Not to be missed: Hoops in the Hood Finals

A terrific example of community development in action will be on display this Saturday afternoon at Seward Park in Chicago (401 W. Division at Orleans) when youth and adults from seven neighborhoods come together for the 2008 Hoops in the Hood Cross-City Finals, a basketball program that is about so much more than sports.

Hoops is a direct response to violence on the streets of our city. It is a structured, well-organized way to engage local kids and young adults in a safe and nurturing environment, on the very streets where they might feel unsafe at other times or under different circumstances. The Resurrection Project in Pilsen started its Friday night basketball league 10 years ago, setting up courts on different blocks each week, and in the past two years the concept has spread to a network of seven neighborhoods.

Teams will fight it out for trophies after an opening ceremony at 1 p.m., with the first-round games at 1:30 in three divisions: peewee (ages 8 to 10), minor (11 to 14) and major (15 to 19). Semi-final and final rounds will be followed by the championship game at 4 p.m.

About 400 participants will come from West Haven, Little Village, Pilsen, North Lawndale, Humboldt Park, Englewood and Logan Square. There'll be food, arts and crafts, and plenty of good feeling as kids and adults come together from across gang lines, neighborhoods and cultures. The Chicago Police Department is a key partner across all the leagues and will be on the scene as usual.

The photos here are from last year's tournament and were taken by Juan Francisco Hernandez; the video below, by Sarahmaria Gomez and Alex Fledderjohn of TuMultimedia, gives a great overview of what the league is all about. (View a higher quality version here.)

What makes a good community web site?

Community development veteran Jim Capraro asked me recently what the key functional components would be for a community-oriented web site. It depends on your budget and goals, of course, but some elements seem essential to me.

Easy content management – Any site these days ought to be easy to update with little in the way of technical skills and no “coding” or html necessary. You want to be able to go in, make some changes, upload some material, and go live, right now. This type of site typically runs off of an underlying database, so that you can put material into the database and then choose where and how you use it on the site.

Calendar – Seems obvious? This is for neighborhood events, meetings, public hearings, and the like.

Flexible news and program spaces – Every neighborhood and organization is different, but most have the same need to provide information about their place or their services that is organized in a useful way, so that people can find what they need. The Grassroots tool that we use in Chicago, from Webitects, has two tabs that each can include multiple subjects, and each of those in turn can hold more categories of info. Most NCP groups call one tab “news” and the other “our programs” or “our community.” A new site being developed by the Greater Humboldt Park Community of Wellness will name one of the tabs “health areas,” with eight types of health issues beneath the tab.

Directory – Basically a database that can be loaded up with existing Excel files or with individual listings added as you go, the directory should allow multiple categories so that you could list, for instance, staff contacts, partner organizations, churches, local businesses (by type of business), and any other group that you think people might be looking up. Google or Yahoo maps can be tied to the address field so that the category and the individual listings are mapped automatically.

Gorgeous photos — A good web site should allow you to display images of people, places and events in the neighborhood, starting on the home page and then in articles, program sections and even the calendar. It’s up to you to capture or collect great photos, but the site should allow you to use them in a way that makes people say “Nice!” when they arrive on the page.

Changing home page – You want the ability to display some of this material on the home page – not in a static way, because then the site always looks the same – but with new lead photos, new headlines, and new calendar items. The content management system should allow you to move material to the home page or to a “landing page” elsewhere on the site, and then later let the the article live forever in some deep corner of the site, where it will always be accessible via Google and logical navigation.

Search – And that leads to the final core element: a good site-level search engine. As your site matures over a year or more of updates, it will contain hundreds of items. You want readers (and your own people) to be able to put a few words in the search box and quickly find that story they remember seeing, or that factoid that they seek.

There are a number of ways to get to some of these features, and I’ll cover some compelling new options in a future post, from inexpensive “blogs on steroids” to powerful ning sites that incorporate social networking. But right now, the only place I know that offers the whole package is the Grassroots template, which is in use on 12 sites in Chicago and just starting to roll out nationally via the LISC network. Here are some examples:

www.gagdc.org, which promotes the Auburn Gresham neighborhood
www.lsna.net, the Logan Square Neighborhood Assn.'s advocacy-oriented, bilingual site
www.qcdc.org, which has a deep business directory and some detailed "extended listings"
www.resurrectionproject.org, the Pilsen site that uses short news and informational items to get a lot of info across.

Know of other tools that can provide these kinds of capabilities? Please let us know in a comment.

St. Leonard's House

Eight months ago, my photographer partner and I decided to embark on a short video documentary on St. Leonard's House, a residential program for ex-offenders in Chicago's West Haven neighborhood. After talking to the residents and staff for only a few short hours, I knew that this story was something special and that it would take more than a couple shoots to get across just how important this organization is to the future of our community.

This 54-year-old grassroots organization helps ex-offenders rebuild their lives according to individual needs--everyone who works and lives there is focused on a positive future. Whether visiting a group therapy session or job training program, I could feel the hope around me. No one is forced to be there-- St. Leonard's is a place of recovery, growth and honesty. Twenty percent of residents return to jail, compared to more than 50 percent nationwide. It is one small example of what an organization can do when it focuses on people rather than numbers.

St. Leonard's House truly changes lives... those of formerly-incarcerated individuals and everyone who is touched by the incredible work that they do.


If you have a high-speed Internet connection, you can view a high-quality version at:
http://www.tumultimedia.org/tu/projectpages/stleonards.html

How-to: Mapping for community development

In the community development biz, there are always opportunities to use maps that help illustrate or support your work, whether to show the locations of developments or where your office or programs are.

In the olden days, that meant spending big bucks to have a designer draw a custom map for you.

No more. As Southwest Organizing Project's David McDowell showed us a few weeks ago, with his gut-punch representation of foreclosures in his neighborhood, a map that is loaded with useful information can be created on your own computer and used in print, e-newsletters and online.

How'd he do it? He told me about Microsoft Streets and Trips, a $40 Windows application that includes attractive and detailed maps of your city and neighborhoods.

It's not a five-minute job to create a custom map like he did (right), but by using the help menu and futzing around with the various options, you can make something that is nice looking and informative. David imported an Excel file that included the addresses of each foreclosed home, created an outline of the ZIP code area, and then chose a suitable "pushpin" (red circles) to represent each address. The program also imports Access and Outlook files, along with .txt, .csv (comma-separated value), .tab and .acs formats. "We were looking for a way to show leaders in the neighborhood the impact of the foreclosure problem in a visual way," said David.

Then there's Google or Yahoo Maps. They can be built into web sites to automatically generate maps when you insert an address into a data field, as in the directories of the Grassroots web sites that Webitects built for the New Communities Program (see example at top of post).

If you know someone who messes with html code, Google and Yahoo maps can be customized using something called API (I don't know what that means, but it's powerful). Beyond that, there are "mash-ups" that combine maps with other data, automatically, to display information.

Sure, there's work involved. But with these inexpensive tools at our disposal, it's in our interest to learn how to use them.

Needed for youth writers: Used laptop, camera

I talked to Chicago writer Richard Muhammad this morning and he is excited about the work of the half-dozen young people he is mentoring in the Youth Speak South Shore media literacy program (see post below). They're working across a range of media from TV and radio to print and the web. He's already impressed with the talent and enthusiasm of the students – "and we're just getting started," he says.

Okay, here's the pitch. Richard says some of the participants don't have day-to-day access to computers and that there's a lot of interest in photography and video -- but no equipment to feed that interest.

So if you've recently upgraded from your old laptop or digital or video camera, and would be willing to donate it (rather than have it become obsolete sitting in your closet), Richard could immediately put it into the hands of a young person interested in communications and media. Related software would be a plus. If you want a tax-deduction letter, Richard can probably arrange it through his fiscal agent, Metropolitan Area Group to Ignite Civilization.

Got something? Know someone who does? Drop Richard a line at straightwords4@yahoo.com

Youth speak out in South Shore

Two regular themes on this blog are the need for effective youth programming and the benefits of creating communication vehicles that give voice to neighborhood viewpoints.

Richard Muhammad has combined the two in Youth Speak South Shore, a media literacy and writing program that seeks to "heighten the understanding of youth regarding consumption of media, provide youth with tools to examine media and the skills to create alternatives. In particular, the program focuses on issues of race and the portrayal of Blacks and how these images and caricatures of Blacks persist."

The first blog entry, by 19-year-old Stephen Gardner, takes a critical look at the CNN series Black in America, in which the television crew filmed a Houston dropout-prevention group as it encouraged a young boy, at his home, to go back to school. Gardner writes:

"Now readers please ask yourself this question – how would you react if complete strangers showed up at your house in the afternoon, bombarding you with pleas to return to your job? Under the gaze of television cameras and reporters that just so happened to be there as well?"

It's a provocative piece and a promising debut for new writers in South Shore. Read the full entry at youthspeaksouthshore.blogspot.com

Growing Home's Satisfied Customer

When I moved to Back of the Yards from the North Side four years ago, one of the things I thought I would miss the most was biking home with my weekly summer box of veggies from a CSA (community supported agriculture) share.

Not any more. The photo above shows you what was inside the box I biked home with today. Growing Home's urban farm at 58th and Wood is the pickup point for their CSA share program, and it's an easy bike ride from my house. A few weeks ago, I walked over with three or four of my young neighbors, who got a complete tour from Tyra Rodgers, who manages the site. They learned how hoop houses control temperature so you can grow cold-tolerant vegetables through most of even a Chicago winter, how soaker hoses work and how you can keep a garden healthy without pesticide and artificial fertilizer, among other things.

Today, they couldn't come with, but I got to hear from Tyra how the entire Growing Home staff went to visit Charlie Trotter's and see what he does with the vegetables they grow. They got a full kitchen tour and the opportunity to sample a seven-course meal. "It was really, really amazing," he said. "A once in a lifetime experience." Before the event he was reluctant to go because he's a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy and this event required a coat and tie. But afterwards, "it was worth it." Now he's hoping the staff at Trotter's will come down to the farm so he can give them a tour, too.

Tyra also told me he's been making good friends with the neighbors whose houses surround the farm. One gentleman, who let them use his hose before they had their own water supply, is a fellow gardener with a back lot full of watermelon, greens and other goodies. His grandchildren got to pick a few tomatoes and cucumbers as a thank you for the early support.

When I got home with my box one of the girls who came last time and two of her friends all wanted to see what was inside. "Carrots!" one exclaimed joyfully. Plus, the first tomatoes of the season, small plum tomatoes we all plopped into our mouths right away. Beets, too, which these little guys and gals like. Earlier this season I went up and down the block making people try asparagus in lemon butter with a little salt. There was a two-year-old who kept coming back for more.

Today, as we were snacking on tomatoes and carrots, one of my older neighbors went by and looked over with interest. When I explained how a share works--pay up front and get veggies all summer--and how two or more people could go in on a box together to make it easier to front the cash, she looked interested. This summer I'm splitting a share with a friend out by Midway airport, but maybe next year four or five of us could split a share here on the block.

East Side Needs Resources

We're doing social media and communications training today on the East Side at the Knowledge Hookup. Been a long day with a lot of learning and plenty of hands-on--including creation of a couple of new blogs. 

Low-barrier entry points for web visibility

We had a lot of good discussion at the LISC Learning Forum in Detroit last week about how to raise the web visibility of your community or organization. Carlos Nelson of Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation showed off his group's website, at gagdc.org, and participants were wowed by the regular news updates, the generous use of photos, the business directory with its extended listings, and the traffic that all this information has attracted: more than 1,500 visits per month. This is for a community that four years ago had virtually no web presence whatsoever and was "Chicago's Best Kept Secret."

A dynamic, often-updated web site is great, but what if you don't have the time or money to put one together, or want to dip into the web with something less elaborate, to gain some experience? Good idea.

Turns out there are quite a few easy entry points on the web that let you get into the game without spending months gnashing your teeth and formulating a "web strategy." Using these tools, you can just start, and see where it takes you.

1. Blogs. These things are absolutely free and they're tracked closely by the search engines (Google owns Blogger/blogspot) so if you start one and begin posting about what's going on, you've got an instant web presence. A blog is limited to a linear, chronological presentation of your information – it doesn't allow different sections or offer calendars – but you can put up news items, little slide shows, video (via YouTube) and photos, so it's a solid place to start. The blog for Milwaukee's Harambee neighborhood is updated several times a month (usually by LISC/Milwaukee's Kathryn Berger) with useful information for both residents and outsiders. Plenty of full-blown web sites don't do nearly as well.

2. YouTube. Don't laugh. Someone in your neighborhood or city is already shooting videos and some of them, with a bit of editing or some conversation ahead of time, could be just right for documenting a community event or activity. Put some creative young people on the job and you might be surprised at the quality. Here's an example put together by the Violence Prevention Collaborative in Chicago's Little Village, combining music, locally produced artwork and a very real discussion about gangs and police. Notice how the YouTube video is "embedded" in the web site? That's easy to do on most blogs and web sites; once uploaded to YouTube, you can copy the "embed code" into your web site and the video shows up, just like magic. Of course you can email out the link, also. Cost? Free.

3. Photo sharing. You've already got the photos, probably, sitting on your hard drives or on a CD, but no one can see them. If you set up a photo sharing site at Flickr, Picasa or PhotoBucket, you can upload collections of photos so that the neighbors or corporate partners can see themselves and the results of their work. The learning curve here is minor, a few hours to get the account set up and your first photo sets uploaded and organized. After that, you can make it a routine to upload a dozen or three dozen photos after big events, and then send an e-mail out with the link. We started a Flickr page a few months ago at LISC/Chicago to show photos from the Getting It Done conference and are spreading it to other uses. Cost? $25 per year for a pro account that allows virtually unlimited sets and photos.

4. E-newsletters. This I haven't done myself but several Chicago lead agencies or partners did a three-part training with Community Media Workshop and a few weeks later I started receiving their email blasts, via Constant Contact or Vertical Response. Those companies make it pretty easy to get started with templates (and free trial periods) and they'll even manage your mailing lists for you, all for modest costs based on the size of your distribution. Once you've got an e-newsletter, you can point people to your photo sites, videos and blog. And your web site, too, but since that's a larger undertaking, we'll leave that for a future post.

In the presence of genius: Grace Lee Boggs

I hang out with a lot of very smart people but tonight was different. Tonight I was in the presence of genius.

After spending the day with other community development practitioners at a LISC Learning Forum in Detroit, including a tour and workshop in the Morningside and East English Village neighborhoods, we were treated to a remarkable dinner presentation by 93-year-old civic activist Grace Lee Boggs.

She surprised us over and over again. First, this daughter of Chinese immigrants with a Ph.D. in philosophy, who later married African-American labor activist James Boggs, well, first she introduced an 11-minute rap video by the Detroit artist Invincible, a young woman whose words burn deeply as she spits them out against a backdrop of apocalyptic post-industrial Detroit. "Selective memory, convenient amnesia," she chants, and a whole lot more.

The video features a few snippets of interview with Grace Lee Boggs and other activists, but is really about youth and how, in Boggs' words, "their need to be useful can be the foundation for life in the 21st Century." I've pasted the video, directed by Joe Namy, at the end of this post, in two parts.

I can't do justice to what came next. Ms. Boggs spoke to us, in a quiet but forceful voice, about the whole sordid history of America's industrial cities, tracing the fall of the auto industry, the construction of highways that helped cut in half the city's population, and after years of economic decline for working-class African American residents, the "young people harassed by police who they thought of as an occupying army," after all that came the five days of explosive rebellion in July of 1967 that marked the beginning of a whole new era for Detroit, an era of decline that is starkly illustrated in the Invincible video and that we saw for ourselves on our bus tour this afternoon.

From all this, Boggs sees a bright future. In 1992, Boggs and her husband founded something called Detroit Summer, which used gardening, of all things, to bring older residents together with youth, and which taught those young people, "who thought everything was instantaneous, a sense of process." The same movement spawned a youth bicycle-fixing operation, Back Alley Bikes, the Avalon Bakery that set up shop in the wreckage of the Cass Corridor, and the Earthworks urban farm created by a Capuchin monk to grow food for a soup kitchen and a home for teenaged mothers.

Detroit is among a handful of cities, including Milwaukee, New York and Chicago, that have begun converting their vast acreages of vacant land into productive agricultural space. Was it a coincidence that three groups out of eight at the afternoon workshops suggested "green" development of Detroit's east side expanses, or were we seeing the same thing that Boggs and the seniors and youth saw: the promise of Detroit's next phase? "The whole concept of reconnecting to the earth has such magic to it," she said, especially in the face of today's "energy crisis and planetary crisis."

Referring to the gardening work and the rap video, Boggs said, "we have a model and inspiration for young people across the country." For sure, yes, but the inspiration for me was Grace Lee Boggs herself, a brilliant woman who left us, tonight, with a mandate to carry her work forward.

The video, titled Locusts, part one:



Part two of the video: