Milliken: A Community Working Together

How does one get underage teenagers to stop drinking alcohol, carousing the streets and getting into mischief? What can be done to get speeders to slow down?

--We're asking the community for solutions.

Colorado State University Extension is helping Colorado towns pull together to fight crime and solve problems in their communities. Through "Partnerships for Community Safety," Extension is helping to provide education, facilitators and resources for communities wanting to take a united approach to issues such as underage drinking, speeding, crime, disorder and community code enforcement. Extension's partners in the project are the Neighborhood Resource Center and the Colorado Regional Community Policing Institute funded through the U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Service.

The concept of community policing has been around for years, but because of a lack of resources to police departments, it can be a difficult approach to implement. Community policing is a philosophy that promotes an organized, united, community approach to solving problems. The philosophy requires community, government and police commitment, and is effective against crime, fear of crime and other community issues.

It's also effective in building--or rebuilding--a sense of community and comradery within a town, something that many believe is missing in today's modern society.

"Partnerships for Community Safety gets everyone involved in solving community problems," said Jacque Miller, project coordinator with Colorado State Extension. "Many people feel disconnected from their community for a number of reasons. Perhaps they work in a different town, are new to the city, have lived there all of their life but the community has changed, or they simply aren't involved. When more people invest in a community's problems, more people are invested in finding an agreeable solution and making it work. There's strength in numbers."

Police Chief Gary Paxton of Milliken, a small town of about 2,500 people in Weld County, agrees. He's been a believer in community policing for more than a decade. Partnerships for Community Safety has finally given him the resources he's been looking for to make the concept work in his town.

"When there's a problem in a community, whether it's directly related to criminal justice or not, people always go to the police and say 'Here's the problem. What are you going to do about it?', " said Paxton. "But I don't have all of the answers.

"I don't want to always rely on my perception to solve a problem. I want to hear solutions from others; I want to solve a problem collectively so it's not just my solution. The more minds we put together, the more ideas we get for solutions. A lot of things came out of this group that I never thought of, and that's the point of this type of partnership."

A year ago a group of 30 Milliken senior citizens, students, city officials, police officers and parents identified finding positive activities for youth as an issue they wanted to tackle through community policing. They're meeting in groups and are beginning to come up with solutions. The committee hopes that in giving youth something constructive to do, they'll be less likely to drink and party--an important step in a county with a high incidence of youth DUIs, suicide rates and traffic accidents.

Donna Liess, Extension agent, family and consumer sciences, in Weld County, was instrumental in introducing this program to this under-served area of her county and in developing new partnerships there. Once Colorado State Extension community safety program facilitators started the ball rolling, the project found its own momentum. Liess then assisted the community committee in coming up with some kid-oriented solutions, which included partnering with the Boys and Girls Club in a neighboring community.

"We spent six months researching what other communities had done to address youth issues similar to what Milliken was facing," said Paxton. "We found a lot of failures and some successes, and we wanted to learn from other's mistakes. One consistent response from successful communities was that when they brought Boys and Girls Clubs in, they succeeded in giving their youth activities that interested them."

Over the next few months, the Milliken community policing committee, Liess and others met with the Boys and Girls Club in Greeley and the two groups are working out an arrangement to work together in a fused program. In addition, the Boys and Girls Club has donated money to the Milliken community to help establish activities there.

"These types of things take time, but this project is very much alive," said Paxton. "Good things take time. I am patient, and I know we will succeed."

In fact, the Chief has taken a personal interest in the project and is putting more of his free time into making that success a guarantee. Paxton was elected to the local recreation board, which allows him to help open up communication between the two organizations and foster collaboration.

"This concept, lead by Colorado State Extension, provided facilitators who worked with us to develop a community policing approach--to make this a better place," said Paxton. "We're a community working together." -Dell Rae Moellenberg

For more information, contact your local Colorado State University Extension office.

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