NextGenCD: Imagery as Identity

 In honor of the upcoming NeighborWorks America Young Professionals symposium, we have collected several blog posts from those under 35 asking their feelings on the meaning of community development. Share your comments on Twitter using #NextGenCD.
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Reneé Bibby,
marketing coordinator,
Primavera Foundation

About six years ago I had a strange experience: I was watching a reality TV show, when I discovered that one of the contestants, a young woman of mixed heritage, resembled me. My ethnic heritage is an uncommon mix, and my racial ambiguity has forced me to engage in dialogues surrounding race on a rather regular basis. But, while I’d studied issues of race in college, my emotional connection to the issue had been rather micro; I thought mainly of race in relation to my day-to-day interactions with other people. Discovering a person on TV who had skin color like me, who had the same texture of hair as me, created powerful exhilaration and pride. Seeing myself reflected—even for the briefest moment—in the media prompted a personal and professional revolution, which directly affects my work with Primavera Foundation’s community development services.

As the marketing coordinator, I complete all the photography and design work for our organization, which means I also work with the communities that partner with Primavera Foundation to build healthy, thriving neighborhoods. I am in a unique position to serve as conduit for the families, the individuals, and the community as a whole to become bright beacons in a dark media landscape.I make it my personal mission to meet with our participants, to hear their stories, photograph them, and provide a forum to share that with a wider audience.

First time Hispanic single female homebuyer helped by Primavera photo courtesy of Primavera Foundation

Tohono O'odham homeowner in south Tuscon photo courtesy of Primavera Foundation

It means something for people to see their imprint in the world. I’ve experienced that personally, so I understand what it means when we create those opportunities into our community development work.  I choose to use photographs, stories, design, and language that reflect who they are, and who they want to be—allowing the communities to have creative ways of saying, “We are here. We exist.” So that, hopefully, in the years to come, a young woman of color can look at into the wider world and say, “I see myself here.” And that won’t be a rare moment for her.

NextGenCD: Evolving Definitions

In honor of the upcoming NeighborWorks America Young Professionals symposium, we have collected several blog posts from those under 35 asking their feelings on the meaning of community development. Share your comments on Twitter using #NextGenCD.
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Dani Rosen, NeighborWorks America
community scholar intern
NFMC Quality Control and Compliance

At each stage of my academic and professional life, “community development" has emerged as a different issue, program, or agenda. My interest in community development started at the local level – while I was working as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in Hudson County, New Jersey. While there, I saw community development as an effort to increase access to resources for families and individuals in need. This definition broadened while I studied as a Master of Urban Planning student at New York University (NYU). In the classroom, I learned about community development as neighborhood organizing. For example, the way Jane Jacobs fought to preserve the local character of homes and shops in Greenwich Village, New York.

Unfortunately though, I also came to understand that in many areas the phrase "community development" is used as a disguise for potentially unwanted change in a community in transition. Developers and city officials use the term to smooth over the introduction of out-of-context buildings or large commercial developments that could alter the nature of a specific neighborhood.

I currently understand community development as an investment in a specific area. The investment can be financial, political, or social and the area specified can be a block, a neighborhood, or a metro-area. With the right motives and support community development can make a substantial impact.  The strength of community development can best be seen in the depth and breadth of projects and programs available.

Image courtesy of Creative Commons

Community gardens are a great example of what community development can achieve at the local level. Community gardens have become incredibly popular in urban areas in the past few years. They come in all shapes and sizes and bring many different advantages to an area. Community gardens are social and financial investments that provide both education and opportunity for social interactions. They provide fresh produce, often to those who lack other access to fruits and vegetables. They also reinforce the connection to local land as residents work to transform patches of dirt into small, but beautiful natural spaces.

At the state level, community development has the potential to benefit a much larger audience. NJ After 3 is an initiative to provide quality after school programming for school-aged children in New Jersey.  The program goals include reducing gang involvement and increasing scholastic enrichment so that all members of the community have the opportunity for a better future. NJ After 3, and similar programs, fill a gap by giving working parents more structured time for their children when parents cannot be at home.

There are countless additional examples of community development addressing other issues at multiple levels of focus.  The value of each program rests in the benefits that are brought to the individuals and families involved.  Community development has the potential to be a “catch all” phrase but I think that is one of the most important strengths of the field. Because community development includes many different types of investments in a range of geographic sizes, successes are magnified and can be celebrated by the entire field.

Rebuilding Market Demand: The Neighborhood Marketing Program

By Ascala Sisk, senior manager,
Neighborhood Stabilization
NeighborWorks America

In recent years NeighborWorks has launched a number of initiatives to respond to the impact foreclosed and vacant properties have on families and communities.  Now we are pleased to add another tool to the foreclosure response and community stabilization toolbox. Last week, NeighborWorks America’s Stable Communities Initiative publicly launched the Neighborhood Marketing Program, a new initiative to stabilize communities by helping to restore stakeholder confidence and build market demand.

We started this program understanding efforts to stabilize communities need to do more than restore housing. To build strong communities, the case needs to be made for investment, both by current and by future residents and businesses. For that reason, we are supporting a group of high capacity organizations that have made significant neighborhood investments with additional tools and funding to work with resident leaders to reframe the image of their community, improve stakeholder perceptions and build market demand. 

Sixteen organizations in the NeighborWorks Network were competitively selected to participate in the 2012-2013 pilot program.These organizations will receive approximately $50,000 in grants and technical assistance to create neighborhood marketing and branding campaigns. Over the next several months, all of the recipients of the Neighborhood Marketing Initiative grants will begin working with residents, stakeholders and marketing coaches to develop plans to move their communities forward.  

At NeighborWorks, we see the Neighborhood Marketing Initiative as a natural extension of our existing leadership in helping residents, local nonprofits, and other businesses respond to the foreclosure crisis and build strong communities. As part of that, CEO Eileen Fitzgerald, pledged the Neighborhood Marketing Program as the NeighborWorks America commitment to action at the recent Clinton Global Initiative America. With this public commitment, we hope to engage more partners in supporting this and similar neighborhood-based recovery efforts.

Check out www.StableCommunities.org/marketing for more on the program and updates on how things are going. You can also download our new case studies report here.

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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.

NextGenCD: Valuing Mentors

In honor of the upcoming NeighborWorks America Young Professionals symposium, we have collected several blog posts from those under 35 asking their feelings on the meaning of community development. This first post is a variation on that theme.  Share your comments on Twitter using #NextGenCD.
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Kate Titford, NeighborWorks
America, General Counsel

When I was first asked to blog on “What Community Development Means to Me,” I spaced out for a few minutes — not unlike the kid in A Christmas Story after he is assigned the theme “What I Want for Christmas.”  And as I reflected on a career that has held at least as much excitement and joy as a Red Rider BB Gun, it was the faces that stuck out to me more than the accomplishments.  So I am exerting some editorial liberty and assigning myself the more relevant theme:  “What my Community Development Mentors Have Meant to Me.”

Marcea, my boss at that first job, broke me into office life and introduced me to the different moving parts of the community development scene.  When the going got tough at the national housing intermediary where we worked, Marcea encouraged me step up to the plate on challenging new projects that stretched me professionally and cultivated my passion for this work.  I laugh to think about my early days in the 9-to-5 world:  I was a spirited 22-year old who wouldn’t be caught dead in a suit. 

Marcea and Me

Some years later, when I was mired in a law school funk, another mentor — Brenda— scooped me up and helped me stay connected to local housing issues.  Her own career and activism were a constant reminder that my exile in law school would ultimately contribute to my work in community development.

I owe much of my happiness in my professional life to these mentors.  Their generosity of time and knowledge helped guide me through the critical junctures to where I am – who I am – now in community development.  They made an investment that will pay off for the entire field of community development.  As we descend on Cincinnati to discuss the opportunity of welcoming the next generation of leadership to community development, let’s pause and remember what mentors have meant to each of us in our careers.  Let’s pay tribute to those who helped each of us find our own special place in the field.  And —above all— let us recommit ourselves to mentoring the young professionals who will usher community development into its next era.