Celebrating Those Who Work to Build Community

 This blog entry is reposted from our Leaders for Communities website.

By Sara Varela 
NeighborWorks America
Community Building and Organizing
communications specialist

At the recent NeighborWork Training Institute in Atlanta (February 18) NeighborWorks America presented the third annual National Award for Excellence in Community Building and Organizing (CB&O). We honored nine outstanding individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to the field, encourage resident leadership development, support resident led activities and help communities build social capital.

Winners included Julia King from LaCasa Inc in Indiana; Kathryn Benner and Priscila Cisneros, Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation in California; Carol Bronson, NeighborWorks Great Falls, Montana; Alexis Collins, Orlando Neighborhood Improvement Corporation in Florida; Kevin Johnson, Madison Park Development Corporation, in Boston; and Douglas Le, Belinda Yee and Johanna Contreras, Asian Americans from Equality in New York City. I am honored to work with these individuals on a regular basis and to have an opportunity to recognize their hard work.

Award winners during the ceremony (Back, left to right): Carol Bronson; Alexis Collins, Kathryn Benner, Julia King,
Kevin Johnson, Eileen Fitzgerald, Douglas Le (Front) Priscilla Cisneros, Belinda Yee, and Johanna Contreras

These outstanding practitioners are passionate about their work in encouraging and facilitating the development of local talent, so residents can lead the change they want to see in their communities. Thanks to them and to all the other CB&O practitioners in the field. Their work is very important to NeighborWorks America and the communities in which they work.

To see additional photos of the event visit our Flickr page, and watch this video from the local ABC Channel in Great Falls Montana for a piece on Carol Bronson, read the press release from Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation and this article that talks about Julia King in the local paper The Elkart Truth.

Leadership Development and Community Building Activities Improve Communities and Help the Bottom Line

This blog entry is reposted from our Leaders for Communities website.
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By Sara Varela NeighborWorks America Community Building and Organizing communications specialist

Twin Cities Community Development Corporation in Fitchburg, MA wrote a fantastic example of how community building and organizing activities help an organization’s bottom line, and how leadership development improves a neighborhood. These are my favorite types of stories. What do you think about them? Read the examples below and leave a comment.

Examples of leadership development improving a neighborhood are reflected in these two stories:


Three residents involved with Twin Cities CDC spoke on behalf of the Elm Street Area Neighborhood Association in front of the City Council Public Works Committee. Residents LeNeia Thomas, Paysha Rhone and James Kayaba had not spoken much publicly before, but they advocated earnestly for sidewalk and road improvements in their neighborhood. They argued the improvements would enhance the safety of children and elders in the area. Prior to this action, all the three resident leaders attended either or both  the NeighborWorks Community Leadership Institute and the Community Action Training sponsored by Twin Cities CDC. Thanks to their efforts, the process for paving these streets has begun.

A second story relates to a resident-led open house and barbeque. As Twin Cities CDC finished building new homes in the Elm Street Area, the organization became concerned about selling them. The first home had been on the market for two years. The construction had created debt, other homes were adding to the organization's inventory and there was pressure to sell the homes under the rules for HUD's HOME program.

Residents decided to hold a block party to help sell the homes. They got out the grill, organized the music and that day the first home was sold to an employee of Fitchburg State University! Two of the three homes for sale were sold shortly after this event, greatly relieving financial stress on the organization and proving what the residents of the neighborhood already knew: people wanted to live in the neighborhood.

Residents were also excited about a new daycare business inside a formerly foreclosed home. They welcomed the daycare with a press conference and used this as yet another opportunity to sell a new homes. At the time Twin Cities submitted their quarterly report to NeighborWorks America, the last of the new homes had been put under agreement and another home they rehabilitated was also under agreement.

Community building activities and resident leadership development are not often looked as money makers for an organization, but these stories demonstrate that resident activities can help an organization’s bottom line!

Believing in the People We Help

 This blog entry is reposted from our Leaders for Communities website.

By Sara Varela 
NeighborWorks America
Community Building and Organizing
communications specialist

The other day I told my nine-year-old he was in charge of preparing lunch for the family, since we were all very busy and hungry. I told him to prepare tuna sandwiches, and gave him all the ingredients he needed. He was more than thrilled to take on a major responsibility like that one. He has seen his dad, his older sister and I take turns at preparing and serving meals all his life, but he seldom gets to do it. I told him to prepare the sandwiches, serve them, set the table and call us when lunch was ready. He did a fantastic job; yes, the sandwiches weren’t as perfect as they’d been if I had done them, but my son accomplished the main goal of feeding us himself.

Trusting others to perform important tasks themselves is a critical part of helping them grow, and this concept is highly applicable in the nonprofit world.

Compost Cadet at work

My employer, NeighborWorks America, is a grant-maker which means we rely on our grantees to use our funds responsibly on projects that help the community directly and also inspire residents to help themselves.  Recently, I saw pictures from a NeighborWorks project with affiliate Chinatown Community Development Center (Chinatown CDC) in San Francisco. The photos give a visual example of how Chinatown CDC has used a $10,000 Deep Green Community Building and Organizing (CB&O) Impact grant to empower resident leaders and youth to educate the community on waste reduction through proper composting and recycling.

One of Chinatown CDC's main goals was to focus on leadership and ownership by residents for a more sustainable green community. The approach Chinatown CDC took creating this ownership and leadership among residents was comprehensive and ultimately quite successful. Some activities supported by the grant were:

• Lunch Program: Twenty-four youth volunteers educated other youth (and even some parents) to properly sort items into compost, recycling, and trash bins. The 12 volunteers alternated shifts each day, making sure that there were three people teaching the kids at all times. By the end of summer, the volunteers were just a presence because the kids were automatically doing it correctly.

• Arts & Crafts: Led by a resident volunteer, a group of five youth made wind chimes entirely from recycled items and learned about the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling.

• Compost Cadets: Eleven youth eagerly volunteered to be Compost Cadets (or Compost Cops, as they called themselves). These young leaders were trained to monitor residents at community events to make sure they were properly sorting their garbage. The Compost Cadets created their own badges and ticket booklets. They rewarded good behavior with environmentally-friendly stickers and they educated people they caught throwing food items or recyclables into the wrong bins.

Compost Cadet at work

The pride that my son felt at being handed an important responsibility and trusting him to getting it done well is the same pride I see in the photos of the children who were given the role of Compost Cadet. As I see the pictures of these young leaders, and the pride, ownership and responsibility that is reflected in them, I realized they embody what CB&O is all about: providing opportunities for skill building, giving residents leadership roles they might not have considered before and ultimately supporting resident-led improvements in their own communities.

There is nothing worse than setting up the stage for leadership development, and then not allowing space, or not trusting the people to take charge. Had I told my son he was responsible for lunch, and then taken over and made the sandwiches myself, or helped him because I didn’t trust he could do a good job, it wouldn’t have been the same. As practitioners I think it is important to walk our talk and really believe the people we want to help have the answers to their own problems. Our role is to enable them to find those answers, and then trust that their decisions were the best ones.

What Does Quality of Life Mean to a Neighborhood?

This entry is reposted, with permission, from our Kansas City affiliate Community Housing of Wyandotte County's blog:  http://chwckck.org/blogs/blog.

By Steve Curtis
Community Housing of Wyandotte County

Youth volunteers participating in our Community
Alley Restoration (C.A.R) program.

It can mean everything or it can mean nothing depending on who has defined what it means for your neighborhood. If you ask your neighbors what they want they will undoubtedly produce a list of things – like better sidewalks and curbs, faster police and fire response, less vandalism and fewer stray dogs and feral cats. Others want coffee shops, retail stores, bike trails, community gardens, or entertainment and recreational centers, even wireless Internet. It's true these things can make life in the neighborhood more enjoyable, more convenient and even healthier but what these things really do is create a sense of place.

A place where people can gather, can meet, share ideas and get to know one another. These environments are essential for our socialization. In urban neighborhoods many of the things that used to bring us together – like downtown shopping districts, neighborhood schools, mom and pop stores, park and recreational centers have been shut down, moved on or are under funded. Citizens have to deal with aging infrastructure, higher taxes and now bear the responsibility of maintaining alleyways, sidewalks and curbs or bringing their 100 year old homes into code compliance of new home standards.

Quality of life means a lot of things. It involves almost everything that influences a neighborhood from government regulations and ordinances, variety of housing stock, ratio of rental property to home ownership, household incomes, type of schools, cultural diversity, park services, youth programs, leadership and resident accountability. If you don’t have the recipe – that can be a tough cake to bake.

Freshly painted bike lanes in Wichita, Kansas

New plants being installed during Arbor Day at Waterway Park in Kansas City, Kansas

Unfortunately, there isn’t a recipe that fits every neighborhood or maybe any neighborhood. You can have meetings and sounding sessions that may help exposure the most pressing issues, concerns or trends but any long term solutions come from neighbors getting to know one another. Developing lines of communication and trust with government, civic organizations and surrounding neighborhoods. It comes from creating a common sense of purpose about why we live here and why it is important that we learn to work together toward common goals. Its about believing in who we are and that what we do matters. 

Creating those gathering places is the first step in moving those types of conversations from small groups on our front porches to engaging the greater community. Sharing our ideas and cultures. Developing trust and friendships. Working on projects together, engaging our youth and our government and finding ways we can work together to make our communities better.

Community Leadership Institute Success: the Sabor Del Northside Community Festival

By Sara Varela 
NeighborWorks America
Community Building and Organizing
communications specialist

This entry is reposted from the Leaders for Community blog: http://ow.ly/cFdyb

The NeighborWorks America Community Leadership Institute (CLI) is coming up in October, an event where local leaders from throughout the country gather together to learn how to better serve their communities. I have been generating excitement online using a Facebook group and this week I decided to read through the outcomes tagged as CLI projects to share success stories with the group. CLI outcomes are one of my favorite topics to read about, because the ideas for the projects are generated by a team of resident volunteers who attend this national event, and then go home full of energy and make positive changes in their communities. It is resident empowerment at its best.  Avenue Community Development Corporation (Avenue CDC) in Houston, Texas submitted this text and photos. This story is great because it shows what can be accomplished when residents who care partner with organizations that are ready to support them.
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“Schools, businesses, artists, community organizations, and residents came together at “Sabor Del Northside” to celebrate the great things in the Northside. What began as a brainstorm from eight resident leaders became reality as more than 1,000 people flocked to Ketelsen Elementary for this vibrant community festival.

Image courtesy of Avenue CDC and Epic Shots Photography

Even before the festival day, the “Sabor Del Northside” planning committee considered the event a success, because the planning process truly brought the community together. More than 50 organizations and businesses signed up to have booths at the festival to showcase their work. Project GRAD hosted a student art show on the next block. Local bands signed up to play, and cheerleaders and dance groups eagerly asked to perform. Parent-teacher organizations sold tacos and drinks to support their schools. Lindale Civic Club brought out children’s games and prizes. Marshall Middle School created elaborate decorations. It seemed that the idea of a festival, located in the heart of the neighborhood, sparked the collective imagination of the community.

Image courtesy of Avenue CDC and Epic Shots Photography

At the festival, it was clear that there is so much to celebrate in the Northside. The festival was also the groundbreaking for the new Ketelsen SPARK Park, a beautiful new community playground and park that will be built this summer.

The festival was funded by a $2,000 NeighborWorks America CLI grant, and including volunteer hours and in-kind donations, leveraged more than $43,000 in resources.”
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For additional photos from the Northside neighborhood and the great work they are doing visit their Facebook Page. To stay in touch with Sara Varela, you can use @SaraVarelaCBO on Twitter.

Environmental Justice and Community Education at NOAH

By Sara Varela 
NeighborWorks America
Community Building and Organizing
communications specialist

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH) in East Boston, MA. The visit was part of a Community Building and Organizing Peer to Peer connection, a program we run to encourage our network members to visit and learn from each other. I was there as an observer. The visiting organization was San Juan Neighborhood Housing Services (San Juan NHS) from Puerto Rico. It was wonderful to meet and reconnect with the staff from both organizations

The agenda was so packed with content that, in one day, I learned more than I ever thought possible. We started our day with an interactive process where Kim Foltz, director of Community Building and Environment demonstrated how to engage a group using popular education techniques.

Members of the Chelsea Creek Action Group Youth crew
helped residents of all ages build new raised-bed gardens,
increasing access to affordable, healthy food in East Boston.

Popular education is a process which aims to empower people who feel marginalized socially and politically to take control of their own learning and to effect social change. Popular education indicates a collective effort in which a high degree of participation is expected from everybody. It was great to learn about this training tool as we actually saw it in action. Then Kim went on to engage the group in talking about environmental justice.

According to the EPA, environmental justice is “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” NOAH, takes this to heart. Their website states: "Community Building and Environment Department (CBE) works with community members to improve the environment, enhance the quality of life, and develop the leadership skills of residents in East Boston and beyond."

Staff from NOAH and San Juan NHS work together in a
hands-on activity prior to visiting the local neighborhood.

As I participated in this interactive session I couldn’t help thinking I was lucky to work in a place where I get to learn about these concepts, meet people who work making our world a better place, and see the results first hand.

Our morning sessions were followed by a walk around the neighborhood and lunch in a local restaurant. After lunch we had a tour of the different places where NOAH engages community residents and youth. This organization really puts the concept of popular education and environmental justice to work; they engage residents to identify and become part of the solution for their environmental topics. We met a youth leader who encourages youth and neighborhood children to engage in the local community garden, and involves children in summer activities; we visited the Chelsea Creek, and learned about the community’s effort to improve environmental conditions in this part of the neighborhood, and we learned about all the great youth activities this organization supports.

It was an excellent day to be outside, visiting the neighborhood and seeing how a group from East Boston exchanges ideas with a group from Puerto Rico. And, as if that weren’t enough, the whole day was ran in Spanish! The staffs at NOAH are bilingual, and bicultural and excellent at their job of engaging people.

I am a fan of social media and online tools, but there is nothing better than meeting the people I work with in person. Three cheers for the community building and organizing peer to peer visits! Read about them or share your stories via Twitter @SaraVarelaCBO #peertopeer.