The Extension Connection
Above: One stop on ISU Extension’s study tour was a market in Oaxaca, Mexico, where Extension staff observed basket weavers. Below: ISU Extension field specialist Sharon Johnson, right, visited with a local family taking part in a Candelaria celebration at a church in Mexico.
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Last update: July 2003
A quarterly publication of Iowa State University Extension
Understand culture, identify needs to reach Hispanic families
Iowa State University Extension educators and Iowa public
service providers have a common concern — how to reach the state’s
growing Hispanic population with educational opportunities and services.
This effort has the complexity of walking down the street and entering
a different world, one where new Iowans are trying to make a living without
abandoning rich cultural traditions. It isn’t as simple as translating
current publications into Spanish or hiring a translator.
“Providing Hispanic families with our cultural practices in education
and services isn’t enough. We need to understand their culture, identify
the needs they are having here and support those needs,” said Stacy
McWilliams, an early childhood special education home interventionist
with Green Valley Area Education Agency 14. “One thing that helped
me understand this was Extension’s Partnering with Parents cultural
perspectives panel.”
The panel includes families of various cultures who share their perspectives
on parenting. It’s one way ISU Extension is incorporating a better
understanding of Hispanic culture into programs and daily work.
A group of ISU Extension specialists enriched their understanding of
Hispanic culture during a weeklong Mexican study tour last winter. “The
Mexico experience sensitized us to the need to reach out and into the
Hispanic culture, not try to pull them into ours,” said Barbara Anderson,
ISU Extension nutrition and health field specialist. “Reaching Hispanics
has become a higher priority for me in my work and I see that happening
across the community.”
When Janet Peterson, women’s health coordinator for Iowa Department
of Public Health, wanted to share women’s health grant information
with community groups and gather information regarding area women’s
health, she contacted Anderson.
“Anderson was crucial in bringing together three community groups,
one of them a Latina women’s group,” Peterson said. “We
shared a free Spanish and English resource with them, the National Women’s
Health Information Center, and heard their concerns, which mirrored the
concerns of the other community groups we met with.”
Extension field specialists who work with families and communities are planning two educational travel experiences to Mexico for community leaders. Their hope is that as more Iowans learn about and appreciate the culture of the state’s new immigrant population, relationships will be strengthened and communities made stronger.
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“Providing
Hispanic families with our cultural practices in education and services
isn’t enough. We need to understand their culture, identify the needs
they are having here and support those needs.”
— Stacy McWilliams, Green Valley AEA 14