critical place of community development in school transformation: The story of the Vaughn family center and Pacoima urban village, The

Teacher Education Quarterly, Fall 1999 by Oppenheim, Matt

Finally, as staff developed and implemented programs, they developed new expertise in helping their community. They learned to evaluate and reflect on problems and accomplishments, and to evolve their own process for managing programs. They found the way to attune their projects to important values that they held sacred. As Lara explained:

We see it happening so we discover all those expertise and I mean like for example, what we did in the Pacoima Urban Village. I mean who's gonna say that we're gonna discover that interview process in our own way, you know and particularly every time that we have, it relates, it resonates to your life.

Telling Our Story

When new people first came to the Center, during public presentations and during staff meetings, people shared the stories of their lives and the development of the Center. They talked about their early life experiences, their immigration to the United States and Pacoima, and the story of their involvement. They talked about coming in need of services, how they were supported and drawn into participation, and how they became leaders and initiators of projects.

New volunteers were often pushed to talk about their experiences in meetings and presentations. At a conference attended by partners and funders, Alex Cuevas, ajob developer and recent gang member, began the program by telling his story of life as a gang member. Afterwards, Rojas stood up to tell her story once again, but cried first because she was touched by Cueva's story. Through stories people renewed their sense of identities to others and made explicit the qualities that they wanted others to model.

The importance of "telling our story" came to the forefront of discussions during a meeting when they had to decide whether to hold their December public presentation or not. After lengthy discussion, Rojas summarized the value of story-telling:

When I do presentations it recharges me and gives me strength. I see myself five years ago and I see myself in the present. I see I am a parent, community leader; as a liaison with the school, and with other schools, and as a role model. For new people, it's important to see how we started.

I am a Cheerleader, a Mentor, and a Coach

I heard the phrase "I am a cheerleader, a mentor, and a coach" repeated several times by people at the Center. As a cheerleader, people talked about how Center staff inspired and uplifted others. In Center presentations, after people would get up to speak for the first time, or speak in Spanish (in the case of non-Spanish speakers), or English (the case of native Spanish speakers) for the first time, people would cheer and applaud, and often come up later to hug them.

As mentors, paraprofessional staff were important role models. Barajas noted that leaders were those who took responsibility, applied their skills, learned from others, and were always ready to help.

Leaders were also mentors in that they pushed people into involvement. In presentations to the public, new volunteers and staff were literally pushed to step forward and talk about their lives. They were also pushed into facilitating meetings and encouraged to speak their minds. Lara maintained that leaders encouraged people to do what they were afraid of, by assuring them that they were capable.