Entry #2: Turning obstacles into
advantages for a city's young people
Madison, Wisconsin -- Our time in Madison, has come to an end but
not before our family took a ride in an "Original Wisconsin Duck".
If nothing else, this unusual contraption, built for use in WWII, was worth
the visit, especially if you are 12 or 13 as are our two boys.
The great benefit of the time I can to spend in each community is that I
will see both the positives and negatives and evaluate the schools, programs
and youth activities from a more complete perspective. As I realized earlier,
there aren't any perfect communities and Madison is no exception.
However, each person I talked with believed it to be a safe, caring and
active place for kids. Ian and Tyler, our middle-school-aged boys, traveled
in all parts of the city without fear, riding bikes and rollerblading in
several areas by themselves.
The crime rate is quite low as reported in the recent findings by Zero Population,
the organization that ranks communities on several different scales. It
so happened that this past week their most recent reviews were published
for "kid-friendly" cities and Madison came out SECOND among medium-sized
cities! (Fargo, N.D. was first, but we aren't going there).
I think a couple of factors have contributed to Madison's success with youth
-- factors that could be seen as obstacles but have worked to the city's
advantage. First, the city's geographical characteristics have created a
transportation nightmare. With four different lakes, and a downtown situated
on an isthmus between two of them, there are several areas in the city that
are just not easy to get to.
Kids can't easily bike or walk outside their home territories. This has
led to the development of nearly 20 different youth centers for this city
of 25,000 kids. (Compare this with my home district of 18,000 kids and 1.5
centers). There are even plans for additional larger community centers in
the near future.
With a major university and natural beauty, the area has many households
in the upper middle class. At the same time -- and not too far away -- there
are pockets of low income housing along with the difficulties they bring.
The close proximity of these diverse economic groups has generated much
money and effort aimed at serving lower income youth and families. Twenty-First
Century Grants have provided Community Learning Centers in three areas.
The county, city and school district have secured many grants in order to
provide inexpensive opportunities to these groups and narrow the gap in
achievement and success.
In most cases there are multiple partners at work with the city's young
people, including the United Way, YMCA, Urban League, University of Madison,
Afterschool U., Family Enhancement, Madison Urban Ministries. . .in fact,
one community center has 35 different partners!
This was further demonstrated to me as I sat in on the County's Youth Commission
meeting comprised of 11 members representing school, city, county, university
and parent community. As Ron Biendseil, leader of the commission reported,
"we have a very caring adult community with a very positive attitude
about youth." He further emphasized that people don't just see middle-school-aged
kids and older teens "as a pain in the rear, but as capable of contributing
to the community in very positive ways." With the large number of people
wanting to be involved with the youth, I would bet that the next time Zero
Population publishes their report, Madison will be on top for kids.
Next up, we leave the ducks behind and head for Okabena, Minnesota. Here,
I imagine the geographical obstacles will be corn fields instead of lakes.
Until then.
Excerpt from Corrine Lee's e-mail diary:
(August 26) -- We have been in Madison for a total of two weeks and have
learned to dodge the
mosquitoes and swat flies with the best of them. We have had our first minor
disaster. After going for a bike ride in the city, we were driving home
and went over a BIG bump and the WHOLE bike
rack fell off the van, complete with bikes. (Darrell forgot to put the pin
in.) They looked like small toys bouncing down the road, and it could have
been horrible since there were two cars behind us. God was once again looking
out for us and other than some bent bike parts, all was okay.
The boys have started school, complete with a seating chart and name tags,
even for our dog Cody. I have been elected Dean of Students (the boss when
teacher is gone). They have starting learning sign language and seem to
really be excited by it. They have learned the important stuff like "the
dog stinks" and "Dad, you're late."
Darrell has been meeting and documenting with various people during the
weeks and all have been very insightful and helpful. (But he says his head
is full.) We are moving on to visit Darrell's brother in Chicago for the
weekend and then up to Traverse City, Michigan to have tea with the author
of a book we are reading every night after dinner -- *My American Adventure*
by Amy Burriitt. The boys like it; Amy is a 16-year-old who traveled the
50 states and visited all the governors. We can pick their brains as to
what to do or not do.
Madison tidbits: Never visit Madison on "annual college moving day"
if you want a good impression of the city. You wouldn't believe the trash
on the sidewalks -- you've never seen
anything like it. My last bit of advice is that you never know how important
a quarter is until you don't live with a washing machine.
Til next time, ta, ta.
Corinne and clan
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