Community Leadership Development University Partnership Learning through Community University of Maryland Baltimore HUD/COPC New Directions Grant Randa Deacon, MSW Glenn L. Ross, Community Advocate

Key Concepts Key Concepts  Community must play a key role in defining  Skills, energies and resources exist within the community  Coordination will increase impact  New alliances will continue after the project itself has ended

Realities of the Community  Few associations and organizations in which residents are connected to one another  Breakdown of trust, optimism and supportive community among residents  Economic development that presses on the neighborhood making residents vulnerable to external market pressures  Failure of institutions to involve residents in problem solving

Goals of Leadership Development  Enhance neighborhood organizing and leadership skills of residents  Assure that organization has capacity to lead and continue the work  Develop skills that encourage participation, facilitate consensus building, share responsibility, identify new leaders and enable groups to work together to achieve their goals.  Connect people with others inside the neighborhood around issues that they care about and that they think will improve the quality of life there

Our work  Organizing citizen involvement  Outreach  Develop coalition  Develop community plans

Strategies Used  Workshops  Dialogues  Training  Working with groups –provide needed resources

Results  Leaders from CARE and McElderry Park held their own joint community meeting to allow residents to discuss the process and to prepare for participation in the upcoming meetings.  A core group of people (leaders and residents) have become involved with learning a great deal about community planning, advocacy (for preserving affordable housing) and policy (what the city can do to help and hinder)  Many residents have become involved with a larger affordable housing group and as a result have had the opportunity to meet and discuss the issues and challenges with developers and people more active and knowledgeable  Concerns raised at a CARE community meeting resulted in a slow down in the planning process which has given residents more opportunity to talk about their concerns  AECF sent a contingency to Birmingham to meet with neighborhood leaders who were involved in similar plans. This has expanded their view and positioned them as advisors/ambassadors.

Evaluation: Challenges Noted  Not everyone wants to be a leader  there are different levels of involvement:  Participation  Group leadership  Community leadership  Recovery and revitalization in a community when connection is broken between the vision, the plan, the citizen organizing and engagement

McElderry Park LeadershipTraining Activities

Planting the Seed Neighborhood background Partnering with AECF, SWCOS, & Banner Neighborhoods Comfort level, funding & technical assistance Survey report changed focus for dealing with community concerns

McElderry Park Community Concerns

Nurturing Group meetings Work groups created Projects – direct & indirect results Residents groomed for future leadership

Actions speak louder than words Personality Profiles Training Topics Family Skills Conflict Resolution Leadership Communication Feedback

trainings helped them to identify their strengths a unique bonding experience Lessons Learned By The Leadership how to delegate comfort level – leader vs. advocate By Community Residents

Potential leaders were identified Resident participation in community activities increased Results - 1 Resident self-motivation increased (I.e. writing proposals, resulting in grant funding) Residents became involved with other community-based stakeholders. Communication & feedback within the community increased

Results - 2 McElderry Park residents became more involved in: community association programs and projects Developing a Tench Tilghman safety team community after school programs – Banner Neighborhoods the Southeast Stakeholders’ Coalition community newsletter/newspaper community development projects

We Thrive & Prosper!

Bringing the “Unity” back into “Community”