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Kansas Profile

Tag: PRIDE

Melvina Jones, Potwin

Closeup- Melvina Jones amid corn stalks
Melvina Jones

What’s growing in the garden? Corn, potatoes, tomatoes?

Yes, all of the above, and more. Today we’ll meet a long-time volunteer who supports her local community garden plus other projects that benefit her community.

Melvina Jones is a volunteer with the Potwin PRIDE program (now known as Kansas Community Empowerment at the state level), including the community garden in Potwin. She grew up on a farm near the Anderson County town of Welda and earned a teaching degree at Emporia State. She retired after a career of teaching.

Her family always had a garden. “I grew up in 4-H. Gardening was one of my projects,” she said. After moving to Potwin, she and her family had a garden of their own.

In 1984, the Potwin mayor invited community organizations to have a representative on a newly forming local PRIDE group. Jones joined PRIDE as a representative of the Parent Teacher Organization and has been active ever since.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Youth Community Perceptions, Ellis

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

Let’s go to a city council meeting. City council members are listening to a presentation about perceptions of their community. Is this presentation being made by an expensive consultant from halfway across the country? No, this presentation is being made by a local group whose average age is 17 – and they might be thinking about their senior prom. This was part of an innovative program called Youth Community Perceptions which is designed to gain input from youth and engage them with their community.

Ellis youth community perceptions team
Ellis youth community perceptions team

Susan Schlichting is a 4-H youth development agent for the K-State Research and Extension Cottonwood District, serving Ellis and Barton Counties. Susan helped pilot this new program called Youth Community Perceptions.

The program originated from Kansas PRIDE Program discussions about how to get youth more engaged in their hometowns. The PRIDE Program is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2020, so this is another in our series of profiles highlighting PRIDE communities.

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