Looking for that Light at the End of the Tunnel

Please take a moment to imagine you are a sixteen-year-old sister of two younger brothers who you are not allowed to visit. Because you are considered a “bad influence” the rules keep you apart. Rules that do not honor your family, your traditions, or your culture. Imagine yourself breaking into the home of your brother middle of the night just so you could remind them that you have not abandoned them and that you will find a way to be with them.
Imagine that you are three months from turning eighteen and knowing that your fate is to join your family on the streets. You know this because there is no one that understands that you can still love and respect your family without being like them. You know this because there is no one who accepts and welcomes your family just because they are a part of who you are. In your desperation to be taken care of you shout at your Social Worker, “Who is going to love me?”
Now try to imagine that you have been placed in so many different homes, that there are none left in your county who want you. You left those homes because you are treated like a foster child. You run away to your family who doesn’t take care of you hoping it will be different this time, but in your heart you know they won’t change… not even for you. All you think of is how alone you are, so you get drunk, smoke some weed, and try to forget. Even when you’re “on the run” you want to go to school because you want to be able to take care of yourself. Because you have a “run away warrant” the cops will come to your school and take you back to people who don’t want you anymore.
Dare you imagine that you are living in group home and you are caught sexually experimenting with someone of your same sex? Now you are no longer trusted to be left alone with your peers because you are labeled as a “perpetrator”. You are being told that what you did was unacceptable and that there must be something wrong with you. You begin to hate yourself because you think you are different from everyone else. To survive you deny it ever happened and you pretend to be someone you are not.
Can you even begin to imagine that you left your county at age seven when you were “hospitalized” for attacking a worker who was keeping for your family? At seventeen you think of an institution as your home. Instead of a family you have a group of staff telling you how to behave, when to eat and sleep, and what you do and don’t deserve. You attend a “drooler school” where some of your peers shit themselves or throw tantrums. When you ask if you can attend a regular school you are told that you are not ready. You don’t have to try in school because no one knows you well enough to expect better from you. You are only living up to their expectations, because no one has taught you to have your own.
These are voices of youths who planted seeds of inspirations in my heart to become a Social Worker who makes a difference. Their stories have touched me a way that has enlightened the depth of their emotional struggles to preserve their families, traditions, pride, and hope for their futures. These youth and their families have been a catalyst in my determination to expand my knowledge and enhance my natural abilities to help others on a person to person level. In pursuing a Masters in Social Work I will improve my ability to affect change on multiple levels of the establishment. Changes that are key in determining what services and supports are available. I have learned that understanding these voices does not always assure that my skills in finding creative solutions will be enough. Creative solutions are often adversely affected by issues of agency liability and bureaucracy which in turn profoundly affects a Social Worker’s success in meeting the needs of their clients. The needs that I have noticed the most adversely affected are as follows: education advocacy, preserving a semblance of normalcy, providing a feeling of acceptance, valuing a truant youth’s desire to work , age-appropriate mental health care, and acknowledging emotional permanence. My solution to address these needs is to nurture the individuals’ strengths while educating them in the processes of self advocacy. Once they have tasted the success of fulfilling their basic needs they are eager cultivate broader expectations of their selves and their achievements.
My professional development is particularly vital now that I have begun facilitating substantial changes and practices in my current position. I have made it my mission to ensure that Humboldt County’s Independent Living Skills Program becomes and remains a youth driven service. In earning a Masters in Social work I believe I will represent my department and clients more judiciously. While I am building a stronger foundation for my career advancement, I hope to continue serving youth on a person to person level. I have become passionate about guiding youth in using their voices to educate the policy makers, the public, and their peers in understanding and changing the foster care system.
Understanding the lives of my clients has played a large part in my decision to practice social work. It took some time for me to realize that I possess an intrinsic drive to help others who are experiencing similar challenges as my own. Struggling through school with an undiagnosed learning disability and later realizing that I had grown up in a household with a mentally ill parent gave me a depth of understanding of what it is like to live in a world of limited support and what seemed like insurmountable barriers. I believe my success in performing my social work duties has been sustained by a range of supports and experiences. These experiences include: a supportive network of coworkers and supervisors, a teaching background, a history of working in service oriented jobs, being a first generation college graduate, a Veteran’s of the Armed Forces, a Mother of young children, and a member of this community. Given my experiences and support network, I can now proudly identify my self as an ally to a diverse assemblage of peoples and communities.
In my nine years of experience as a professional Social worker I worked extensively with youth, families, and Native American peoples. I have worked with youth in just about every capacity, and I have come to understand their needs sometimes better then my own. Youth that I serve have contagious attitudes about openness, awareness, and advocacy which continuously inspires me to be more socially progressive and open minded. While assigned as a ten day investigator in the Eastern Humboldt region, I enjoyed the experience of working closely with Hoopa Human Services, The Yurok Tribe, local police, and the community. Because of my time working in Hoopa, I am honored to claim friendship with some of local residents and professionals. During this time I had the privilege of working with a particular family for over a year. Within that year I was able to develop a trusting connection which allowed me to assist the family in enrolling four of their children in their primary tribe. My drive to ensure completion of this task was seeing the pride of the youth in belonging to an extended family: Their tribe. Prior to my nine years of service as a Social Worker, I experienced opportunities which enable me to easily adapt and enjoy learning about the diverse cultures of other countries. I have traveled, lived, and worked in Korea, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and several European countries during my service in the Military.
Now that you have a picture of the Social Worker that I am and the one that I am striving to be, you should have no problem imagining yourself as sister who is now twenty-four and keeps a door open to your two brothers, even in the hard times. You are an educator of young children and an adoptive parent of those members of your family and your tribe who came into the system after you.
Without hesitation you can imagine that you have turned eighteen and that you are meeting your father’s family for the first time. Not only do they accept you as you are, but also the family you come with. Imagine that they are not afraid to welcome and love you just because you are a part of their family.
Imagine now that your Social Worker wrote a warrant that forbids you from being picked up at school, and that you check in with your Social Worker even when you are “on the run” because you know that he/she understands and cares. Imagine you are constantly reminded that you deserve to be loved, cared for, and have a safe permanent home. Imagine that you’re beginning to believe it yourself.
With pride, you can imagine that you state your sexual preference without fear or condemnation and that your allies stand up to anyone who would label you.
Imagine that at seventeen you return to your county, and a home where you are accepted as family. You learn to advocate for yourself and as a result, you attend a public high school, make the football team, and get a job. Imagine having two different people offer to adopt you even after you turn eighteen. Imagine arguing with them because they care about you and know you well enough to insist that you have higher expectations of yourself.
These are the voices of youth and their families that inspire hope and that remind me I can continue to make a difference. These are the stories of the youth who lives I would tend as I would my own children.

More to the story on local Foster Youth...

So Saturday after class, I called up one of my youth and asked him to go to lunch. We talked about a recent trip he took to the Capitol to lobby against cuts to Child Welfare Services. We discussed the issue he has been having with his school which had been telling him that he can not go through graduation ceremony because missed too much school. He believed that he had worked it out with the principle, but I arranged to drop by Monday morning just to make sure this A-B student who is bound for a four year college is not banned from graduation just because of one to many absences.
Then he casually tells me that he has found a summer job...he was asked by Assemblyman, Wes Chesbro to intern in his Eureka office. I laughed and stated that I couldn't wait to see the assistant principal's face when he informs her of this recent development. Now Monday on morning, I will go armed with a front page of the local news paper and politely ask if I can be of any assistance in helping their school understanding some of the barriers that foster youth face as they prepare to transition into independence. I will also offer suggestions of how they can support youth who are having these experiences.

I will also remind this school that two years ago when I sat down with this youth in their academic adviser's office and they told him... there was no way he was going to be able to attend a four year college... I will remind them ...that he almost believed them. I will remind them that he was so upset that he considered not even trying to complete his A- G requirements and that it took a monthly meeting with him and the adviser to keep his hope up. I will remind then that I had to inform the adviser that this youth had supports available to him to ensure he had the opportunity to go go straight to a state university. I will remind them that they had not bothered to refer him to Talent Search, ask if he was Native American, or a Foster youth. I will remind them that four years ago, I had sat in their office with Native American twins, who believed they too would need to go to a community college before transferring to HSU, and that I personally wrote the talent search Program referral to ensure that they would be recognized as having potential for college. I will remind them that they never bothered following up with this referral and that an additional letter had to be written to ensure that these youth received this supportive service.

Last of all I will remind them that it is not too late for them to also make a difference in this youth's life by celebrating his success, acknowledging their mistakes, and learning from this experience so that they too can find the key to unlocking the future of our Transition Aged foster youth.

Independent Living Services for Indigenous Youth

Is Independent Living a direct contradiction to predominate family values of Native American youth growing up in the dependency system? Do we understand, respect, and promote culture as a resource for Native American youth and view families as an integral factor in providing transitional aged services for Native youth leaving the dependency system? What resources are available to guide us in providing culturally sensitive transition services for youth aging out of dependency?

According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation approximately 27% of Native American youth leaving the foster care system are disconnected from permanent and meaningful relationships and are therefore less likely to make a successful transition into adulthood (The Casey Foundation, Annie E, 2008). In looking at the needs of Native American youth who are preparing to transition form the dependency system there are several factors we should take into consideration: What are the “cultural life skills” needed for a particular tribal affiliations? How can we ensure to counter the effects of “unequal opportunity” for Native American transition aged youth? How can culture be viewed as a resource for transition aged Native American youth?

One theory addressed in a article discussing the importance of assessing the cultural Life skills of Native American youth is that a “missing generation” was formed when Native American youth were forced to be raised in intuitional settings such as boarding schools, thus many grew up without the benefits of positive parenting experiences, socio-cultural models of spirituality, childrearing and even language (Long, 2006). Social problems of this lost or skipped generational, included high levels of poverty, alcoholism, substance abuse, physiological issues, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect. This article also discusses that transitional programs and assessments are based on Euro American culture only. One example illustrating this discrepancy is the expectation in which Euro American transition aged youth are striving for independence by age eighteen and it is stressed that they should be moving away from the family home. In general Native American families encourage and expect interdependence and in fact often rely on familial long term connections. This article also stresses that transition for Native youth growing up in the foster care system is additionally complicated by the experience of having to live by two different sets of cultural norms and also referred to as living in “two worlds.” This study examines a particular assessment tool called the Ansell Casey Life Skills Assessment (ACLSA) and how this tool neglected to recognize the diversity of cultural life ways among tribes, nor did it consider the formation of Indian identity in respect to tribal membership, historical trauma and acculturation. The Casey foundation went on to create an American Indian supplement which identified cultural values, beliefs, and skills that needed to be assessed such as money, resources, spirituality, interdependence vs. independence, intergenerational learning, tribal identity, and multiple life ways.

For several years there has been a movement in Child Welfare Services to recognized the importance of permanent and life long connections for youth exiting the foster care system and the role which these connection have in supporting transition aged youth as successful and productive adults. Historically our systems of care have not supported maintaining relationships that the youth had identified as important. Families were easily split up and lost contact due to lack of placement resources and to increase chances of finding permanent homes for individuals rather then sibling groups (Mosqueda, 2005). This breakdown of family has had profound affects on Native American families and especially the youth. One study found that Native American adolescents had reported a higher level of childhood inhibitions and anxiety in school and social settings as a major psychological risk factor (West, 2007). Imagine the anxiety level of a Native American youth being spit up from family placed in a stranger’s home, and then taken to a new school. Another study examining the post high school employment of Native American youth found that disproportionately high number s of youth diagnosed with learning disabilities were experiencing higher rates of unemployment. This study went on to recommend that “culturally appropriate employment –related transition services and supports are sorely needed for these students” (Michael S. Shafer, 1995).

One more factor that plays a role in ensuring that Native American youth are receiving appropriate transition services is that of understanding and the barriers that create unequal opportunity for Native American youth and the strategies to promote equal opportunities, which brings us back to that devastatingly high percentage of Native American youth leaving our systems of care. It seems to me that we have not done a very effective job of recognizing “culture as a resource” especially in terms of mental health and over all well being. We would do well to follow the recommendation of Terry Cross when he said “I look at culture as a resource for theories that can inform our understanding of human behavior; a resource for healing, self help, and positive emotions, a resource for clinical practice, and a resource for mental health and wellness.” (Cross, 2003).

Some of the local services that have youth services include: North Coast Indian Development Council: Employment, education provider, disaster assistance, United Indian Health Services: Child and family Services, Community Health and Wellness, Dental, medical, nutrition, and Pharmacy services, Two Feathers: Advocacy, CA tribal TANF, Yurok Tribal TANF , A Step, TCCC, Early College of the Redwood, College Resources such as HSU’s ITEPP ( Indian Teacher and & Educational Personnel Program) and The Department of Native American Studies. There are several web sites available, but one that stood out as less common provides resources and referrals to Native American Youth who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender.

In conclusion, while we here in Humboldt County have some specific services for Native American youth and families that we refer our clients to, we do not completely recognize the value in extending support to these culturally appropriate services in that they are not deemed evidence based practices. In stead we attempt to integrate some of the aspects of the culture practice into our own services or even go so far as to create our own versions of culturally sensitive services. For years the goals of our Independent Living Program has been to satellite services to out lying areas with a particular emphasis on the reservations. However, in looking at the current resources that are available in those communities that provide youth friendly and culturally appropriate services, it would seem logical to reinforce or back these services rather then trying to replace them.

Works Cited

Cross, T. L. (2003). Culture as a Resource for Mental Health. Cultural Diversity and Ethic Minority Psychology , 354-359.

Long, C. [.-l.-l.-C. (2006). Assesing Cutural Life Skills of American Indian Youth. Child Youth Forum , 289-304.

Michael S. Shafer, R. R. (1995). Transition and Native American Youth: A Follow-Up Study of School Leavers on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. The Journal of Rehabilitation , 1-10.

Mosqueda, J. a. (2005). Voices Carry: Recommendations of Yound Peploe in the Foster Care System. San Francisco: California Youth Connection.

The Casey Foundation, Annie E. (2008). The consequences of unequal Oppertunity. The Casey Foundation.

West, A. a. (2007). Childhood Behavioral Inhabition and the Experience of Soacail Anxiety in American Indain Adilescents. Cultural Diversity and Ethic Minority Psychology , 197-206.

A Community Fit for Youth

I have for the last several years been working with youth who transition from the foster care system. Over the last for years I have watched these youth have begun to break down the barriers that have kept the community around them from understanding their struggles and their needs. I will never forget being at a Youth Transition Action Team meeting (YTAT) when a youth had mentioned the difficulty in finding housing and being homeless. Our local District attorney spoke up after a youth and stated that he did not understand why they could not just go home. It was at this point that we realized it was time to educate other professionals in our rural community what the lives of a current and former foster youth could potentially be like. This was the exact reason that New Ways to Work had come to work with our community http://www.newwaystowork.org/about.html They brought with them the philosophy of “All youth and one System”. This is a system and a philosophy that I have faith will bring us back to the concept of Community involvement and support in raising our youth. The idea is that you design services for at risk youth but ensure that services are that are offered comprehensive and appropriate to meet the needs of all youth. New Ways to Work maintains that if you build a connected, comprehensive infrastructure that addresses academic achievement, career development, youth leadership, community services and supports youth in your community will find better opportunities of success.

For the last two weeks I have been involved in several activities and events thatare intended to improve services to youth in Humboldt County. The first was a training put on by the Y.O.U.T.H. training project. This is a group of former foster youth who provide training for professionals all over the state of California. It is intended to provide in site into a youth experience into the system, and provides suggestions of how to better serve youth in the foster care system. There are a variety of interactive methods used to provide these experiences to include the use of digital stories, games , youth panels usually assembled of local youth. I have attended this training on a yearly basis and it is always a excellent reminder presents new ideas of how to effectively serve youth.

Later on that week we had a Educational luncheon hosting foster youth at College of the Redwoods. This event is designed to provide a encouragement for youth to begin considered they too have an opportunity to attend college and explore the resources that are out there. The first one of these conferences was held at HSU and was very formal for youth. This one was certainly more youth oriented, bu less attended. I find it odd that they schedule it in the middle of the day and have to pull youth out of school to attend, Again it is us trying to work around or 9-5 day( non youth friendly hours).

The last event was a youth focus group in the Hoopa area. I actually recruited the youth to attend. these youth varied in ages from 15 -25 and had been effected by foster care, or substance abuse, or mental health or the juvenile justice system had . These youth were extremely interactive and clearly frustrated by the lack of youth friendly services in the valley. This information will be added to the book of proceeding that was created by the HCTAYC collaboration that is heading up the drive to build a Youth Center in Humboldt county.

I never dreamed I would fall for TED

Ok, so ever since we saw the TED videos in class, I have become addicted! It is so inspiring to see so many people sharing their amazing and innovative thoughts, ideas, inventions, discoveries. But it does not stop there. It’s about hope, dreams, individuals, communities and the world. I have never been a big web surfer, it seems so impersonal to me, yet when I start watching these clips, I become submerged in another person’s world and reality, especially after watching the one on the Alloshpere. It just blows me away to think of the capacity of the human brain to come up with such complex and, yet imaginative and exquisite pieces of ART! Funny now that I think about it watching Ted sort of reminds me of being at my best friend house in high school. There was no real TV to speak of, just a tiny 12 inch black and white that was occasionally tuned into the local PSB station , classical music was playing in the back ground all the time and her father, an Organic Chemistry Professor was madly concocting dinner in the kitchen while she sat at the table whizzing through her trigonometry and her mother sat scribbling plays about the family on sheets of recycled paper, and then to be suddenly interrupted by a crazy game of marshmallow volley ball. Even though I could barley understand the basic bonehead math and certainly could not spell trigonometry, and had not clue as to the names of the classical pieces that echoed through the house, I never felt out of place there. They always saw my potential and never doubted the beauty of my mind or heart. Today though I have not seen her parents in years, I realized they are embossed in my mind and heart as mentors, heroes, and incredible beings that have helped shaped the person that I am today. They after all helped to create paths of potential in my mind that appear to be strengthening once again. Suddenly after watching Ted, I have the urge to put on some Vivaldi, listen to a local board of supervisors meeting, and dance with my children under the moonlight.

Watching the videos on looking inside your own brain to create control made me start thinking about some of the youth that I have worked with in the past who were labeled as severely emotionally disturbed. By creating visual images of brain activity you can learn t control movement, pain, and maybe even behavior. I knew this youth who was labeled this way, until her foster mother found a way to pay for her to be seen at the Amen clinic. http://www.amenclinic.com/
They scanned her brain and were able to determine a diagnosis based on her images. In this way they were also able to determine a medication that better fit her needs.. she talks a little bit about this I her digital story...Check it out and see what a difference it made in her life.

Now if we could just teach our brains to control there own chemistry rather then rely on medication to change our brains.. sounds to me like it is in the works!

Christopher deCharms looks inside the brain | Video on TED.com

Christopher deCharms looks inside the brain | Video on TED.com

Demo: Stunning data visualization in the AlloSphere | Video on TED.com

Demo: Stunning data visualization in the AlloSphere | Video on TED.com

Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight | Video on TED.com

Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight | Video on TED.com

More on my evolution as a Social Woker in developing and practicing ethics and values in my commuity

The education process, though a great personal challenge for me, expanded my thought process to cross boundaries of exploration never before ventured to by members of my family and some of my colleagues. In the world of academia, I found inspiration to step beyond the limits of family obligations into an acceptance of social responsibility to improve and contribute to systems affecting the future of our children. In most of years of my education, I lacked a vital confidence that would support true autonomy. By enlisting in the National Guard I found parental type guidance, an extended family network, and financial support that allowed me to break from the reliance on individual intimate relationships for my sense of security.
While this institutional structure was fortifying the formation of my ethical roots and overall served to boaster my confidence and self esteem, there were certain influences and structures that could have altered my present ethical outlook had I not been able to identify and filter through their effects. One example is that the structure teaches you to work as a team, and that above all else that you must rely on this team to protect and defend each other in times of danger. Built into this team are leaders who lead by example so that they prepare you to step in as a leader if the need be. At some point in my military experience I found myself under the leadership of an individual that I later realized to be immoral, corrupt, and racist. At the time I was blinded to this because of the false sense of security that harnessed my vulnerability. My connection to this person crossed beyond acceptable, and I was enlisted under his charge for his own agenda. The betrayal was in his use of this system that I had come to trust being used to camouflage his true agenda of selfish intent. While I look at this experience as potentially detrimental, I believe that my resiliency enabled me to process it as a life lesson which ,in turn, lead me to the conviction that I would never allow myself to be controlled in this way again. This experience inspired my passion for the ethical principle of assisting vulnerable persons in finding their own voice in self advocacy. Another negative influence that my husband and I both realized once we had completed our obligation to the military was that we as some point found ourselves absorbed into a flock mentality. This was apparent in our habit of “not wanting to stir the pot”, when something was said or done that did not mesh with our own beliefs or convictions. There were even times when we found ourselves saying and doing things that we knew to be wrong, but were more focused on be part of the accepted group rather then our on senses of morality. While this morality issue was more on the level of our personal lives I believe it could have carried over into the decisions we made as professional soldiers. The end of this military experience has probably led to the most focused mutual ethical principle that my husband and I wish to practice: Standing up and speaking out when we feel that unethical and immoral acts are being demonstrated in our home, work, community, and world. The broader concern for community and world have been a more recent developments in our personal ethics that has come as a result of acting on our ideals rather then just philosophizing about them.
Probably my most significant work related ethical dilemma that encompasses several of my ethical believes and values was the situation which has led me to bring home an emancipated foster youth as a member of my family. I had known this young man since age six, but was disconnected for about ten years. We were reconnected because he was served by my program. I was never the direct Social Worker, but provided intense case management when needed. Through this process we began to bond. I also helped discover and reconnect this youth to biological family whom he is connected to, but does not desire to return home to them. In the process of helping this youth discover permanent connections which he felt he could turn to for support after emancipation; he identified me as someone he would want to adopt him. The ethical dilemma came in finding a way to honor this youth’s choice for permanency, something I had been preaching to him, without compromising agency protocol and boundaries. At the time I was considered the expert on finding permanency for youth transitioning from the system, because I had been to the trainings and bought the sales pitch that this was the future paradigm shift for the way were going to serve youth in care.
The other ethical dilemma being challenged was my belief that if we are talking the talk we should be able to walk the walk, and that this was most likely going to jeopardize my job. I handled the situation by approaching my administrators early on with scenarios of the potential outcomes, requests for guidance, and suggestions of how to make it feasible. The result was that the department was amenable and supported the long term plan. The flaw was that they did not include their chain of command, and agency liability took precedence to preserve appearances rather then taking steps to acknowledge the possibility that policy change could warrant actual desired outcome goals of target system changes and set in motion the actual paradigm shift. The positive is that I walked the talk, made sacrifices to do it, and have made a difference in at least one life and will continue to advocate for the change! The negative is that I no longer have my dream job, and that it is clear the system will take longer to change. The one thing that I might have done differently would be to ensure that information and necessary evidence met the approval of all appropriate parties of power. My mission is to ensure that the event is not forgotten and continue to remind my coworkers as individuals we can be facilitators of change. Hold the agency responsible to back its claims and actually acknowledge and advocate for the vulnerable individuals to have a voice in their choices is walking the walk.
As I come to a close in reviewing my continuously evolving ethics and values I would like to reflect on one of my principal ethical practices; this is my conviction to ensure that I advocated for others to be allowed a sense of dignity and understanding regardless of their functional abilities in society. I know that this practice has stemmed from years of living with a mother with mental health issues. Most of my family has been unable to accept her for her differences and I admit that it has taken time for me to do so too. However, as I have grown into a professional social Worker, my experiences in working with similar clients has given me the insight that I can be of the most assistance when I am able to treat my clients and my mother with the dignity and respect that I would want for my self. This has crossed over into my practice of professional social work in that I strive to acknowledge my clients have their own needs for respectful, humane, and dignified treatment and that I am charged with discovering away to show them that I honor this.

Visions of Community

The vision of a few individuals: I was reading the Two Rivers Tribune, a paper that covers community events and news for the Trinity and Klamath River communities, when I saw an article titled “Signs of Change”. (Don’t bother looking for it on the website yet, as it is not posted in the archives), but the article discussed how a group of college students taking a Political Science course decided to do a project in which they could make a difference in their community. One of the students in the class happened to have worked in the school system and had for many years witnessed the effects of drugs and alcohol on families and children and believed that this issue needed to be dealt with in order to improve the community as a whole. Thus these students decided to write grant proposals , applied for permission from the Tribal Council ,and recruited agencies to support their proposal . The vision was to create and strategically post signs with a inspirational and culturally significant messages for the community. They felt that these signs were especially targeting messages of hope for the young adults and children whose lives had been effected by the afore stated community issues. This is their way of looking to inspire the current and future generations of their community. (Sanchez, 2010) . It happened that their enthusiasm was contagious and the quickly received support to make their vision happen. http://www.tworiverstribune.com/contactus/

Evidence of the effect: Later on during the week I was on the river bank in Hoopa a with a group of families who were gathering willow sticks for a basket making class and the topic of these signs came up. There was a general consensus in the group that they liked and appreciated the signs and that the signs were reflective of the cultural practices and beliefs. They continued the discussion about the importance of leading by example for the children who would someday be community leader s and respected adults. Most of these people had already memorized the sayings on the signs and were repeating them or pointing them out to others. Their was a sense of pride that a small group could be inspired to do good for their community and an extension of discussion on what other types of activities could help inspire a healthy community.

What significance is it to me? I just love that it when I have the opportunity to have an in person learning experience that reinforces the concepts I have been studying in school. Suddenly I have a vision of general concepts of social learning theory and the reality of social constructs. In this example we see a group of individuals from the community defining and framing a community problem, discussing an intervention, and then getting the problem addressed which Hard castle and Powers describe as a process of getting a social and community problem addressed. (Hardcastle, 2004) This story also demonstrates and example Ersing s and Otis’ chapter called “Asset – based Approach to Promoting Community Well- Being in a Rural County” (p. 160) in “Rural Social Work”. The idea that local individuals take part in defining and setting an expectation for a quality of life in their own community based 4 phases of community assessment:

· Setting the ground work

· Developing a shared vision

· Selecting community indicators

· Promoting Community Ownership for Future Decision Making

(Scales, 2004) This story is also a good example of community building as defined by (Minkler, 1997) “as an orientation to community that is strength based rather then needs based and stresses the identification, nurturing, and celebration of community assets.” (p. 5-6) I also thought about brain plasticity and how these positive messages could have a subliminal effect on those people who passed them by on a daily basis. Would it be possible that it could increase the frontal lobe activity of those who read them, simply by provoking new networks of thought about the meaning and application in their own communities? When I look back at my experience in this community I really appreciate how fortunate I am to have witnessed the protective circle of a community effort working its magic, and especially in the efforts of a few individuals working together for the cause of something greater then self.

Here a few of my favorite quotes about community...

“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.”

César Chaves

“For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on people's love and concern for each other.” Millard Fuller “Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.” Helen Keller

For more inspiration quotes about community see:

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/community/

http://www.quotegarden.com/community.html

Works Cited

Hardcastle, D. ,. (2004). Cummunity Practice. New York: Oxford Universisty Press, Inc.

Minkler, M. E. (1997). Cummunity Organizing and and community Building for Health. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Sanchez, M. (2010, March 39th). Signs of Change. Two Rivers Tribune . Hoopa, California, United states: Two Rivers Tribune.

Scales, T. E. (2004). Rural Social Work : Building and Sustaining Community Assets. Belmont: Thomson Learning Learning .Inc.