An Update from Rosewood in Portland

I recently had the chance to chat with AmeriCorps alum Jenny Glass on what has been happening in the Rosewood neighborhood of Portland since Jenny finished her AmeriCorps term in December– here’s an overview of what she had to say:

• The neighborhood has been busy continuing to develop their local community cafe space into a place where neighbors can gather, have meetings, etc.
• The neighborhood has been selected by the city government for the investment of some city economic development funding. The hope is that these efforts will be community-driven, looking to develop the store fronts and business zoned areas of the neighborhood into businesses that the neighborhood is looking for.
• A continuing uptick in the number of neighbors attending community meetings– a recent event on opportunities for youth had over 60 neighborhood members in attendance (in the early part of Jenny’s term about 18 months ago, these meetings usually had just a handful of attendees, and there were no guarantees that they were even mostly local neighbors).
• Jenny has taken on the role of Executive Director of the Rosewood Cafe, which has been keeping her very busy, but excited about the snowball effect the ABCD work has created in the neighborhood. There is increasing momentum around building on the assets present in the neighborhood.

These are all wonderful stories, and it’s great to hear what’s continuing to happen, as well as how CFA can continue to partner with local neighborhoods! Congratulations to Jenny and Rosewood on all of the great things happening– clearly the relationships in your community are creating excitement around what could be! If you have any stories you would like to share, feel free to submit a blog post, or contact me!
–Brianna

The Role of Social Media and Online Community in Building Neighborhood-Based Community

Community built online can be a false sense of community. This is not to say that it doesn’t have a role, but that it’s difficult to build authenticity in relationships with something like Facebook if there isn’t also an in-person relationship.

There are a number of new sites and tools coming out recently that are working to build community through online networking, some of which we have previously mentioned here (nextdoor.com, for example). There are more tools (which I will mention below) that I get excited about as a way to help build community, but cannot be the only attempt we make at community, or they will never lead to anything.

These are sites like Neighborland, which is now open in a few cities across the country (including Minneapolis, where I am), and allows neighborhood members to list things that they would like to see in their neighborhood, and allows other people to agree, creating movement around an idea that might not have previously connected these people together. But unless these people make their voices heard to neighborhood groups to get more people involved, or ask to speak to groups like the city council, these sites will only get so far. In person organizing and connecting must happen in order to create the change they wish to see. I am excited by the possibility for sites like this to partner with in-person connecting, and also as a way to connect people who care about issues that we might not otherwise be aware of.

How can we use these tools to connect people who primarily build community online through social media and websites to people who have little internet access, and might not be aware of movement around an issue that they too care about? What role can community connectors play in bridging this gap? This is what I care about– and these are the steps we must take in our efforts to move below the red line.

Other sites doing cool things:
NeighborGoods– where you can create a list of goods you have available to lend to others in your neighborhood, and can check their lists to borrow from them when you need to

Do you have any other ideas of sites worth checking out? Let us know in the comments!

Community Connectors and Getting Below the Red Line

It was almost a year ago that we found out our AmeriCorps program was not being renewed for another three years of funding. In that time, all of our AmeriCorps members have finished their terms of service (the vast majority about six months ago, the last few wrapping up a few weeks ago).

In the meantime, we have been working on several projects to help us continue the work of  ABCD, and the ability to hire community connector-type positions. This includes working with several undergraduates at one university, and graduate students at another university to do some research for us examining the successes of the AmeriCorps program, and the stories that best show our impact. We should be receiving the final report on those research projects in the next couple of weeks.

We have also worked on partnering with others on the creation of an ABCD-leadership development curriculum, which is currently in it’s early stages of development. We are excited about the possibilities for this curriculum.

There is also a search for potential funders to fund a new national program. We have been working with Leadership Foundations over the past several months to discuss a joint program between the two networks, and are in the early stages of applying for several grants to fund a new national program.

In addition, we are working with CFA association members to discuss what partnerships can be looked at on a local level to increase the number of community connectors in their area.

All of this work is being done with the end goal of increasing the number of neighborhoods taking on the systems that indirectly cause long-term poverty in neighborhoods. Within CFA, we use a model to describe this, and when neighborhoods start working together to take on systemic injustices, it’s known as getting “below the red line.”

Getting below the red line doesn’t happen accidentally, and it takes serious partnerships to make it happen. We are working nationally on those partnerships, and also encouraging local partnerships to help fund community connectors and their abilities to work in neighborhoods to move below the red line.

During my research on funding this nationally, I have also become aware of national grants that will fund neighborhood-sponsored activities. I will be listing those on our resources page as I become aware of more of them. If you know of any that should be listed, please comment here and let me know, or email me. Let’s continue to work together to make our neighborhoods even better places to live!

–Brianna

ABCD and Human-Centered Design

Odds are that if you read this blog, you are familiar with asset-based community development (the main method we use to engage in community development in neighborhoods across the country). However, you may not be as familiar with human-centered design (also known as HCD).

I have been doing some research into HCD, and think it may be a useful tool to help engage in ABCD in neighborhoods and communities. HCD, according to the toolkit found at HCD Connect, “will help you hear the needs of constituents in new ways, create innovative solutions to meet these needs, and deliver solutions with financial sustainability in mind” (bolded words are their emphasis).  HCD can help you, “better connect with the people you serve, transform data into actionable ideas, see new opportunities, increase the speed and effectiveness of creating new solutions.”

Now, I know that the paragraph above sounds a bit sales-pitchy (it is from their toolkit that I downloaded for free on their website), and I’m not a fan of the needs-based language (hearing needs, meeting needs), but I think their focus on what’s desirable, what’s feasible, and what’s viable are central to any community-based project. And, they really focus on a first step on how best to listen to the community, hear what is being said, and how to take steps from there– essential for living out ABCD. Plus, it’s not a one-size fits-all tool, it encourages using what is helpful, but recognizing that the whole toolkit doesn’t need to be used in every circumstance.

I am definitely far from being an expert on HCD, but am excited about the possibilities it holds for community-based learning. If you are interested, go check out their website– and if you want to take a look at the toolkit, all you need to do is join the online community at their site, and you can download it for free.

So, what do you think– are you interested in HCD as a tool to use in ABCD? If you have used it, what has been your experience?

Article Round Up

In the midst of working on new program creation and the steps involved in that process, the postings to this blog have slowed down. However, I am hoping that the work being done right now will lead to more stories to be shared here. For now though, I thought I would post a round-up of the articles I have seen over the past month that I think are the most telling of how to create sustainable community change in our neighborhoods, learn and build relationships with one another, and allow listening to lead the development and transformation process. Here they are:

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679609/4-principles-for-creating-change-and-4-barriers-that-make-it-harder

http://www.good.is/post/the-art-of-survival/

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679463/the-amazings-uk-retirees-paid-to-teach-their-skills-to-a-younger-generation

So, what do you think? Do these articles influence or affirm your efforts for community transformation? What would you add or change from these articles? Share here!

Articles Worth Sharing…

I’ve been doing some research on innovative ideas for neighborhood growth and connections, and have come across a few articles I thought were worth sharing.

Smallknot: Support Your Community with Your Hard-Earned Cash- on neighbors giving loans to neighborhood businessess– http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679469/smallknot-support-your-community-with-your-hard-earned-cash

The GOOD Guide to Better Neighborhoods: A Neighborhood Manifesto- http://www.good.is/index.php?p=41609

In Our Backyard-funding small-scale projects to make neighborhoods better places to live– http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679363/in-our-backyard-funding-projects-to-make-neighborhoods-better

What do you think? Do you have any similar ideas to share? Articles to share? Let us know!

Building Community in Holland– A Video on Heights of Hope

Here’s a great video that CFA did on ABCD in Holland, that includes interviews with AmeriCorps alum Wasana Davis (you’ll see peeks of recent alum Melissa Maccune as well), and recent supervisor (and AmeriCorps alum) Tracey Forbes Hoesch. Check it out!

Feel free to join the convo on the video at: http://communitiesfirstassociation.org/2012/03/08/building-community-unity-ownership-action/