Advancement of Civic Engagement by Community Foundations in Low Income African American Communities

When a neighborhood is gentrified it will not only change the image of it, but also the services available there (Al-Kodmany 2011, 62-63). In other words, gentrification does not only have an impact on the physical aspect of the land, but also the resources that lie there. During the 90s, the Near West Side neighborhood located near Loop, an up-scale neighborhood, sought drastic changes within the area. The changes in racial demographics in the Near West Side indicated that the health risks that affected minorities dropped in the past decade (1992-2002) (Al-Kodmany 2011,

When discussing how exposure to community policing can affect low economic neighborhoods, one must ask what is community policing? Miller, Hess, and Orthmann (2014) stated, it is a philosophy or orientation that emphasizes working proactively with citizens to reduce fear, solve crime-related problems, and prevent crime. Community policing can be a positive change in the community and for the law enforcement personnel that serves the community. An important concept to always remember is that the police are the community, and the community are the police (Miller et al., 2014). To successfully integrate this into police departments, we must examine several factors that have made police departments what they are today, what are ways to implement this new form of policing without resistance from law enforcement and citizens, and how community policing can affect the community and the work of law enforcement in the long run.

Despite increased diversity across the country, America’s neighborhoods remain highly segregated along racial and ethnic lines. Residential segregation, particularly between African-Americans and whites, persists in metropolitan areas where minorities make up a large share of the population. This paper will examine residential segregation imposed upon African-Americans and the enormous costs it bears. Furthermore, the role of government will be discussed as having an important role in carrying out efforts towards residential desegregation. By developing an understanding of residential segregation and its destructive effects, parallels may be drawn between efforts aimed at combating

Mission The mission of Hyde Square Task Force is to develop the skills of youth and their families so they are empowered to enhance their own lives and build a strong and vibrant urban community. Hyde Square Task Force’s programs and civic engagement activities are developed by youth and residents in response to community needs. Youth are at the heart of all our work. We believe that social change is most successful when young people develop the skills to succeed and become committed change-makers. Since its founding, Hyde Square Task Force has developed ongoing programs for youth and families that not only help them advance at school and in careers, but also give them opportunities to take pride and action in their communities. Hyde Square Task Force was founded in the late 1980s as a neighborhood effort to

Some may object that the changes occurring in Newark are signs of gentrification, and not revitalization. Gentrification is merely the act of changing the society and sometimes even displacing residents, resulting in isolation and depression. The reason why some people believe that gentrification is taking place in Newark is because of the racial tension. In the article A Revival in Newark, but some worry it ‘Not For Us’, it is written that “ Newark’s new chapter also has a racial tinge: The city has been dominated by its large African-American population after decades of white residents leaving for the suburbs, but many of the people drawn by the city’s resurgence are white.” Although most of Newark is populated by African-Americans, many whites are appealed by our city’s renewal by making our community better. This statement may include how different races/ethnicities are attracted to Newark, but it doesn’t mention how families get isolated because of the changes in the society. Because of this important detail, it makes a clear difference that Newark is going through revitalization. Because of the fine line between, revitalization and

We decided to focus our community assessment in Dallas County (see Appendix C for the community map) because poverty in this area is a rising epidemic. According to Mayor Mike Rawlings, “the gap between the haves and the have-nots is still too wide, we must close the gap”. Dallas is home to a variety of races and ethnicities, but it is the Hispanic and the African Americans that poverty has effected the most with the rate increasing by 42% over a span of 15 years (Dallas City Hall, September 7, 2016). Our focus was more on South Central and Southeast Dallas spanning across Districts 5, 7, and 8 because of the significant increase in poverty in these areas. In Dallas, “almost 1 in 3 Hispanics and African Americans

Charity Productions in partnership with the College of Architecture’s Texas Target Communities Program at Texas A&M University have collaborated together to develop a set of solutions in response to the pre-existing neighborhood conditions throughout Harris County in Houston, Texas. The conditions of these particular neighborhoods have created a pattern of disparities throughout Harris County to be recognized as constraints to residents in impeding their ability to become affluent members of society. Texas Target Communities and Charity Productions have taken a step further to not only provide an analysis of evidence for these disparities but to identify the assets present in these communities to formulate feasible and cost effective solutions.

When evaluating urban renewal projects, Professor Steven Cord found that “By far most of the housing destroyed was low cost housing,” (184). The statistics in Kelo also showed that 56 percent of nonwhites and 38 percent of whites displaced by urban renewal were qualified to receive public housing due to their low incomes. Further, the destruction of housing forces individuals to seek relocation housing. Relocation housing is not guaranteed to be readily available or to be superior to the housing destroyed (Cord 185). Eminent domain has broken up neighborhoods and forced out longtime residents (Cord 184).

I have seen many changes growing up in Prince Georges County (PG), a minority-dominated county in Maryland. The government has spent a massive amount of money to revitalize the county. This includes the $250.5 million transformation of Jack Kent Cooke Stadium (now FedEx Field) and the massive $2 billion National Harbor project in Oxon Hill, MD[i]. There are rumors the county plans to rename the crime-infested city of Landover, where I currently live, to Hyattsville, a neighboring city, predicting that this will ease the bad repetition of this area. However, these renovations and changes are only temporary solutions since they are only masking the problems that put my home county deeper in

This is not the first generation of African Americans to contend with single-parent households, poverty, racism, violent streets, or underfunded

I have spent copious amounts of time in communities stricken with low socioeconomic statuses, less fortunate than the usual neighborhoods I see in Pikesville. The experiences has engrained a strong moral compass into me, leading me to have a solid goal; of beautifying and bettering areas of destitute.

According to Streets of Hope, it was difficult to get human service organizations involved in the initial planning process of rebuilding the neighborhood in 1987 as the DSNI was looking for cooperation in getting demographic data. I would rate the responsiveness of the agencies as a 3/7 especially during the initial neighborhood planning. Often these organizations were stressed and underfunded. Many did not show up for the orientation. Of the 51 identified as being able to serve the community, only half showed up. Many were more concerned on whom they were receiving funding from and did not have the will to participate in the process. They used their resources to focus on serving their clientele not to participate in this initiative. Also, it was difficult to incorporate these separate agencies as some had different outlooks on community organizing and empowerment. According to the book, some may have thought that having a bottom up community building process where the residents were in charge would be a direct challenge to the way these organizations operate.. In 1990, the DSNI formed an agency collaborative to work involve them in the neighborhood initiative. Many of the smaller agencies were more apt to be a part of the process than the larger

City street lights mark the edges and corners of blocked off territory. Land labeled “ghetto” and “dangerous” translates to land that was ignored for the profit of the few. This land exists a short drive away from us, they are backyards to the neighborhoods we chose not to stray from. They are West Garfield Park, East St. Louis, Englewood, The Ville, and every impoverished community that suffered in isolation while those around watched. Our generation can be quick to judge the actions of oppressors or the lack of necessary change in our history, however a lot of these remarks can be made about today’s segregated neighborhoods. In cities such as St. Louis, where segregation is deep rooted and has allowed further issues to stem from such divisions, the voice of the community is often silenced by quick, misguided assumptions on such areas. These are not “bad neighborhoods” they are not populated by “bad people”, but are rather neglected portions of a city that has found it easier to accept these stereotypes than look beyond the superficial. We have the tools and knowledge to solidify that there is more to these neighborhoods than gangs or torn down houses, the question is now what do we do with them?

Community life and civic engagement are a huge responsibility of citizens, although it is not required by citizens, it is an important aspect of a proper citizen. Residents of a community have the constant responsibility of making the society around them reflect an advance in the eminence of lives in the community. The simple duty of any citizen is to give to the common good. Civic responsibilities are achieved by volunteering and choice. Volunteering, involving in positive organizations and aids, or tutoring people in certain subjects, are all ways that people can subsidize to the good of the community. Small deeds that seem to prosper someone in some way or the other is still a way of helping. To learn something from the assistance that one does to another, the deed does not have to be big, as long as the person providing the assistance is doing it with a good heart they can always acknowledge a lesson. Compassion and love is necessary in helping others. When people have the opportunity to help others they may not always get a gift in return, sometimes they may not even get a reply back. This is when the person has to realize that the purpose of helping someone is not for the thank you or the gift, but is for the satisfaction of their soul, betterment of the other, and the ability to learn a lesson. Assisting people needs to be done in a thoughtful and effective way for it to create a lasting impact on his/her self and on society itself.

Getting members of the community involved in governing and decision-making is important. Implementing programs like the participatory budgeting one found in at least one New York City council district. In such programs, a community's residents have access to a certain portion of the district's annual budget and through a series of neighborhood assemblies and public meetings over the course of several months, residents brainstorm ideas of projects that are needed in their neighborhoods. At the end of the process, the residents get to vote on the project proposals to choose which ones are most important to the community and the projects receiving the most votes get implemented (“What do you want in out neighborhood”). In programs like these, people in low-income, majority minority neighborhoods are able to be part of the decision-making process and projects that are important to them can get done. Though participation in participatory budgeting programs in U.S. municipalities has a lot of room for growth, it's things like this that can help mobilize minority groups and encourage participation in the local political