Weaving the Web

WEAVING THE WEB: FARM WORKER FAMILIES, HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT, AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

A Collaborative Demonstration Project of the University of California, Davis

Weaving the Web is a demonstration project that seeks, through creative collaboration, to provide benefit to and increase the capacities of migrant farm worker families in their access to and use of modern telecommunication technologies for personal learning ends. The WEAVERS Project joins the University of California, Davis' Center for Child and Family Studies (CCFS) and Cooperative Extension of the Department of Human and Community Development along with the Davis Community Network to increase the opportunities of migrant families to benefit from the new learning tools such as computers and the internet. This goal can only be met if these partners can effectively link with local migrant housing centers, school districts, libraries, health clinics and migrant farm worker families themselves. WEAVERS seeks to build on previous successful experiences of the cooperators in order to further test the capacity for implementing an interactive telecommunications based system that emphasizes human development and health information and learning.

The Weavers project will initially focus its efforts in the Yolo-San Joaquin-Solano County areas in order to work in new, effective, and collaborative ways with social service organizations and the farm worker families. Steps in the WEAVERS project are to:

Determine the human development and health information needs and opportunities for farm worker families and those who serve them;
Assess the appropriateness and feasibility of utilizing telecommunication technologies for collaboratively providing such information;
Assess current telecommunication-based tools and opportunities for working cooperatively and in new ways to utilize those tools with migrants;
Make the tools and learning/training necessary available for migrant families in demonstration sites and evaluate the use, appropriateness, and on-going opportunities.

The WEAVERS project will require WEAVERS partners. Project personnel will actively work with other local and state institutions in a cooperative and mutual learning mode. Also, we are committed to generating additional human, equipment, and financial resources necessary for the demonstration to other areas in the state through the statewide network of University of California Cooperative Extension and the related 4-H programs, an through the networks of the other participants.

For Information, Contact:

James Grieshop, Department of Human and Community
Development, Cooperative Extension, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Tel: 530/752-3008
Fax: 530/752-5855
Email: jigrieshop@ucdavis.edu

Carol Rodning, Director, Center for Child and Family Studies
Department of Human and Community Development
University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Tel: 530/752-4365
Fax: 530/752-9547 Email: cjrodning@ucdavis.edu

Richard Lowenberg, Director
Davis Community Network
1623 5th St., Davis, CA 95616
Tel: 530/750-1170
Fax: 530/757-2938
Email: rl@dcn.davis.ca.us

Sergio Chavez, Research Assistant
Development, Cooperative Extension
University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Tel: 530/752-3008
Fax: 530/752-5855
Email: srchavez@ucdavis.edu

Celia Gonzalez, Research Assistant
Center for Child and Family Studies
Department of Human and Community
Development, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Tel: 530/752-4365
Fax: 530/752-9547
Email: cgonzalez@ucdavis.edu