Part V. Applicability to Neighboring
IV. Critical Learnings
5. Strengthen existing community leadership.
The Volunteer Center approaches and acknowledges Southern Humboldt residents and
organizations as experts in their own communities. They are the ones who will create systems and solutions to issues in their communities. The Volunteer Center’s role is to help coordinate their efforts and assist in leveraging outside resources.
6. Acknowledge that volunteering is an exchange.
Many organizations in Southern Humboldt acknowledged that one way to get volunteers to attend events was to offer food. The Volunteer Center acknowledged to organizations that this was a valid, and effective, example of offering something in exchange for a person’s volunteer time. Most of the organizations in Southern Humboldt are small with limited resources. The Volunteer Center helped organizations brainstorm what might be within their capacity to offer volunteers, such as training to build job skills, child care, and free services offered by the organization.
7. Ensure community readiness.
For action to happen and be sustained, the community must have stewardship in the idea. As an outside agency, the Volunteer Center is perceived as neutral and can have a role as facilitator to bring communities together to identify and prioritize their needs.
During the past few years, the Volunteer Center experienced several staff changes. Each time a new staff person was assigned the Southern Humboldt area, it would take
approximately one year before the staff felt that they were really beginning to connect with the community.
One local commented that since the Volunteer Center staff person had been showing up for the monthly meetings for over a year, they figured that staff person is here for the long haul and can be counted on to show up. This continuity and trust has been reflected in the openness of individuals to talk about their community and its challenges
Key Logs
Key log is a logging term for the one log that when moved will unstick a logjam. In rural communities, the key logs are the individuals in the community that everyone knows to turn to for information. Having the acceptance or even approval of the key log can help smooth entry into the community for an individual or organization.
As new people move to a location, volunteering is often a way for them to integrate into the community. In a small community like Garberville, population 2000, the key log is usually a person who is a longtime resident and knows what is going on in the
community. In larger communities, such as Eureka (population 46,000), organizations, like the Volunteer Center, service as the key logs for the community.
An interview with a returning resident to a tiny community in Southern Humboldt acknowledged difficulty integrating into the community. Although the resident had identified the key log and was volunteering, it still took several months before she felt
“accepted” by the community.
Neighboring
Other interviews provided insight into how people help each other. The editor for a local paper told of how he and his neighbors look out for three widows that live in their neighborhood.
Neighbors will drop by to visit, help with tasks around the house, and if needed, bring groceries from town. A staff person with social services agency mentioned a concept of a “social capital savings account.” Generally, people will help each other, as it is needed. She mentioned an older man who was hard to get along with and he had bankrupted his “social capital” among neighbors. The man now needed to depend on social service agencies to provide for his needs instead of help from neighbors.
In September, a consultant for the Points of Light Foundation conducted a site visit to Humboldt County. As part of the visit, the consultant conducted telephone interviews with residents who have volunteer experiences. Volunteering in Humboldt County is strong, but much of it is conducted informally. For example, Native Americans say they don’t have time to volunteer because they are taking wood to the elderly or fish to people who need it.
Isolation
Our greatest strength is also our weakness. This is true of the isolation experienced in remote, rural communities of Southern Humboldt. Many people are attracted to Southern Humboldt for
its beauty and sparse population. Through informal conversations, a sense of the diversity and polarization within communities in Southern Humboldt has emerged. One business owner spoke of how the influx of hippies from the San Francisco Bay area 20-25 years ago impacted small communities in Southern Humboldt. Most of the small communities were originally built around timber operations (mills and housing for workers). The large influx of “aging hippies,” generally environmentalists and counter culturist, conflicted with the more “traditional” residents. In addition to an influx of people who highly value living off the grid and outside the “system,” an underground economy began to blossom.
One person expressed a concern that young people are not engaged in their communities because they grew up in a culture where they were self contained and lived isolated to be able to invest in an underground economy. Another resident told how hard it is to instill her values of hard work and living within the law when her daughter is exposed to the quick rewards of jobs related to the informal economy.
Another person attributed the lack of volunteering to a wide variety of nonwestern or
nontraditional religions that do not promote the active participation of volunteering or helping a neighbor. Several people cited time constraints as a reason why people didn’t volunteer. A staff member of the Family Resource Center expressed that some individuals with low-incomes may not volunteer because it would make them more visible in the community and a target for censure.
Other interviews provided insight into how people help each other. The editor for a local paper told of how he and his neighbors look out for three widows that live in their neighborhood.
Neighbors will drop by to visit, help with tasks around the house, and if needed, bring groceries from town. A staff person with social services agency mentioned a concept of a “social capital savings account.” Generally, people will help each other, as it is needed. She mentioned an older man who was hard to get along with and he had bankrupted his “social capital” among neighbors. The man now needed to depend on social service agencies to provide for his needs instead of help from neighbors.
Last summer, wild fires threatened shelter Cove, a small coastal community 45 minutes west of Garberville. On three occasions, the town came within minutes of being evacuated. When the wildfire began to initially threaten the community, a civic group began organizing an evacuation plan and notifying all the people in the immediate area. Several frail elders lived in the
community and did not have transportation. The civic group assigned community members to be responsible for the elders. The civic group also coordinated town meetings and community bulletin boards to keep everyone informed about the status of the wildfire.
After the crisis, the civic group continues to organize their community around the issue of disaster preparedness. They have organized a CERT training and are continuing to fine-tune their disaster plan using lessons learned from last year’s fires.