with people or situations that tend to hold back the progress even though the community and environment have changed.
Henton et al. (2004) posit two practical challenges to address the existing tension between idealism and pragmatism:
>The challenge of powerful ideas: from wishful thinking to visionary pragmatism
>The challenge of perseverance: from diverse leaders to regional stewards
What are your thoughts and perceptions on these two challenges? Think of your community. What would be wishful thinking that would provide a series of community education programs for improving the community, its people, and building resiliency of place?
