1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

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

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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. McElderry Park LeadershipTraining Activities

10. 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

11. McElderry Park Community Concerns

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

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. We Thrive & Prosper!

18. Bringing the “Unity” back into “Community”