The Rural Voice, 1978-02, Page 11study. funded in part by the Kellogg Foundation has been set up
in Huron county and another in Halton region. The two areas
were chosen because Huron is a basically rural community while
Halton is a community undergoing the stress of urban
encroachment on a formerly rural area.
The pilot study in Huron is centred specifically in the
Turnberry township and Wingham areas with a house on Victoria
Street in Wingham serving as headquarters.
The project first began on May 1, 1976, based on the belief
that the university's wealth of human and physical resources
gave it an opportunity to help rural areas. At that time a number
of areas were being considered for the pilot study including both
Perth and Bruce counties as well as Huron.
The project sounds suspiciously at first like a familiar old
pattern seen in rural areas of the message being delivered down
from the mount like Moses bringing down the 10
commandments. Many experts in the past from governments
and universities have come along to tell rural people the answers
to all their problems, without really knowing what the problems
were in the first place.
But for the educators involved in the Outreach program, the
first two years have involved more learning than teaching. Soon
after the project was announced, a series of workshops were
held, at first at the University and later in Huron county where
the project co-ordinators brought in rural residents to become
involved in discussions of rural problems. The workshops
involved six sectors of the rural population: professional and
public service people. There were a total of eight workshops in
the program. beginning Nov. 24, 1976 and continuing
periodically until May 31, 1977.
At each workshop a brief address was given by a member of
the faculty of the university following which the group broke into
discussion groups to discuss rural problems. The workshop
program ended with a summary workshop held at Johnston Hall,
University of Guelph on May 31. 1977 when group leaders from
each of the previous workshops were invited to summarize the
feeling of the workshop he represented.
Out of the workshop has come the first physical evidence of the
R.D.O.P. program in the form of a 75 -page book The Changing
Rural Community, summarizing the discussion of the
workshops. It contains some interesting reading with speakers
such as Marion Meredith, Resource Economist with the
Economics Branch of Agriculture Canada in Ottawa speaking to
the professional and public service group, who outlined the
problems and effects of urban dominance on rural communities.
Other workshop speakers included Lila Engberg, Associate
Professor. Department of Family Studies, College of Family and
Consumer Studies. University of Guelph for the workshop on.
rural women; N.R. Richards. Professor, Dept. of Land Resource
Science. O.A.C. at the farmer operators' workshop; Douglas H.
Pletsch. School of Agricultural Economics and Extension
Education. O.A.C. for the rural youth workshop; Prof. Harvey
W. Caldwell. School of Agricultural Economics and Extension
Education. O.A.C. at the workshop on the rural elderly; George
L. Brinkman, associate professor, School of Agricultural
Economics and Extension Education, O.A.C. at the workshop for
rural business people and Prof. Anthony M. Fuller Director of
the R.D.O.P. at the summary workshop.
But the learning process didn't stop there. The next step for
the workers on the project was to establish the presence of the
project and to become acquainted with the community and that
process began about a year ago.
Then beginning in May last year. a rented farmhouse six miles
from Wingham became the headquarters for a team of four
university students and one local resident who conducted a
community survey of the Turnberry and Wingham areas.
Through May, June and July they interviewed people chosen at
random from a list of all residents of the area. The survey was in
two parts, the first a household survey. a questionnaire format
with questions on household management, leisure activities.
occupation. residential preferences and community services. The
second part, the structural survey gathered information on
churches, schools, organizations and associations, businesses
and social services.
The statistics gathered were run through the university
computer and turned up some interesting facts, such as the
information that 14 per cent of the households surveyed had no
car, but over one quarter of all households had one or more
trucks. The survey also showed that 40 per cent of homes had a
bicycle but only 15 per cent had a snowmobile, a fact that
harrassed homeowners at this time of the year might find hard to
believe. The most popular leisure time activity was relating.
Reading was popular with 60 percent of respondents finishing
more than three books in the last year while 11 percent scored as
voracious readers, devouring more than 50 books in the past
year.
Television was watched less than one hour a day by about one
third of those surveyed while the remainder watched more than
two hours everyday.
Such other goodies as the fact that 31 per cent of those
surveyed reported having a headache in the past two weeks also
turned up in the survey. Mary Jane Starr, staff member of the
project warns there are dangers in taking too much out of such
statistics without further analysis to bring them into proper
perspective.
Further study went on for those involved in R.D.O.P.
Realizing that the secondary plan for Turnberry township would
be in the planning stages shortly, the group began to attend
other planning workshops in Huron county townships to learn
the procedures used in the county. They attended the workshops
held by the Huron County Planning Department in Ashfield, Hay
and Stanley townships and gained a knowledge of the methods
used by the planners. Jackie Wolfe, a professor of geography
from the University who is attached to the project, says Huron is
very special in that it has these public workshops to try to get
citizens of each municipality involved in the planning process.
Each township holds six planning meetings, and that's six more
than are usually held elsewhere, she says. What the R.D.O.P.
learns from Huron county's planning methods may eventually
benefit all of rural Ontario in helping other counties improve
their planning procedures.
Working with the Turnberry township council, the R.D.O.P.
group was advised to speak to the local Federation of Agriculture
and the three groups have been involved in trying to make the
Turnberry planning meetings even more meaningful. A
supplementary series of activities to help people understand
what is involved in the planning process is to be held. The
Federation suggested a series of kitchen debates on each
township line to help people sort out their arguments and
articulate their concerns before the formal planning workshops.
All such efforts. say the R.D.O.P. group, are to help people feel,
more comfortable in expressing their feelings when the
workshops begin. .
That's indicative of the way the group headed by Prof. Fuller
and Ms. Starr along with people like local field co-ordinator
Louise Marritt operate. They want to be as much as possible
non -directive they say. Their aim is to facilitate the sharing of
resources from the university to help rural people solve their own
problems. They would also like to help create community action
that is less "crisis oriented". Local communities reacted with
amazing swiftness when they were faced with the heavy blow of
arena closures. Prof. Fuller points out, but isn't it a shame that it
take a major tragedy to get the community really working
together?
Making full use of the community's resources and offering the
services of the University of Guelph to help rural people improve
their own communities is what the Outreach program is all
about. The group hopes that in the next few years while the
• program is in action in Huron county it can help people to help
themselves. But it appears that this is just as much a learning
process for the academics as it is a teachin g,process so hopefully,
both sides will gain new knowledge b the project ends.O
THE RURAL VOICE/FEBRUARY 1978, PG. 11•