Practical Research-based Information from the Nation's Leading Universities
Program Spotlight:
Families Navigating Economic Crises
Online Community of Practice
The current economy has transformed some families from working- or middle-class to poor. Even those families that have known poverty before may be encountering more difficult circumstances. Extension professionals are pretty familiar with the skills that families need to be resilient during times of crisis. But the economic crisis of 2008-09 poses some new questions:
- What new pitfalls are families encountering - both the chronically poor, and those new to poverty? What are Extension professionals seeing happening to families that they have not seen before?
- What new resources do Extension professionals need to help these families as they navigate economic crisis?
- What new knowledge are Extension professionals gaining about helping those new to economic crisis?
These are a few of the questions being addressed by a new CYFERnet community of practice called "Families Navigating Economic Crises". Mary Marczak of the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Family Development is facilitating the discussion. She has been associated with CYFAR for several years as a liaison. Other facilitators include Patricia Olson and Lori Ann Hendrickson, also of the University of Minnesota Extension, who offer a family economics perspective. Alisha Hardman, a graduate student in family development, brings the technical expertise for using ning.com, the chosen web host for this online community. Marczak and Karen Shirer, her colleague in family development, bring a family development viewpoint.
"We want all kinds of family professionals to participate-family development researchers, specialists, practitioners and grad students. This is an area that can bridge the gap between research and practice," Marczak said. "I would really like to see CYFAR professionals join this group. CYFAR has a unique perspective in Extension of working with families in crisis and families in poverty," Marczak said.
Although the impetus for the group comes from Minnesota, the perspective is a national one. "We want to know what's happening on the ground, across the country," Marczak said. We already know about the problems that families in chronic poverty have been facing for years. But what should families be watching out for - new kinds of hardships, new kinds of predatory lending - what's going on?" Marczak said. An early post from the New York Times notes that families who have previously been good rent payers are now being evicted in that city.
And what, in turn, do practitioners need to help families facing these new hazards? "There are a lot of things we know about family resiliency and coping skills, but there are a lot of things we don't know about what's happening now," Marczak said. This group can act as a data collection point that may inform journal articles or other published work.
As an example, participants are able to talk about new legislation affecting family finances and events in the news. Feedback on major issues can be considered data and data points can inform writing. Along with the opportunity to exchange information and network with one's peers, this online community of practice offers the chance to collaborate on journal articles with peers across the country, and perhaps something more ambitious. Marczak and Shirer hope that in the coming year, writing based on these data points could inform a monograph. CYFERnet has offered to host a resulting monograph online. The hope is that such a work could inform best practices on working with families facing financial crisis for the first time, or the chronically poor facing new economic troubles, for years to come.
The Internet is the chosen medium for this community of practice. In many ways, it is like any other community of practice. There will be scheduled teleconferences and guest speakers in coming months. By being online, however, there is a central "meeting space" with a range of tools such as the ability to upload video, hold online chat and blog. But more important than these tools is the immediacy that the online space offers. "In some ways, I think an online community is more personal. With conventional communities of practice you have conference calls and some in-person meetings, but there is no day-to-day connection. With this, there can be an almost minute-by-minute, real-time connection," Marczak said. "It would be great to put out questions and have people responding. That's exciting to me".
Families Navigating Economic Crises is the first of three CYFERnet online communities of practice to be launched at CYFAR 2009. The others, on video production and CYFAR evaluation, are being formed now. Watch this Web site for further details.