1. Community Work Programs
Future Talk
Educational Work Program
Multicultural Family Center

2. Future Talk!
Mission: to bring youth from diverse communities together to work toward the common goal of a more sustainable Dubuque, City and County through hard work, environmental literacy, and service to the community.
Unemployment of youth 50.4% African American teen males, Sept 2009; 25.9% all teens
A work ethic, a land ethic, a service ethic
Last Child in the Woods. Richard Louv

3. Work Ethic
Students work 9 hours per week for 8 weeks completing projects that help the environment/natural areas management. 72 hours total work. Stipend $5/hour
Job training
Safety on the job site
$3/hour bonus at the end
The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque matched $1.00 for every $2.00 saved up to a total of $ For this students needed to open and maintain a savings account

4. Land Ethic “Environmental Literacy”:
Demonstrate understanding of the city model for sustainability; demonstrate understanding of sustainable practice.
Reuse, reduce, recycle. Dubuque Metropolitan Solid Waste Agency training. Neighborhood clean-ups.
“Nature literacy”:
Reading for the environment
Demonstrate knowledge of prairie/savanna ecosystems and restoration attempts.

5. Land Ethic Cont. Outdoor activities and specific skills Fishing
Canoeing
Hiking, trails, work on a sense of direction, find places on a map.
Birds
Trees
Insects
Plants

6. Service Volunteer two hours per week outside of regular work hours:
Neighborhood cleanup
Volunteer w/ Ecokids literacy program at MFC
Bluebird Trail monitoring
Special projects, e.g. making the Future Talk brochures, the Future Talk banner.
City Parks
Mines of Spain, Savanna Restoration
Two Prairies in DBQ: Hill Prairie Restoration

8. What about college?
The transition to college can be very difficult for first-generation students.
Internships at Loras and Clarke, paid by MFC: an introduction to the college environment, monitoring grades while still in high school, advising starts two or three years before any of our kids get to college.
Two students in 2009, more in 2010.

9. Kahdyesha and Shonda, interns in 2009. Clarke College and Loras College
Kahdyesha worked in the Intercultural Programs office during her second summer with Future Talk. One of her many jobs was to help plan and carry out the Loras summer minority student orientation. Shonda spent her second summer working in the Dean’s Office at Clarke.

10. Theoretical Application
Cultural Deviance Theory
Delinquency is a natural result of conditions that exist within certain neighborhoods
Labeling Theory
Social control creates deviance when attached to negative labels

11. Assessment Delinquency Prevention Programs Community Service Programs
Future Talk
Literacy Before and After Summer:
Reading
Writing

12. Recommendation
Contract with groups like:
Hillcrest
Four Oaks

13. Sources Tonry, M. (1998). The Handbook of Crime &
Punishment. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kapp, A. Reclaiming Children and Youth. Bloomington:
Spring Vol. 18, Iss 1; pg. 8,4 pgs.
Interview with Dana Livingston April 12, 2010