COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY BUILDING
By Bill Brooks

The concept of “community organizers” is one that is often left out of the community-building formula, said Anita Miller, a veteran of the world of community redevelopment through her role in the renaissance of the South Bronx, N.Y.

“It’s a job that needs doing,” said Miller, keynote speaker for “Vision for Comprehensive Community Building,” the most recent community forum staged by the Indianapolis Community Development Strategy Group.

“People need to engage their neighborhoods, or else you’re not going to overcome the lethargy,” Miller continued, noting that community development corporations “don’t have the capacity to get out there and engage the community.”

Her thoughts were echoed by Christie Gillespie, who played a key role in the formation of the Community Alliance of the Far Eastside.

“We never acknowledge the need for organizers,” said Gillespie, now the executive director of the Indiana Association of Community Economic Development. “And it is a job that never stops.”

The April 11 forum was a continuation of the Community Development Summit that attracted over 400 people to the Indiana Government Center South in October 2004. The initiative has developed into an action-based process to create healthier neighborhoods, steered by the Community Development Strategy Group and co-chaired by the Mayor’s Office and the Indianapolis Coalition for Neighborhood Development.

Miller, who was program director for the South Bronx’s Comprehensive Community Revitalization Program, said that highly successful effort was keyed when CDCs – which had done a good job creating affordable housing in a blighted area – were induced to take the next step in a more comprehensive program.

“Those neighborhoods came alive because residents in those neighborhoods became involved in the efforts,” Miller said, noting that the effort involved residents at every level along the way. “It was their program, and that make a big difference.”

The result, she said, was the creation of what the neighborhoods had lost along the way – churches, health care, parks, schools, jobs.

Miller was joined in the program by Lynn Cunningham, who for the past 22 years has led the Southeast Chicago Development Commission to some remarkable successes. Her organization doesn’t fit the main CDC profile, since it doesn’t do housing at all.

“We concentrate on economic development,” she said, noting that housing is vital, but so are quality of life issues. With other agencies doing the rehabilitation and new housing work, she said, “We want to make sure people still want to live here.”

Jennifer Green, project manager for Fall Creek Place, brought an Indianapolis perspective to the mix as she outlined the steps that led to the tremendous success of the near-northside housing project. She, too, noted that citizen input was critical to the process.

She said when the project began, only 90 homeowners were left in the 26-block blighted area. “It was important to us that they were heard,” she said. “We have created a diverse neighborhood – and the 90 original residents are still there, very excited about their new neighborhood.”

Gillespie, who worked on the city’s far eastside in the late 1990s, said stakeholders there benefited from creative and flexible funding approaches, as well as from cooperation with city officials.

She also said “neighborhood readiness” was critical to the success. “The key group was committed to real inclusiveness,” Gillespie said. “They never confused their group with being the neighborhood. They were very clear about what their role was and who they were.”

The Indianapolis Community Strategy Group will continue is forum series in June with “Development Successful Community Initiatives” and in September with “Building Neighborhood Leadership.”