FACT SHEET ABOUT SPARTANVILLE, CA
• Spartanville has a total population of 25,000 adults. About another 7,500 arechildren, and half of those are school aged.
• Spartanville is located in Northern California, with its typical climate and an industrialbase of a paper mill, supporting industries, and agriculture. This includessome migrant worker camps in the surrounding counties, as well as otherlight industries. It has several grocery stores, both chains and mom-and-popvariety. It has the largest Wal-Mart superstore in the country and the smallestBest Buy store in the country
• There is one newspaper but no local television stations. Two stations fromother towns have a small satellite staff in town however.
• There is an interstate highway which runs near Spartanville. This means thatthere is the typical business base associated with four interstate exits (e.g.,gas stations, convenience stores, towing).
• The culture is typical of Northern California in terms of the sex/gender system, thepolitical attitudes (trending solid Democratic in national elections but localelections tend to be split between both major parties), the sexual mores, thereligiosity, the athleticism, and so on. Newcomers to Spartanville are oftenasked first, Where have you moved from? And a close second What religion are you?
• There are five schools: three elementary schools, one middle school (brandnew building built last year), and one high school. The big issue in town iswhether the immigrant workers should be allowed to work in the city, since the death rate is higher than the birth rate.
• The city government is in debt. However, in the last election, a law waspassed that Spartanville should henceforth operate in the black, that is, not indebt.
• The town is growing and experiencing growing pains about planning anddevelopment of neighborhoods versus businesses; the shopping mall (withmore being proposed around the mall); and a small rise in crime rate, especiallyof home invasions in the middle- and upper-class neighborhoods. Some of this crime has been blamed on the increased presence of immigrant workers.
Nurse—RNHuman services provider
High school football coach
Lawyer—public practice
Liquor store owner
Grocery store owner—
Mom-&-Pop store
Homemaker/housewife
FedEx driver
Video store owner
CPS worker atDepartment of Family& Children’s Services
Owner of used bookstore
School nurse
Tax assessor
Restaurant owner
Fine dining restaurantchef
Clerk in grocery store
Physical therapist
Cable television installer
Telephone repairperson
Nurse—LPN
Elementary school teacher
Realtor
District attorney
Paper mill owner
Minister/priest/rabbi
Garbage collector
Accountant
Video store clerk
Paper mill worker
Newspaper owner/editor
Firefighter
Clerk in mall store
Short-order cook
Receptionist at physician’soffice
Legal assistant orparalegal
Day care staff
Principal of school(you choose level)
Fast-food franchiseowner
Banker
High school teacher
Lawyer—private practice
Gas station owner
Grocery store owner—chain
Battered women’s shelterdirector
Postal worker
Secretary at school
Bank teller
Owner of copying store
Newspaper reporter
Police officer
Soda bottling plant worker
Restaurant waiter/waitress
College professor(pick your discipline)
New car salesperson
Legal secretary
EMT
Want to propose a job?
POSSIBLE CIVIC GROUPS
Please select your top three civic groups and place the number 1 next to the group you most want to work with, and so on. You may propose one civic group that is not on this list if you wish, but you must find three other classmates who wouldprioritize your civic group as their first or second choice.
1) ___ Smoke Free Spartanville—a social movement that hopes to make the citysmoke free in the next three years
2)___ Butt Out Spartanville —a pro–smokers’ rights group
3)___ Minuteman Project- started by an American after the attacks of 9-11, after physically patrolling the border in April 2005, now they primarily serve to make people aware of our illegal immigration problem and for the government to do a better job of border enforcement;
4)___ Committee to Prevent Teen Pregnancy—begun by a teenage singlemother, this group works to give teens alternatives to premature sexualacting out; promotes knowledgeable use of birth control methods
5)___ Spartanville for Victims—a pro–victims’s rights group that lobbiescriminal justice agencies and political groups to pass laws and createpolicies which benefit victims of crime
6)___ Clean Up, Spartanville!—a pro-environment social movement that wantsthe city to “go green” as much as possible in the next five years; part of itsmission is to teach citizens about conservation and recycling
7)___ Strengthen Spartanville’s Businesses—a coalition of small business owners that advocates for bills to reduce the small business tax base, andthe like
8) ___Christian Coalition—a social movement that seeks to build strongfamilies, strong communities, and a strong nation based on Biblicalprinciples
9)___ ACLU—a social movement that provides legal support to those who feel they have had rights granted by the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights denied or taken away; often speak for the rights of immigrant workers
10) Spartanville American GI Forum (AGIF) A Hispanic Veterans Group that protects the rights of all Veterans, but specifically Mexican veterans.