Page 16 RAIN September/October 1984 involved in cultural activities at the center. Animateurs were used to facilitate the self-study of Bushnell's cultural history and future. The project asked community residents how the community center could be used to enrich the community. Through this involvement, townspeople could become an active part of community planning and develop their visions for the community. Project activities, designed by Bushnell residents with the aid of animateurs, include group poetry writing, theatrical presentations by youth, a community cultural "census” (survey), a community workbook to go in each home, and a "town walk" to discuss feelings, facts, and dreams about Bushnell. Animateurs are also working individually with persons and with groups such as churches, schools, and the Chamber of Commerce to involve them more fully in the cultural life of Bushnell. Project success is not being measured by the magnitude of projects; instead, it focuses on the immeasurable quality of improved human interaction and the embodiment of community will in the community center through policies and programs. Cultural animation immediately offers the following benefits: It unites disciplines. The social worker and the artist are now co-workers creating a better place to live. Both are functional members of society in the process of cultural animation. It unites cultures and peoples. The elderly, for example, are recognized as vital members of communities in a cultural animation process, as our natural oral historians. It disfavors the development of a cultural elite and cultural standards, but favors the proliferation and unification of diverse cultures. It unites technology and people. It provides a way for people in post-industrial society to use their increasing leisure time toward a common good. It works with advancing technology, not ignoring or fearing it. It disfavors the establishment of institutions or physical living environments that naturally separate people. I offer the following suggestions to guide the American cultural worker: □ Encourage people to take the lead and participate in their cultural development. Change, movement, and action are basic to cultural development. □ Know your own cultural values, assumptions, and biases about the topics and people you are working for or with. This is central to your acceptance and accomplishing your work. □ Understand concepts of life-long learning and how American democratic principles are based in an educated, informed, active citizenry. □ Understand people in a community sense. Understand how they fit or don't fit into current community living. □ Broaden your approach to problem-solving. Take opportunities to learn how to stimulate a community to be self-sufficient so that a problem stage is never reached. □ Learn how to think critically. Help people question existing standards to come up with standards promoting individual and community well-being. □ Understand people's total existence. Do not create contradictions between people's work and leisure time. People need control over all aspects of their lives. □ Encourage people working together as equal participants in system building and problem-solving. Discourage models of "provider" and "recipient" and encourage models of "reciprocity." □ Help people to understand their heritage and past experiences, and identify their natural helping strengths and weaknesses. □ Encourage creativity and innovation, coupling people's past with their creative energies to build a better future. □ Use technological development to support and work with cultural development. Do not allow technological advancements to broaden communication gaps and problems between people. □ Cultural development does not mean creating new patterns of quality standards or community elites. Encourage inter-cultural and inter-generational involvement, bringing groups in closer understanding of themselves and others. □ □ Poem for Graduates: Every Worker is a Poet by Marcia Casey You've found your niche— now entrench yourself in your cleft in the rock and take hold. Your hands must speak. What you grasp and shape, day by day, will have your face: this form is a poem. Speak to the world—give your hands to its task: take hold of the rock in your niche of the world and whatever you wrest into being will sing. Marcia Casey is a 1982 graduate ofFairhaven College of Western Washington University in Bellingham. This poem first appeared in the spring 1984 issue of TUNA, a publication of Fairhaven College.
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