Community
Organizing
 Contact
Crystal Edwards at 610-372-8433 Ext 213 or
click here
The purpose of the Neighborhood Building Initiative is to improve
the physical and social conditions in the target neighborhoods.
While there are many special programs supporting home purchase
financing, there is little good accomplished by these programs if
the homes are in crime-ridden areas, or are surrounded by
environmental problems such as deteriorating playgrounds (or none),
trash piles or vacant buildings. Through this Initiative, NHS will
provide necessary resources to resident groups in those areas to
improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Sometimes it
will include ‘taking back’ the neighborhood from criminals; other
times it will entail cleaning up public and private areas from
trash; still others may need to concentrate on job development. In
most cases, all of the above will apply.
Neighborhood Housing Services of Reading’s Neighborhood Building
Initiative targets resident associations in Reading neighborhoods
that experience the worst of the above—Community Hope of the 6th
Ward, Dare 2 Care of the 15th Ward, and Southeast People Voices.
Over the next two years, we hope to expand that list to include the
five or six neighborhoods in the city hit hardest by blight and
disorder. Through this initiative, we hope to organize the residents
and help them recognize the assets they have within their
communities, and help coordinate resident-driven plans and projects
to make their neighborhoods stronger.
The goal of the Neighborhood Building Initiative is to increase
resident involvement in Neighborhood Associations in the
Initiative’s target areas, and to increase the involvement and
impact of the activities of those Associations. In most cases,
neighborhood associations in Reading in low-income areas lack three
things they need to be successful.
 1.
Resources.
Neighborhood
Associations in areas of Reading experiencing the most neighborhood
problems (Crime, Blight, Trash, Disorder, etc.) lack the means to
access financial assistance to stage successful neighborhood
improvement activities and outreach. They lack the resources to
apply for grants (grant writing experience, people with the
requisite skills and time, nonprofit status, etc), and their
neighborhoods are such that fundraising opportunities are limited.
2. Organization.
Resident
Groups in those areas also lack organizational structures to
coordinate successful activities and maintain an active membership.
The organizational and administrative burden invariably falls on one
or two individuals in the group, and success is impeded by burnout
and lack of follow-through.
3. Momentum.
Success breeds success in resident activities as in most other
things. A neighborhood group cannot sustain itself in the absence of
meaningful, successful activities. Once a group is able to move past
the barriers mentioned above, resident organization becomes like a
snowball falling down the mountain: speed, size and impact all
increase rapidly, and the struggle goes from ‘getting things moving’
to ‘staying on course.’
NHS’
Neighborhood Building Initiative provides the means for Resident
Groups and Neighborhood Associations to overcome these three
barriers to successful resident-driven neighborhood improvement
activities in several ways. The foremost of those is in the support
of NHS’ Director of Neighborhood Building (DNB). The DNB is a
nonprofit professional experienced in strategic community planning,
community organizing, grant writing and nonprofit administration.
His role is to work with resident groups in NHS’ target areas to
help those groups:
1) identify
neighborhood needs and resources
2) develop
strategies to improve resident involvement in the groups
3) develop
plans for and implement successful neighborhood improvement
activities
4) obtain
resources for the implementation of those activities.
Operation
Facelift
 Neighborhood
Housing Services of Reading’s annual Neighborhood Improvement
project, Operation FaceLift, is held each year in celebration of
National Homeownership Week. Operation FaceLift solicits volunteers
and contributions from the Berks County Community to improve the
environment and appearance in neighborhoods in the City of Reading.
NHS’ Neighborhood Building Department works with community
organizations and Neighborhood Associations to plan and carry out a
resident-driven, volunteer-based neighborhood improvement project
for a target area in Reading.
Operation
FaceLift Goals
-
Increase participation in area Neighborhood
Associations in the area by at least 25% over the next year.
-
Promote inter-Neighborhood Association cooperation.
-
Remove litter and trash from the target area
-
Improve the appearance of the target area by planting
flowers along its length.
-
Involve at least 500 volunteers.
-
Improve at least 50 homes.
-
Increase the visibility of Neighborhood Associations
in the community.
-
Obtain pledges from 200 residents to keep their homes
in a neat, trash-free condition.
-
Provide “momentum” for future successful community
activities.
-
Increase lines of communication between Neighborhood
Associations and community organizations and institutions (churches,
government, schools, nonprofit organizations, etc).
The primary
goal of this project is to improve resident involvement in the
community, particularly in regard to participation in the
Neighborhood Associations in the area. To that end, the event will
include regular and frequent opportunities for the Associations to
interact with the residents and volunteers and solicit their
participation in resident group activities and membership. |
