Sharing Life's Glories

Mountain Women's Exchange, serving a 50-mile area straddling the Kentucky-Tennessee border near Jellico, seeks to make higher education accessible, affordable, and relevant for low-income adults. One third of Jellico's people live below poverty level. Nearly two-thirds of the adults in Campbell County had not completed high school in 1980. Unemployment in the rural areas of the surrounding counties — all depressed by massive layoffs of miners in the late 1950s — runs from 25 to above 50 percent. 

Women from six nonprofit community organizations formed Mountain Women's Exchange in 1978 as essentially a resource center for existing projects (ranging from a daycare program to a land trust) and as an incubator for new ones. Since its start, the organization has marketed crafts from Crazy Quilt and other groups, trained food-stamp advocates, sponsored a construction training program for women, initiated a county-wide Citizens for Better Schools, and launched an ambitious herb growing and herbal products marketing business. 

In 1982, the mostly low-income women active in the Exchange decided they wanted to make inexpensive, college-level education available to people in their remote area. Instead of seeking vocational training, they wanted a program that would give them skills to develop their community, analyze business opportunities, and provide personal fulfillment. While mainstream education typically prepares students to leave home communities for more promising settings, Mountain Women's Exchange set out to create a program that satisfied the needs of students who have chosen to remain in their rural communities. 

"We know what industry is available, and we don't want to be educated to fit into that vocation," Barbara Greene told Sue Thrasher of Highlander Center. "The challenge is for us to do some community development. All we want is the education that is relevant to our community and that will enable us to be able to take charge in terms of giving input into what industry is there. We don't want to turn it over to someone else; we're not buying this vocational bit anymore." 

To get things started, the Exchange formed a 10-member advisory committee of area residents to do three things: determine the interest of low-income residents in a college education; meet with potential cooperating colleges to negotiate an academic sponsorship contract; and work out details of organization, financing, and membership for a 1983 start-up. 

In two weeks of word-of-mouth advertising, 150 people signed statements of interest in taking college courses. Finding an academic institution that would provide instruction and credit for courses taught in Jellico was not as easy. After talking with five institutions, the Exchange obtained an initial six-month contract with Roane State Community College of Harriman, Tennessee. 

Funding also proved difficult. "We discovered a basic inequity in the Tennessee system of subsidizing higher education," wrote Exchange leaders in a proposal to the U.S. Department of Education. "Students from counties such as Anderson, Roane, and Knox, which were nearest to the community college and which have excellent educational attainment levels and low unemployment levels, made up the bulk of the enrollment at the community college — 76%. Over 100 miles away in the rural, mountainous areas of Campbell County, where educational attainment was the lowest and people were the poorest, we were told that providing off-campus courses would have to be done at our own expense since state subsidies were used up." 

Despite the lack of government money to support operating expenses for a branch of Roane State in Jellico, the women began recruiting students, faculty, and scholarship money. They developed a brochure and approached potential funders. National church and private funders supplemented the student's federal Pell grants and state tuition grants. Between those sources the new school, housed in the Jellico High School, developed a fairly stable, if limited, economic base. 

In fulfillment of their last goal, the advisory committee incorporated the Rural Communities Educational Cooperative (RCEC) in the spring of 1983 and conducted a membership drive. The cooperative form of organization furthered the goal of linking education to community development by encouraging the development of local leadership, membership accountability, and decision-making among a broad base of participants. 

In the spring of 1983, RCEC was underway. Math and English courses were offered, and students voted for board members to run the cooperative. They selected five of their own members to manage and set policy for RCEC, and approved the formation of an advisory board to assist in curriculum development. One student was hired to handle registration and bookkeeping, and others participate in the school's day-to-day operations. Anne Hablas, the education director of the Exchange staff, coordinates the program. A portion of her salary came from the Washington-based Association for Community-Based Education. After six months, RCEC negotiated a new one-year contract with Roane State Community College. 

By the spring of 1984, eight teachers had conducted 16 different courses in three quarters for 25, 42, and 36 students. In 1985, RCEC switched affiliations and negotiated a one-year contract with Carson-Newman College, a private liberal arts institution 50 miles from Jellico. The change offers students a greater number and variety of courses and a chance to obtain a four-year degree (Roane State offered only a two-year associates degree). 

By 1986, 85 students — 77 women — were enrolled in RCEC classes. Their ages range fairly evenly from 19 to 45. Eighty percent received some kind of financial assistance to attend courses. The largest group of students is pursuing a business-oriented curriculum, while others are training for education, medical, and social service careers, or a more general education. Many younger students plan to transfer to the Carson Newman campus later for full-time study. 

In 1984, RCEC received a U.S. Department of Education grant to develop and disseminate a curriculum on rural leadership and community development. In preparing the curriculum, RCEC attempted to balance the needs of the students, the needs of their communities for skilled leadership, and the curriculum requirements of the sponsoring institution. 

The organizers first identified the skills and competencies which are essential to rural living and rural leadership development. Through a lengthy series of group meetings, interviews, and survey questionnaires, students answered the question, "What do you wish to learn while you're in college that will help you achieve your goals for yourself and your community?" The most frequent responses (see box) illustrate their maturity and commitment to personal and community development. 

The next step was to design a series of accredited courses to help students achieve those goals. Some courses listed in the Carson-Newman catalog, like Communication and Community Development, were modified for RCEC. Others were added, such as a political science course on developing a "power analysis" of a local community; an environmental science class in which students learned about ecology in part by developing a nature trail and guide for the nearby Rock Castle Alternative Energy Demonstration Center; and a sociology class which compiled a directory of community services available in the area. 

Through this combination of courses, RCEC has developed an effective curriculum that enhances the student's self-confidence, ability to speak out, decision-making skills, knowledge of their communities, and leadership capacities. The program is a model for others who recognize that educated leaders are the key to successful community-based development.