moving forward, part II

I think I'm most excited about the idea Nolan uncovered of connecting area seniors who are retired doctors with people in need of health care-- what a great program, especially since there are a lot of retirees in this area. But I'm also encouraged by how enthusiastic many of my colleagues at Rollins College are. If we were all focusing on Apopka's problems in our classes and creating sustainable partnerships with the Farmworkers' Association, think of how much we could accomplish...

Already professors in the areas of anthropology, environmental studies, history, and chemistry have expressed an interest in helping out... so getting this to translate into some form of action is the next goal. Jeannie also said she would arrange a meeting with the community to see how they felt about the next steps for proceeding. I've been in touch with some of the people from the EPA whom we met at the conference last week, who have been very positive about the availability of grants and the possibility of a larger collaboration there.

Community problem solving... a concept some anthropologists would be skeptical of (since it often involves collaboration among parties anthropologists normally are critical of-- such as industry or government), but let's see what we come up with.