Working in Urban Communities

I wanted to share with other CUSP students a very interesting article about working with urban communities published in the Journal of Extension, which is entitled "Exploring the Challenges for Extension Educators Working in Urban Communities." My advisor, Dr. Marianne Krasny, has send this link to me last week, and I think that this article might also be very useful for CUSP participants because a lot of us are conducting research projects about or providing direct services in different NYC communities with underrepresented audiences. Key points outlined in the article that cut across muptiple dimensions of diversity include:

• establishing initial rapport;
• recognizing differences;
• language/communication;
• building community ownership; and
• avoiding the missionary mentality.