Connecting a University to a Distant Neighborhood

Abstract

The willingness on the part of university participants to listen attentively to community representatives is of great importance to successful collaborations. This article presents three phases of a university-community partnership between the Macedonia neighborhood in High Point, North Carolina, and the Center for the Study of Social Issues (CSSI) at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Although no professional network and neighborhood contacts were in place prior to this collaboration, the partnership addressed community needs by obtaining federal grant funding and by listening to the residents' concerns. Staff, students, and faculty overcame the challenges of inexperience and the difficulty of working with a neighborhood that was not located near the university. In various phases, the partnership moved away from a technical assistance approach to a self-help model. By actively engaging neighborhood residents through the Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC), a learning and adaptation process occurred that resulted in successful university-community collaboration.     

Addressing Barriers to University-Community Collaboration

Abstract

University-community partnerships, and COPC programs in particular, offer important opportunities for traditionally segregated groups to work together in collaborative relationships. The challenge of bringing people who possess distinct differences in background and social power together is a long-standing issue. Class, status, and organizational differences may impede collaboration. This article discusses the history of COPC as social policy and reviews an evaluation report of successful community-university partnerships. Drawing from the community organizing literature in sociology and social work, this article suggests community organizing methods that address structural obstacles to collaborative work. Especially in COPC programs characterized by multiple interactions, it is the community based organization (CBO) which has greatest facility to equalize the playing field between disparate groups. The role of community organizers in CBOs is to acknowledge and disrupt the structural inequalities inherent in these relationships. The community organizer must resist the role of expert or buffer between the community and university and instead strive toward authentic collaboration.     

Building community-engaged practicum units through anchor institutions: The case of Southside Initiative

ABSTRACT

This article provides the assessment results from a community-engaged field education unit for social work students situated within a neighborhood setting in the South-Central region of the United States. A community-university partnership between several community institutions and a school of social work created the Southside Initiative (SSI) as a means to build capacity within the Oaks neighborhood. This neighborhood lacked professional social workers but was rich in other types of assets. The lessons learned from this initiative provide preliminary understanding about the benefits, complexity, and challenges of building and sustaining community-rooted practicum placements in neighborhood settings.     

Clean and green organizing in urban neighborhoods: Measuring perceived and objective outcomes

ABSTRACT

One way in which urban community organizations attempt to improve neighborhood health is through cleaning and greening efforts. Few studies have evaluated how such efforts are related to changes in both residents’ perceptions of neighborhoods and objective community-wide cleaning and greening indicators over time. Drawing upon quantitative and qualitative data collected during an evaluation of a community-building initiative in two communities, results show how neighborhood changes in cleaning and greening were reflected in perceived and objective measures and how these measures compare across different time periods and sub-groups of residents within the two target communities. We provide suggestions for additional ways that future evaluations of urban cleaning and greening efforts can examine the impact.     

A Consumer Cooperative Association Specializing in Services for the Elderly

Summary

Over the past 10 years, a Japanese cooperative association named Fukushi Club Seikyo (FCS) has developed a unique, non-profit business specializing in services for the elderly. It aims to promote a reciprocal support system among neighborhood community members. FCS has successively organized its active members, mainly homemakers, into workers' collectives and successfully provided various life support services at a very small charge. Their human-touch service appears in sharp contrast to bureaucratic public services and profit-making private services. The civil initiative presented by FCS suggests a potential for a community-based social service system that may guarantee quality services without raising taxes and premiums for social insurance.     

Neighborhood Games as a Community-Building Strategy

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the use of neighborhood games and contests as an alternative approach to community building, and as a complement to traditional issue or interest organizing. It places these activities within the broader contexts of celebration and festivity, noting the relative lack of such events within modern American secular culture. The planning, implementation, and results of two neighborhood-wide games and contests are then described, as carried out in a representative suburban neighborhood. Though full and accurate evaluation is challenging, the community-building promise of these activities is documented. The prospects for future development and use of similar community events are then considered.     

Building Skills for Civic Engagement: Children as Agents of Neighborhood Change

ABSTRACT

This study examines civic engagement and social development in children (N = 73) from public housing neighborhoods. Much of the research on civic engagement and social development focuses on youths and college students and the influence of participation in community service. This study addresses younger children in the process of social development and acquiring the seeds for civic engagement. Participants (X age = 9.25 years) learned to observe, photograph, and assess neighborhood strengths and challenges. They engaged in democratic processes to compile findings and present them to community members. Results indicate statistically significant changes in civic engagement and social development. Qualitative findings expand on these quantitative results. Implications for community practice and research are discussed.     

Community Revitalization in Post-Katrina New Orleans: A Critical Analysis of Social Capital in an African American Neighborhood

ABSTRACT

This research explored the role of social capital, particularly civic engagement and social trust, in community revitalization efforts in a primarily African American post-Katrina neighborhood (n?=?153). Findings reveal high levels of participation in neighborhood and political activities but low levels of social trust. Eighty-four percent of this primarily African American sample reported that they do not trust people of other races as compared to 23 to 32% of African American respondents in the national study. Drawing from critical theoretical perspectives, we offer a critique of the limits of social capital theory as well as a discussion of the importance of building social and racial trust as central components of community development practice. Implications include emphasizing organizational capacity-building activities, community organizing training, and racial reconciliation efforts in post-disaster environments.     

Fostering Neighborhood Involvement in Workforce Development

ABSTRACT

One of the challenges in welfare reform implementation is to provide neighborhood outreach and assistance to unemployed individuals. This case study tells the story of three neighborhoods as they implemented a public-private neighborhood jobs pilot initiative (NJPI). The Rockefeller Foundation, in partnership with Alameda County Social Services Agency, supplied seed money for the NJPI to develop “one-stop” employment resource centers. The article describes how the neighborhoods implemented the NJPI, as well as common strengths and challenges, and lessons learned from the NJPI experience.     

The Role of Housing in Community Health Promotion Among the Aged

Abstract

A total of 89 aged residents living independently in single and double occupancy housing in an historic, traditionally planned neighborhood in New Orleans were surveyed with respect to their engagement in the outdoor realm in their immediate neighborhood. An index was developed, comprised of variables spanning the scale of the private dwelling to neighborhood scale. Certain dwelling attributes, health status factors, lifestyle factors, and neighborhood factors were found to be associated with a disinclination to walk outdoors in the community. Among the findings, improperly designed porches and insufficient semi-private exterior space adjacent to the dwelling function as strong deterrents to health-promoting walking activity outdoors, closely followed by fear associated with being victimized by crime in one's immediate neighborhood. Such conditions were found to pose a barrier to full engagement with the community in what on the surface would otherwise appear to be an imminently pedestrian-scaled residential setting. Study limitations, and directions for future research within the environmental design disciplines are discussed for both historic neighborhood settings and in new development.     

Urban Community Action Planning Inspires Teenagers to Transform Their Community and Their Identity

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the way a participatory community development technique, Urban Community Action Planning (UCAP), transformed a group of city teenagers into community planners. This teen group, Teen Inspirators, On the Move, formed in response to a community need for more youth activities and programming. This need was identified during a Community Planning Initiative sponsored by the Oak Hill Community Development Corporation located in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Teen Inspirators committed themselves to revitalizing their community and changing their own image in the neighborhood. Participatory planning techniques gave youth the voice, power, and tools to accomplish these goals.     

建设“睦邻点” 探索社区建设新思路——以上海市嘉定区嘉定镇街道为例

社区建设是构建和谐社会的重要基石,是加强和创新社会管理的重要支柱。在如何提升广大社区居民参与社区的积极性和主动性方面,上海市嘉定区嘉定镇街道以"社区居民有效自组织、构建新型邻里关系"作为落脚点与着眼点、通过"睦邻点"建设,有力破解当前社区发展的深层次困境,为上海乃至全国社区发展提供新思路。     

The school community council: creating an environment for student success

A model of community-school partnerships is developing within a school district in Evansville, Indiana. Based on a full-service community school philosophy, the model started in one elementary school in the Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation and has expanded into a districtwide initiative called the School Community Council. The council is made up of over seventy community organizations and social service agencies working together to establish full-service schools as places of community and to enhance youth and family development.     

University Civic Engagement with Community-Based Organizations

Abstract

This article compares and contrasts two case studies of large research universities involved in civic engagement projects with urban nonprofit community-based organizations and neighborhood associations. The article uses a community building framework in which organizational, interorganizational, and community-level features are examined. The study found that each university used a different approach through which to achieve a university-community partnership. A dispersed model favored an entrepreneurial approach for individual faculty and student involvement, while the coordinated model requested faculty and students from different departments to work together toward a community-driven goal. The extent to which these different models of civic engagement delivered what community organizations wanted was based on five factors: (1) the university's geographic proximity to a tar get low-income neighborhood, (2) leadership for institutional social commitment, (3) use of community-based research, (4) funding as a social strategy, and (5) a flexible curriculum. Challenges faced by faculty, students, and practitioners are addressed, and directions for future research are suggested.     

The Contribution of Law and Social Work to Interdisciplinary Community Development and Peace Building in the Middle East

SUMMARY

Reducing inequity and strengthening civil society are both intrinsically related to peace building. This article outlines how social work and legal theory, coupled with an interdisciplinary practice framework, advance the development of community networks for the promotion of social rights as a medium for peace building in the Middle East. The combined effect of human rights advocacy, civic engagement, and the structuring and building of community, work to reduce inequality and promote civil society. Examples of interdisciplinary practice as implemented through the initiative of the McGill Middle East Program in Civil Society and Peace Building are presented. Finally, implications for interdisciplinary training for schools of social work are discussed.     

Latinos Participating in Multiethnic Coalitions to Prevent Substance Abuse

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of a neighborhood based coalition formed by two major participants, a neighborhood association formed by white and older neighbors and a school based parents association formed by younger Latino neighbors. Differences in their communication and organizational sales emerged after an external agency brought them together to form a substance abuse prevention coalition. This paper explores emerging themes as two different communities attempt to organize around shared community concerns. Challenges and guidelines for developing multiethnic urban coalitions are also provided.     

Neighborhood Conditions,Parenting, and Adolescent Functioning

ABSTRACT

This study examined youth self-reported data from a 4-year longitudinal study of 5th and 8th grade youth and their parents. Relationships between neighborhood conditions, parenting, and youth antisocial behavior were tested using structural equation modeling. The findings of this study appear to suggest there are two social forces that affect youth antisocial behavior: parenting and neighborhood conditions. Higher levels of parental acceptance and monitoring are directly and significantly associated with lower levels of youth antisocial behavior, as are higher levels of community social integration and lower levels of youth loneliness. Overall, it was found that some measures of neighborhood conditions and some measures of parenting were relatively equally predictive of youth antisocial behavior. Other measures of neighborhood conditions were predictive of parenting, but not strongly enough to also impact adolescent functioning.     

Do work commutes moderate the association between perceived neighborhood disorder and psychological distress?

ABSTRACT

Although numerous studies show that living in a neighborhood that is characterized by disorder (crime and dilapidation) can be psychologically distressing, very few studies have considered the element of exposure time or duration of exposure to adverse neighborhood environments. In this paper, we explore the intersection of commuting, mental health, and the subjective experience of neighborhood disadvantage and impoverished community life. Using data from the Welfare, Children, and Families project (2001), a probability sample of 1057 low-income women with children living in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, we test whether the association between neighborhood disorder and psychological distress is moderated or attenuated by commuting time and distance. Our results show that although neighborhood disorder is associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, and somatization, disorder tends to be less distressing for residents who are able to spend time away from these environments through longer commuting times and distances. In other words, working away from one’s neighborhood of residence may help to mitigate the adverse psychological consequences of neighborhood disorder. Our findings support previous research on the stress process and neighborhood disorder. Our work builds on the commuting literature by re-conceptualizing commuting time and distance as protective resources for disadvantaged populations.     

When Bourgeois Utopias Meet Gentrification: Community and Diversity in a New Urbanist Neighborhood*

Abstract

Scholars have recently begun to explore how social and politically liberal gentrifiers make sense of the classed and racial inequalities linked to gentrification. In this article I ask how residents of one new urbanist “bourgeois utopia”—the Mueller Development in Austin, Texas—experience and give meaning to their neighborhood in a context of gentrification. Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews I explain how new urbanism has reimagined and marketed “diversity” and “community” to middle-class and wealthy consumers and provides these to affluent people as neighborhood amenities. I show how residents draw on diversity ideology and multicultural capital to neutralize what they see as their neighborhood’s role in gentrification. In doing so this article adds to our theoretical understanding of how contemporary urban development exploits pursuits for the social good as rhetorical tools to assuage privileged guilt while promoting profitable enterprises.