Service Learning Partnerships: The Voice of Coalition Partners

Four years ago, Turtle Mountain Community College, a small tribal college located in a remote area of North Dakota on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, solved the partnership problem it faced with its service-learning program by establishing a partnership with the Rolette County Wellness Coalition. It is a partnership that is also benefiting the members of the coalition. When instructors at Turtle Mountain Community College decided to implement an interdisciplinary service-learning program to address the epidemic of diabetes, they faced the challenge of finding community partners in a community that lacks many of the potential partners service-learning programs in urban areas utilize. Rolette County is very rural (with its largest town having fewer than 2,500 people) and lacks the corporations and industry common in metropolitan areas. Rolette County ranked as the poorest of the 53 counties in North Dakota according to the 2000 census, with a per capita income significantly less than half that of the state average. Even when the country's economy is healthy, the reservation has a high unemployment rate. According to the 2005 Bureau of Indian Affairs Labor Force Report, 65% of Native American adults on the reservation were unemployed, and the situation has not improved in the years since then. The mission of the Rolette County Wellness Coalition is "To maintain/improve the health and environment of Rolette County through promotion of wellness." Any people from the county who are concerned about the health and safety of the area are welcome to join the coalition. Coalition members Judy Martinson, Rolette County Tobacco Prevention Coordinator; Kimberly Lemieux, Region III Safe Communities and Substance Abuse Prevention Program Coordinator; and Karen Armstrong, Rolette County Extension Agent and Nutrition Education Agent for the Family Nutrition Program agreed to be interviewed and share their thoughts about their experiences working with the Turtle Mountain Community College service-learning program.