Community Assignment

It's amazing to me that, even though there are so many community organizations, each organization has its own structure, organization, mission, values, etc. Some are more similar than others, some couldn't be more different; however, all are working towards change in their given community in the best way they see fit. Three examples of these organizations are: The Pittsburgh Project, Oakland Planning and Development, and Pittsburgh UNITED.

With regards to structure, each has a Board of Directors; however, each has a different number and make-up. The Pittsburgh Project has the largest and most variety when it comes to their board members. There are 14 board members and their occupations vary from retired postal worker to the owner of a construction company to the executive director of the Pittsburgh Promise to teachers to financial analysts, just to name a few. They have 29 full-time staff that covers 4 departments (Homeowner Services, Youth Development, Operations, and Organizational) but they also hire about 50 college-age students in the summer for various departments and have a number of part-time staff, mainly working as after-school teachers with the Youth Development department. As far as volunteering, there are opportunities to do so by being a tutor, craftsman, community gardening, and homeowner care.  Oakland Planning and Development, on the other hand, has the smallest number of board members. Their board consists of 11 people, most of who reside in Oakland. Some have official titles, while others are simply residents of Oakland or surrounding areas. They have 10 staff, including: an Executive Director, Assistant Director, Community Organizer, an Assistant Director for Workforce and Strategy, a School 2 Career Program Director, Communications Manager, a Property Manager, a KICO Program Manager, an Office Manager, and a Program Manager. Each of their programs have additional staff. There are not particular volunteer opportunities listed on their website. Pittsburgh United has 13 board members, and like the Pittsburgh Project, they all come from many different organizations. Most of the organizations that they come from, however, are all advocacy organizations or organizations associated with policy change. There are only 4 staff, including: an Executive Director, a Campaign Director, Research Director, and Office Manager. They also do not have any volunteer opportunities listed on their website. Oakland Planning and Development and The Pittsburgh Project would be considered horizontal in its structure because they all compliment other organizations and have partnerships, whereas Pittsburgh UNITED is a part of a national national network, making it more vertical.

Much like structure, when it comes to mission, values, and issues, each focuses on different things. The Pittsburgh Project is a non-profit Christian community development organization. Their mission is to: "develop servant leaders and uphold the dignity of vulnerable homeowners." Its vision is "that Pittsburgh will be called a City of Truth, where once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets each with cane in hand because of age, and where the city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there (adapted from Zechariah 8:4-5)." They focus on programs that directly impact the people they are serving, like home repair for low-income and elderly people throughout the city of Pittsburgh and after school programs for Northside kids ages K-12. In the summer, they also run an urban farm, a community pool, and a cafe. With all of this being said, The Pittsburgh Project's community intervention style would be cultural, rather than systemic. Although they address the needs of the community, they do so by using resources and people found mainly within the community. 

Oakland Planning and Development has some similarities to the Pittsburgh Project with regards to its approach. Its mission states that "OPDC builds a better Oakland through job placement services, neighborhood preservation and investment programs, resident volunteer efforts, youth services and community engagement." They focus on connecting people and organizations with "diverse concerns and perspectives, based on shared goals arrived at through open dialogue and direct action." Their focus is to (as it says in their name) make a better Oakland. They also take more of a cultural approach to better Oakland through programs and different development coalitions. I see them as more of a broker- one that not only develops programs but also fosters relationships among different organizations and takes a broader approach to fulfilling its mission. They have programs that help people develop job skills and others to help them get connected to the workforce.

Finally, Pittsburgh UNITED is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Pittsburgh UNITED “strives to advance social and economic justice in the Pittsburgh region by working to ensure that working families and low and moderate-income communities are able to share in the prosperity that is generated by economic growth and development.” They go on to say that, “with our allies, we use innovative community organizing, research, advocacy and communications methods to further our goals for a just local economy.” Pittsburgh UNITED takes a much more systematic approach to community issues through advocacy, legislative reform, research, campaigns, education on issues, etc. They focus on legislative issues that plague, not just the city and/or neighborhood. The three major issues they focus on are: good government and responsible development, the environment, and fair economy. They are trying to make systemic changes in order to create a better community by researching, advocating, lobbying, and inviting others to join in on their campaigns.

All of these organizations are unique; yet, all are so wonderful. Each functions differently but yet wants to do what’s best for its constituents and create serious change.

Perception is Reality

This video has blown up all over facebook. At first, I wasn't going to watch it because I figured that it was just another mindless Facebook phenomena but the people that were posting it were people that were consistent in sharing thought-provoking things so I decided to take a look...

Suli starts off by repeating the phrase, "Education is the key" but then goes on to question what exactly qualifies as education and questions if it is what society says it is. He lists some "statistics" which mention some of the wealthiest people in our country like Oprah, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson, who don't happen to have a higher education degree. He questions what it means to be successful. He then mentions Jesus, Malcolm X, Mother Theresa, Beethoven, and others, and asks if any of those people were unsuccessful or uneducated. He says that education is about He goes on to say that, "If education is the ket then school is the lock." He talks about how it doesn't develop your mind, it simply teaches you to take a test. He says that, "education is about inspiring ones' mind, not filling ones head." He brings up that books cost more than your rent and the idea that you just go to class in order to sleep to catch up on the sleep you lost cramming for a test the night before, that you studied simply to memorize answers that keep you in the same box you check off.  He claims that he doesn't think school is evil, he simply wants you to reassess what you think of when you think of education. He says, "Redefine, how you view education. Understand its true meaning. Education is not just about regurgitating facts from a book on someone else’s opinion on a subject to pass an exam. Look at it, Picasso was educated in creating art; Shakespeare was educated in the art of word that was written. Colonel Harland Sanders was educated in the art of creating Kentucky Fried Chicken." He closes with talking about David Beckam and how after Suli watched him play and watched him calculate what it took to make a goal almost effortlessly. After watching Beckham play, he thought about how he needed to "reevaluate what it meant to be an educated man."

Now, I don't necessarily agree with everything that Suli had to say but I do agree with the idea that we have socialized our kids into believing that education can only happen in school, through testing and rigid curriculum, instead of encouraging the fostering of creativity and testing knowledge in a way that is more that regurgitating facts. It brings to the table the idea of social capital and its value, as discussed in McKnight & Block's "Abundant Community". In their book, they discuss what it means to have an abundant community and question whether or not society's idea of what a thriving community looks like is what an actual thriving community looks like. They question the systems that we've become dependent on and question whether or not those systems are necessary to have a thriving community. 

With all of this talk about perceptions, I couldn't help but wonder what this means for the Broken Windows Theory, which happens to highlight the idea of perception. It talks about how perception is extremely important and that sometimes it outweighs reality. Based off of these debates on perception, however, I wonder how reliable a theory based on perception is. The video questions what it means to be successful and educated, McKnight & Block questions what it means to be an abundant community, and Broken Windows Theory questions what feeling safe does to a community. When, at times, 'perception is reality', I wonder what that means for our communities and I wonder how my perceptions differ from theirs.

What do you think about perception? How do you think it affects your interactions with the community you're working with? Do you realize that you might be coming from different starting places?

For additional resources, check out:

The Socialization Process and Its Impact on Children and Learning for an in-depth look at the socialization process of children and the increased role education is playing in that.

Social Capital Research in order to get a better idea of social capital and the impact it makes on a persons life.

Letter from disgusted teacher: ‘I quit’ which is, in fact, a letter from a disgusted teacher, and explains what they believe teaching has come to and claims that teachers are no longer allowed to teach anything other than how to take a test.

Created Equal?

Because of my field placement, I have had to do a lot of research regarding education, and in particular, Pittsburgh Public Schools. Although there are a fair number of entities trying to remediate the situation, there are serious problems plaguing Pittsburgh Public Schools. Like I mentioned in an previous post, the city of Pittsburgh is not a stranger to racial disparities. There are large inequalities in income, education, and an overrepresentation of minority youth in the criminal justice system. 

With regards to education, not only is there a disparity of resources distributed among schools, condition of schools, and teacher quality, perhaps the most alarming of all is the racial achievement gap. Groups have sought to address the racial achievement gap in Pittsburgh for over 20 years. According to documents released by Pittsburgh Public Schools, “On August 24, 1992 a complaint against the School District of Pittsburgh was filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission charging the District violated sections of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act. The District and the Advocates for African American Students, the group that filed the claim, reached a Conciliation Agreement in September 2006” . That agreement led to the District’s reform agenda, “Excellence for All”. The “Equity: Getting to All” plan is a continuation of the original reform agenda and “sets specific goals for five years or eliminating racial disparities within seven years."

The following graphs show the 2011-2012 achievement gaps in PSSA scores, according to A+ Schools Report to the Community:

Image Credit: A+ Schools

Image Credit: A+ Schools

These graphs show the gap that exists statewide but also show where Pittsburgh falls in relation to the state’s gap. According to Pittsburgh Public, “While the disparity in both Reading and Mathematics has narrowed, it will take 40 years to eliminate achievement disparities in Mathematics and 34 years in Reading. While 2011 was our best year in accelerating achievement, it would still take us 24 years to eliminate achievement disparities." 

The disparities shown through this date correlate with the sentiments of Richard Thomas Ford in his article entitled: Why the Poor Stay Poor. In his article, Thomas explores the work of William Julius Wilson and his book: More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (Issues of Our Time). Wilson's book discusses that there are more than just culture, one also must recognize systemic disparities that keep poor blacks poor as well. He argues that you can't look solely at one or the other. Thomas describes Wilson as saying, "the legacy of racism and changes in the economy matter more than the culture of the ghetto." He rejects the Culture of Poverty and claims that there needs to be "an aggressive pubic policy response". 

I fully support the idea that there are systematic oppressions taking place that prevent people from getting out of poverty. I don't think all are created equal and I don't think that there is an equal playing ground. But what is policy without implementation? What is policy without a problem? What is shaping our "problems"? Who decides what's important and what's not? How do our perceptions and certainties shape our culture and our policies simultaneously?

...You tell me...

For resources in addition to those mentioned in this post, check out:

Culture of Poverty This blog gives you information on what the Culture of Poverty is, where it came from, its implications, and other useful information to better understand the theory.

Hosanna House is an organization that would be considered more of a human agency and focuses on cultural issues by assisting people with job development at individual levels, training people and helping to develop skills, and delivering services to people. Their mission is to: "provide opportunities that will empower families and individuals to discover, acknowledge and develop their maximum potential physically, spiritually and economically."

Pittsburgh United is an organization that would be considered more of a structural agency. It focuses on mostly policy issues, particularly having to do with the environment. They look at legislation and encourage government reform.

What's a house without foundation?

The last two weeks of my life have been extremely stressful. Multiple final papers and exams have left my brain jumbled and my living space reflects that. Laundry is not done, clothes are everywhere, dirty dishes have amounted, trash has accumulated, and home no longer feels like home, but simply a place to sleep. As I was thinking about my current state of mind and my correlating living space state, I think about the idea that, often, your environment is reflective of your mindset. And then I thought about the correlation between the appearance of neighborhoods and the mindsets of those who reside in them. Recently there was a study done through the University of Pennsylvania that showed that neighborhood cleanup showed an increase in perceived safety. The study discussed the idea that neighborhoods with more green space, that are kept up, reduced both stress and crime levels.

Image Credit: www.certaindoubt.net

This study coincides with Wilson and Kellig’s Broken Windows Theory which discusses the idea that, when referring to vandalism (although this theory has been generalized and applied to many different facets), maintaining good conditions and being a presence in urban environments may stop vandalism and prevent escalation of serious crime. They say,

If the first broken window in a building is not repaired, the people 

who like breaking windows will assume that no one cares about the 

building and more windows will be broken.Soon the building will 

have no windows.

Whereas, if you let one store be vandalized and turn a blind eye then it’s only a short amount of time before more and more stores are vandalized. It discussed perception in relation to security. One problem with this theory, however, was that although the perception of crime was down, there was a more visible police presence, and things started to look better, crime actually stayed the same.

So, then I think of Pittsburgh, to my neighborhood, and wonder if perception can trump reality. I question if we were to replace all of the “broken windows”: revitalize abandoned storefronts, utilized green space, cleaned up our parks, repaved our streets, cleared out the drug dealers from our corner, would that spark the change needed in my neighborhood?

I would like to think it would be a good start but then I go to the foundation- what is the heartbeat of our community? What would people take pride in? Would all of the aesthetics go to waste if we didn’t also fix our systems? Fix the root of what got us to these “broken windows” in the first place? For example, Pittsburgh has been rated #1 most livable city in the U.S. for a couple of years now, yet our public school system is about to go bankrupt and we have a racial achievement gap that will take 40 years to fix. Isn’t it a waste to fix the outside, if our systems which make up our foundation are going to collapse? I agree that perception is key; however, I don’t think it can be the sole solution.

What do you think? Does perception trump reality? Should it? If not, what other things do you think might be necessary for a neighborhood to revitalize itself? 

For more resources in addition to the ones included in this blog post, check out:

Assessing “Broken Windows”: A Brief Critique for an analysis that both summarizes and questions the Broken Windows Theory.

A+ Schools Report to the Community to find out what's going on in Pittsburgh Public Schools and to start thinking about how the Broken Windows Theory can be applied there as well.

Community gardening, neighborhood meetings, and social capital which is a study that not only looks at the correlation between ones involvement in gardening/beautification meeting and perceptions but it also brings social capital into the picture. 

The New Jim Crow

Image credit: www.newjimcrow.com

Recently, for a policy class I was taking, I had to read Michelle Alexander's, The New Jim Crow. Alexander served as the director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU of Northern California and is currently an associate law professor at The Ohio State University. Her book, "examines the mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness." She discusses the history of Jim Crow, the U.S. justice system, the correlation between the two, the racial caste system, and the façade of colorblindness. The description on the back of the book includes the following insight,"...This book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness...we have not ended the racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it. By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S.  criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control- relegating millions to a permanent second-class status- even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness."
Before reading this book, I had always known that there was a problem with the mass incarceration of people of color (particularly, African American males) but I could have never imagined the full extent, nor do I think I could do it justice by trying to sum it up in a few short paragraphs. However, after reading this book, there are a couple of reactions I would like to highlight. First, I would like to point out that this mass incarceration is, in my opinion, an epidemic. Second, I would like to point out that we have (either consciously or subconsciously) created, through policies (both with legislation as well as implementation) and institutions, a self-sustaining system that constantly allows statistics to come into fruition.

As I was mulling over my thoughts, I came across a fellow student's blog post, entitled: Labeled Criminal: The Limits of Integration for Ex-offenders. I thought that her writing was a wonderful continuation of what Michelle Alexander expresses in her book. In her post, Hillary explores the experiences of ex-offenders and how those experiences "impact the vitality of communities". She takes what's going on systematically and describes its effects on culture. She writes, "Together, the experiences of offenders show how the stigma associated with a criminal record limits social participation and integration. This ostracization hinders the ability for many ex-offenders to successfully engage in their environment as community members. This gap in integration has implications for the community, as the existence of people who are so systematically denoted as “the other” or “strangers” indicates the existence of social strife.  Such people are less apt to provide support in the protection, well-being, or growth of the community because their segregation from the social fabric disengages them from buy-in." I really appreciate her insight and the connection she makes between system and culture and how the two are causal of each other. 

She brings up an important aspect of socialization which also happens to be the topic of discussion in an article from the New York Times entitled, A Poverty of the Mind by Orlando Patterson. In his piece, he discusses how, "SEVERAL recent studies have garnered wide attention for reconfirming the tragic disconnection of millions of black youths from the American mainstream. But they also highlighted another crisis: the failure of social scientists to adequately explain the problem, and their inability to come up with any effective strategy to deal with it." Patterson discusses many different problems attributed to African Americans and the assumptions that accompany them without much effort to find a solution. He also discusses how this ignorance is contributing to our failing inner-cities. He urges us to not sit by and subconsciously perpetuate a cycle that is so engrained in us that we assume it to be a certainty (something Alexander also brings up)- he encourages us to ask questions, to get to the root of the issues, to find out why things are the way they are- especially those of us in the field of Social Science. Patterson closes with, "The tragedy unfolding in our inner cities is a time-slice of a deep historical process that runs far back through the cataracts and deluge of our racist past. Most black Americans have by now, miraculously, escaped its consequences. The disconnected fifth languishing in the ghettos is the remains. Too much is at stake for us to fail to understand the plight of these young men. For them, and for the rest of us." His sentiments are similar to those of Alexander with regards to understanding that some issues are deep-seated and that we need to question things that we know to be certain (once again, either consciously or subconsciously). 

One of the most powerful quotes from Alexander's book, in my opinion, is when she says, "There was no contradiction in the bold claim made by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence that 'all men are created equal' if Africans were never really people. Racism operated as a deeply held belief system based on 'truths' beyond question or doubt." Just digest that for a second. Maybe, one more second. 

Now, in response I have some questions (for both myself and you): what are the assumed truths that are effecting your community? What are you doing to question those certainties? Do you see systematic disparities effecting your community's culture? Do you think that the two can be separated or do they go hand-in-hand? When attempting to bring remedy to a situation, do you try to find the root of the problem or do you chop at the branches? Do you believe that we have a racial caste system? Do you think that these issues are related or that they are caused by different things?

In addition to the above resources mentioned, you might also be interested in the following:
Child Welfare Policy and Practice: Rethinking the History of our Certainties is an article that explores those assumed truths and certainties that frame our policies and mindsets. 
The Stop Mass Incarceration Network according to its website, "is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and a project of the Alliance for Global Justice. The Stop Mass Incarceration Network is building a movement to stop the injustice of mass incarceration and police brutality; and the racially biased policies and practices of the police, the courts and the U.S. legal system; and to support the rights of prisoners and the formerly incarcerated."
The Sentencing Project according to its website, "was founded in 1986 to provide defense lawyers with sentencing advocacy training and to reduce the reliance on incarceration. Since that time, The Sentencing Project has become a leader in the effort to bring national attention to disturbing trends and inequities in the criminal justice system with a successful formula that includes the publication of groundbreaking research, aggressive media campaigns and strategic advocacy for policy reform."

Who's the Expert?

Recently, I attended a planning meeting for a potential new community development project in the Larimer neighborhood that focused on education. I showed up to the community center dressed in a nice shirt and jeans and found out quickly that I was extremely underdressed. I also found out very quickly that I was under-qualified. As we introduced ourselves, it was made clear that the "who's who" in education was there and the only reason that I even got word of it was because my field supervisor got an actual invite. As people said their names and who they were, I was impressed, no doubt, but I also started to notice that there were a fair number of people who had a title in education but were not within Pittsburgh Public, which would be the district most effected by this plan, and some organizations represented weren't even within the city limits. One of the women who was there, who happened to also be a formal principal, kept asking where the members of the community were. The answer was, 'community members were invited to come to a special meeting later that day and that all of the other meetings were "open" to the public'. Although, the whole thing felt like an exclusive secret club, one that I, as an educated person who was somewhat invited, felt as if I'd snuck in.

The meeting went on for a good while and at different times people would always bring up the community, its members, and the complexity of planning without the affected party (heck, it's complex even with the affected party present). The group that was trying to propose this project kept telling us that they included community people "every step of the way," when all I heard mentioned to corroborate that was the fact that they got to talk about mailboxes and housing logistics (legitimate but that's only one part). I had such conflicting feelings about the whole thing. On one hand, it felt like we were setting the community up for failure. On the other, it felt like the community had set itself up for failure. I thought automatically to Richard Florida's article in which he says, " Instead of handing over neighborhoods or even whole sections of cities to city hall or private developers, we’d be much better off enabling residents to take control of and build on community assets, engaging them in community-based organizations that can spearhead revitalization and build real quality of place." He makes a lot of good points but isn't the most clear about the best ways to turn this idea into practice.

So, in response, I have these questions:

1) How does that happen? How do we develop in a way that is align with Florida's sentiments? And is that the best way?

2) And who is running these organizations?

3) Who is the person (or people) that is actually going to establish (and maintain) McKnight's abundant community?

4) How do we organically provide the resources needed to revitalize a community without ignoring the community in the process? 

5) But then again, how do we get a community to even get invited to the discussion table, or better yet, start the discussion?

Here is a video that documents a community-based revitalization process happening in Portland:

What do you think? Is this going to work? Is this enough? Will it go anywhere? Is it sustainable? What does a community need in order to truly be able to "revitalize" itself? If Florida were watching this video would he support this movement or reject it?