1. Cynthia Muhar Family Living Educator Milwaukee County Cooperative Extension

2.  Recall the first experience you can remember regarding poverty.  What emotion do you recall feeling at that time?  What impact did that event have on you then? What about now?  What do you think of that situation now? Have your feelings or perspectives changed?

3.  PACE is a poverty education curriculum for UWEX educators developed by the Family Living Poverty and Food Insecurity team.  PACE incorporates a continuum of learning which begins with building awareness and ends with a call to action.

4.  Ruby Payne’s Bridges out of Poverty curriculum was being used by UWEX educators.  The Poverty & Food Insecurity team wanted a ‘next step’ curriculum that would examine the complex issues of poverty and diverse methods to address it.  In our search for a new curriculum, we came to the conclusion that we’d have to develop our own.

5.  We wanted a curriculum that would:  address the complex issues of poverty (including social class, privilege, racism, power, oppression, and urban vs. rural)  address a continuum of learner levels (raising awareness through transformational education) and resources in the curriculum  be non-prescriptive in its approach.

6.  PACE:  Was developed by Cooperative Extension educators and specialists.  Was piloted with educators from around the state, evaluated and then revised.  Is peer reviewed  Available online at http://www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/pace/ http://www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/pace/

7.  Introduction  Teaching Essentials  Companion Activities  Faces of Poverty  Ongoing Groups  Measurable Change  Keeping up the PACE

8. Educators can develop a workshop from PACE’s curriculum that will meet the specific needs of their audiences. Learning objectives include:  Personal Reflection  Awareness  Empathy  Knowledge & Critical Thinking  Skill Building  Network Building  Action

9.  How do you define poverty?  Poverty is an individual, family or community’s lack of goods and resources that are needed to support well-being and stability

10.  Poverty is complex.  Poverty connects and intersects with other issues.  Poverty is a Call to Action.

11.  Book clubs  Just Neighbors Toolkit - http://www.justneighbors.net/program/just- neighbors http://www.justneighbors.net/program/just- neighbors  Community Change Circles - http://www.everyday-democracy.org http://www.everyday-democracy.org

12.  Process for public dialogue and community change process  Organized by diverse people from community  Includes people from all walks of life  Easy-to-use fair-minded discussion materials  Moves a community to action when discussion is concluded

13.  A diverse group of 8 -12 people  Meets for five 2 hr. sessions  Sets its own ground rules  Led by trained impartial facilitators  Dialogue process:  Personal stories  Looks at a problem from many points of view  Explores solutions  Formulates an action plan for change

14.  Two action teams formed to implement 1 yr. action plan.  One team developed an employment data base that included: over 120 employers in the MKE County area and 26 programs/services for job-seekers.  Data base shared with 211 Community Resource Hotline  Data base shared with 4 Dept. of Workforce Development Job Centers in greater MKE area.

15.  Second action team wrote an issue brief about a free/reduced college tuition program for graduates of Milwaukee Public Schools, based on the Kalamazoo Promise program in MI.  Group decided to continue its work to make the Promise dream a reality in Milwaukee.

16.  CNRD agent, Edward McDonald, assisted group with organizational planning  Milwaukee Promise, Inc. now has 501 C 3 status. Its mission is to “fund post-secondary education for graduates of Milwaukee Public Schools”.  Blog at http://mkepromise.wetpaint.com/http://mkepromise.wetpaint.com/  Media coverage in Milwaukee Journal- Sentinel and online newspapers.

17.  The Waukesha County Hunger Coalition is working on a grant to support CCC in the 3 neighborhoods identified by HUD as areas of need in the City of Waukesha.  Three low-income neighborhoods in Waukesha County will:  work together  build social capitol and  make positive changes by addressing three specific poverty issues identified through Community Change Circles.

18.  If you have any questions regarding any aspect of PACE, please free to ask them now.  The PACE website address is http://www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/pace/ http://www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/pace/  The Milwaukee Promise blog is at http://mkepromise.wetpaint.com/ http://mkepromise.wetpaint.com/  Thanks for your participation and interest in PACE!