Advocacy program offers assistance, opportunity for those in rural Iowa

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
August 14, 2003

Help is available for personal and livelihood concerns of people in rural Iowa through a program titled Passages, one of two Ligutti Rural Community Support Programs.

Director of the Passages program, Cece Arnold, explained that it is a pilot program of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, which is headquartered in Des Moines. Presently, the Ligutti programs are only offered in Iowa.

"It is in its infancy in many ways," she said. "We only started two-and-one-half years ago."

Development of the Passages program sprung out of needs identified by the Governor's Task Force on Rural Iowa in the year 2000 - mainly personal issues and economic concerns of rural Iowa.

"We don't do mental health counseling through this, it is a program of support not therapy," noted Arnold.

Passages relies on volunteers in rural communities to serve as rural life associates. These individuals must go through 24 hours of training, consisting of four six-hour modules. Three of these are offered via the Iowa Communications Network at various sites throughout the state. Sessions are planned for Nov. 1, 15 and 22. A fourth session will be offered in assorted communities in the diocese.

Training covers things such as elderly and caregiving issues, sexual assault and domestic violence, substance abuse and co-dependency, communications skills, life planning, Latino culture and other topics specific to rural life. The rural life advocates also receive many lessons relating to self awareness.

"You can take any social problem there is and it moves up in severity because of isolation because of distances in services or the lack on anonymity - the perception that there is not confidentiality," she stressed.

Bev Hurni, family ministries director for the Diocese of Sioux City, pointed out that the very same rugged spirit that helped make Iowa what it is today can be a detriment when people need help, because they often think they should be able to pull through on their own.

The extent that rural life advocates become involved with the rural people they minister to can vary depending on the time the advocates has to offer as well as the needs of the people. The length of the relationship between the advocate and individual also depends on the situation.

"Their main function is to be a companion or support to rural people who are in some stage of transition - evidence of domestic violence or substance abuse," said Arnold, a native of Denison. "Seldom does one thing happen by itself, there is usually a myriad of things. A rural life advocate can be somewhat of a companion who keeps information confidential, who assists the person in what needs to be done next in setting goals and taking the big, confusing part of the problem and bringing it down to little steps and seeing those through one by one."

In some cases the rural life associates may take a less significant role and may merely provide resources or referrals.

"The rural life advocates may also opt to provide special programming - there may have been suicides in their area or meth problems. We can support that and can find resources to come and offer it," she explained.

Currently, there are rural life associates in every diocese in Iowa. Some individuals who have gone through the training are farm couples, a deacon and his wife, parish nurses, retired persons and parish secretaries.

There is an application process for persons interested in serving as rural life associates including a background check. The Globe will publish more information about the upcoming fall training sessions.

If a rural individual or family is currently experiencing personal or livelihood concerns, they can contact Arnold at (515) 270-2634. She may answer their questions directly or put them in contact with a rural life advocate in the area. There is no cost to the individuals using these services, which are available to people of all faiths. Nor is there a cost for training to become rural life associates.

Persons may find more information about Passages at www.ncrlc.com/passages.html.