Turning the Tide on Poverty: Community champions as critical elements of success in economically distressed communities

Abstract

Turning the Tide on Poverty is designed in part to expand the number of new voices in community dialogs and to spur those individuals to become leaders in their communities. In this article, we explore the degree to which the success of the Tide project is linked to the emergence or presence of a local champion. We defined a champion as a catalyst or sparkplug and then examined the extant literature and our data to determine the qualities of a champion. When a person (or persons) who was enthusiastic, rallied others, and provided momentum and passion for the project emerged, that person often was identified by other community members as a key element in the success of Tide. We argue that such a person is a community champion and discuss our findings within the Community Capitals Framework. Implications for spurring improvements in distressed communities in the southern US are discussed.

Keywords:

• Civic engagement
• Community Capitals Framework
• community champions
• community development

Notes

1. At the inception of the Tide effort, Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC) leaders assembled a team of both research and Extension professionals (“the research team”) from within the region served by the SRDC to help shape this work. Each member of the team was affiliated with a land-grant institution in his or her respective state. The research team guided the development of materials as well as the implementation of the program in local communities and ongoing program assessment. As the work continued, the team continued to guide and evaluate its impacts, helping clarify and refine the path of the Extension outreach efforts. While the composition of the team has varied over the years, the team’s overall mission to ensure evidence-based directions has remained focused. For this special collection, all current, active research team members participated in the evaluation of lessons learned and outcomes from Tide to date. Research team members actively interviewed participants, coded and analyzed data, and prepared manuscripts to develop the body of knowledge contained in this journal edition.