Community Development at MCTC

February 28, 2010

By Sheila Regan

This spring marked the beginning of a new A.S. Degree Program in Community Development at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. The first class, called Community Development and Indigenous Cultures, is being taught by Native American Community Development Institute staff members Syd Beane and Justin Huenemann.

The Community Development Program will prepare students for careers in community development, urban neighborhood revitalization, community organizations, environmental impact assessment, private developers, banks, nonprofits, and government agencies, according to MCTC’s description of the program.

Mike McGee, dean of Academic Affairs at MCTC, said that the program was developed with NACDI and will have an emphasis on the Native American experience, but that it will also be inclusive of all culture groups. “There are greater needs in community than just Native Americans,” McGee said. “But originally the program sprang out of those needs.”

McGee said the program will focus on the roles and responsibilities of leaders in urban communities. “We’re looking at ways students can make a difference,” he said. “We’re looking at trying to map the linkage between local urban agencies and the process of policy making in legislature and government.”

Sid Beane, one of the instructors for the spring course, who is also a consultant at NACDI, said one of the reasons for developing the program was that there’s “not a lot of new young leadership in the field, particularly in lower income or Indigenous communities.” Beane said that if Native people wanted to build their community, they would need trained professionals.

“It’s a holistic approach to developing community,” Beane said of the program. “It involves human capital, and bringing people together.”

The program entails three core courses: Community Development and Indigenous Cultures, which is being offered this spring, Community Development and Development Process, and Community Development and Project Management, according to Beane. Other courses in the 60-credit program will support those main core subjects.

In the introductory class, students will learn what community development is, and how it relates to the Native community. It will take NACDI’s goals to develop an American Indian Cultural Corridor as a model.

The second core course will let the students work hands on with projects in the community, and give them an understanding of the key steps necessary to putting a project together. The third core course will intersect with basic business, science and math courses at MCTC to be able to run a community development organization.

Beane said that the program will give students the skills necessary to work with a community development program right away, or else to further their skills in a four-year degree program and graduate school. Besides nonprofit work, students could also pursue careers in business ownership, social work or government.

The introductory class this spring filled right away with 25 students, Beane said, with a very diverse group of students, including about half Native students, but also a large number of African American and East African students. “We really foresee developing a program that is open to everybody,” Beane said.

One student enrolled in the Community Development Program is 22-year-old Millie Hernandez, who just started at MCTC. “I was looking for something related to Native American studies,” Hernandez said. The program appealed to her because, being a resident of Little Earth, and working with the Little Earth housing community, she is already engaged to community development on some level, and wants to be able to pursue her leadership skills in that area. “I realized that my future plan would require some training in school,” Hernandez said.

Since high school, Hernandez has been an active volunteer in the Native community. She has helped out on powwow committees, organized events, and volunteered on the Little Earth Urban Project. She became more active in high school, at both South High and at the Volunteers of America School at the Lehmann Center because her mother was really involved in the community. Hernandez attended Little Earth Safety Council meetings, and adults would approach her and say they liked the fact that she was speaking up about issues.

Hernandez said the main thing she’s learning in the introductory course is an understanding of all of the different levels of involvement needed for community development. “To have a really quality project,” she said, “you need local support and national support.” She’s also learning about funding sources.

Recently, Hernandez has come with an idea of her own that she hopes her training at MCTC will help her carry out. She wants to take a home at Little Earth and turn it into a counseling support center for teens and young adults to further their education and counsel them about housing and food support. She said she’s currently working on a proposal which she will submit to The Little Earth United Tribes Residency Association, where she has worked a little over a year in the youth development center.

“I live here at Little Earth,” Hernandez said. “I see all of the struggles and barriers that we have here in the community within the entities that run the community. But I also see all the assets of the community.” Hernandez wants to further her education so she can eventually move into an administrative position with her organization. “I am really passionate about the community and can serve the community really well.”

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