1. Samantha Teixeira, MSW & Dr. John Wallace, Jr.
Data Driven Organizing: Partnerships for community change in the Homewood Children’s village
Samantha Teixeira, MSW & Dr. John Wallace, Jr.

2. The Village Adapting the Harlem Children’s Zone model
HCZ pillars-Community building, Evidence based programs, Scale, Evaluation
Property issues are a key aspect of Homewood’s challenges
Dr. Wallace introduces this part. Discuss HCZ model and replication quickly. Note that unlike Harlem, Homewood faces different types of challenges in regard to property and housing issues. We will discuss how we partnered with PNCIS to analyze and take action around these challenges in the initial stages of the HCV.

3. Project Cycle Data Gathering
OBB and Pitt partner with PNCIS to gather housing related data
Celebrate!
Form Action Plan
1000 Conversations
Identify worst homes in neighborhood and policy mechanism to address them
Note that PNCIS partnered with us throughout the process, starting at the data gathering step
Residents express concern about vacant houses
Contact engaged residents
Equip residents with data and a manageable plan

4. Research Background
Interested in how neighborhood conditions affect children and families
Housing quality
Neighborhood infrastructure
Vacant and abandoned properties and lots
Gigapan
Data Driven Organizing: Conducting research with a direct goal of disseminating the results in a way that promotes community action and creates a road map for measurable neighborhood change.
Insert citations, notes for how each of these aspects of a neighborhood affects child development.
A few notes from Evans articles: Type and quality of housing,
safe routes to school studies—ex. Positive association between presence and condition of sidewalks and physical activity among children (Davison & Lawson, 2006).
Overall health impacts of poor quality housing-asthma and alllergens, lead exposure, type and quality of housing are also associated with higher rates of juvenile delinquency (in areas w/ high concentrations of multiple unit dwellings), effects emotional development, cognitive development, academic competency (Evans, 2006)
and effect of crime/stress on child development and activity

5. PNCIS Partnership in HCV Neighborhood Assessment
Research Review & Design
Data Integration
Data Visualization: MAPS!
Training
Policy Action
Research Design: Contacted NNIP partners to review and ID existing instruments including building inspection protocols and neighborhood assessment survey suggestions
Data Integration: data integration strategy (Setting data collection and entry process up so that it could easily be integrated into the PNCIS system), now we can create maps that integrate the data we collected in the neighborhood with other PNCIS data like crime info and BBI violations
Training: Trained students and community organizing staff to use the system, got into the data driven mindset.
Data Analysis/Community Action: Key piece was the ability to integrate our two datasets to inform our community actions and identify policy mechanism to take action

6. Map of exterior condition of properties, to be used for data driven organizing, block clubs. Before and after assessments (does a block club affect the physical condition of a block? etc. ) Yellow is good, light blue is fair, dark blue is poor.

7. Data Driven Organizing
Homewood’s Dirty Thirty:
Used joint database to identify worst properties in the neighborhood
Mobilized residents to call the 311 Response Line and advocate for boarding up the properties
23 of 30 properties (77%) were boarded up, torn down, or otherwise improved within about a month
Identified properties that were vacant and open to entry. We can visualize our outreach efforts using maps and track ownership, Bureau of Building Inspection violations, and tax delinquency (using our joined database) for these properties to continue our advocacy efforts.

8. Before
1000 Conversations (from subjective)-vacant and abandoned properties raised as an issue
To data (to objective percentages)-empirically, how big a problem is it? (not just perception)
PNCIS illustrates how big a problem vacancy is.
Data driven organizing is a way to address it.
ID dangerous props, form action plan—called back people who had initial concern to form a task force (using data and existing policy mechanism 311)
Show scale, total number of props addressed.
Next steps?

9. After

10. Tax Exemption Initiative
PNCIS analyzed property and tax records and identified potential homeowners in the neighborhood
Flagged owners who are not taking advantage of Act 50 Homestead exemption
Provided this list to Operation Better Block, Inc.
Piloting outreach project by knocking on doors and visiting senior centers
Act 50: Lowers county assessed value by $15,000, also makes owners eligible for two other tax breaks

11. The main thing to pay attention to on this map are the orange parcels
The main thing to pay attention to on this map are the orange parcels. Those are likely homeowners who are not taking advantage of the homestead exemption. They could be saving in the neighborhood of $400 if they signed up!

12. Gigapan
Document neighborhood conditions
Collect input from residents

13. Impact
Bringing resources back to the neighborhood to help children and families
Improving quality of built and physical environment
Making the neighborhood a safer place for children
improving abandoned homes helps property values, deters crime (particularly boarding, code enforcement). Abandoned homes attract crime, crime and perception of safety affect how much time parents allow kids to engage in active outdoor play (evans) and the social disorder abandoned buildings signify leads to increased stress, negative health effects (asthma article...find citation)
How big problem are vacant and abandoned properties
Especially around the schools

14. Questions?