Detroit

Fitzgerald Land Stewardship

What?

The Fitzgerald Revitalization Project is an initiative led by the City of Detroit to stabilize and strengthen a neighborhood by transforming publicly owned vacant land and buildings into community assets.

Rather than work on one lot at a time, the project is focused on holistically addressing every publicly owned vacant building and lot at once for maximum impact and effectiveness.

The City has been working with residents and other stakeholders to develop a vision for the project and is adding more partners to turn it into a reality.

Takeaway

Creating a permanent HomeBase for community engagement, design and planning builds ongoing capacity. Residents learn by doing through the linked Workforce Development and RFP opportunities.

Features

Accessible RFPs

Community Engagement Space

Land and housing transformation for diverse users

Participatory Design

Workforce Development

241 Blake Ave

Brownsville Partnership

Credit: The Brownsville Partnership

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What?

The Brownsville Partnership convenes community stakeholders to harness their collective power to advance the health, safety, and prosperity of the storied Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville.

Over more than a decade, residents, not for profits, government, local business and philanthropy have come together under the Partnership to work collectively on priorities set by Brownsville families. In 2019, the BP began transitioning to become a separate, affiliated not for profit. The Partnership supports the implementation of the Brownsville Plan, a collective strategy for the equitable development of the neighborhood, through the lens of health, housing, and economic mobility.

Takeaway

Building community capacity, institutionalizing functions that track improvements and hold partners accountable through data-driven approach.

Features

Community Organizing

Data & evidence collection to track progress

Partnership Management

Priority setting

Training of community leaders

Bogotá

Ciempiés

Credit: Ciempiés Bogotá

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What?

A “walking school bus,” aimed at ensuring children’s safety and shortening their commute times.

Led by adult guides, participating children meet at various pick-up points and walk together to and from school. During the trip, guides lead their student caravans in a series of educational games designed to raise awareness of their surroundings and teach road safety. Through the journey, the kids score points, are rewarded with stickers, and mark their progress with badges they wear on their uniforms.

The program also includes other measures to provide more child-friendly spaces and experiences in the city.

Takeaway

Specialized channel to engage often excluded urban transport stakeholders, develop capacity and skills and create a shared community goal.

Features

Data & evidence collection to track progress toward vision zero

Education

Focus on hard-to-reach vulnerable group

Service as a vehicle to engage communities

Strengthen social ties in community

Baltimore

Bicis del Pueblo

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What?

Bicis del Pueblo is coordinated by PODER to develop bicycling skills and environmental justice awareness of low-income communities of color.

Participants from southeast SF neighborhoods are supported through cooperatively run activities focused on learning, teaching and sharing bicycle education and skills – often using city-owned impounded broken bikes as raw material. BDP encourages low-income families, youth and communities of color to incorporate bicycling in everyday activities that strengthens public health, deepens community resiliency, and reduces toxic pollution. They are outspoken advocates on mobility innovations like Lyft’s plan to drop cash from bike-share.

Takeaway

A focused approach to engage specific disadvantaged communities to build a movement, skills and perspective on health, environmental and transportation justice.

Features

Advocacy

Community Organizing

Deeper understanding of urban mobility (and innovations)

Education program for health, skills and environmental justice

Provides free bicycles to disadvantaged groups

Swindon

A LIFE we want

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What?

LIFE was created as a new approach to stop the cycle of crisis for a small number of families that fall through the gaps of social services. This small number of families incurred chronic and high costs.

In the development phase, the team spent 8 weeks experiencing their lived realities and made a study of the frontline workers involved with these families. Neither the frontline workers nor the families felt content or empowered in this system. LIFE put families in charge of recruiting their own support teams which were located on the same estate. LIFE resulted in families stepping out of their problem-cycles and work toward their desired futures and delivered significant cost savings.

Takeaway

Through immersion the team surfaced root causes to chronic challenges and put empowerment and capability development first, reorganizing social care teams around families with a deep focus on trust.

Features

Co-location of LIFE teams on site

De-fragmentation of social services

Empowerment as the central tool to break out of chronic dynamics

Focus on capability building instead of problem-response

Immersive user and operator research to surface challenges

Brixton

3Space International House

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What?

3Space, a non-profit, was given 5 year temporary use of a 65,000sqft municipal building in Brixton, London, before its formal redevelopment.

Their BuyGiveWork model means that for every space that is leased by companies like RESI, a space will be made available to community groups at no cost, providing civic infrastructure. Further, company staff dedicates one hour a month to support local community groups and community events.

Takeaway

A sustainable intermediary to dynamize community organizing and opportunities leveraging an unused government asset. Various partners from business, government and community develop collaborations.

Features

High quality community space & facilities

Partnerships and networking among community groups

Programming to support social cohesion

Strengthen social ties in community

Temporary, yet institutionalized

Case Study: Yes

Fitzgerald Land Stewardship

What?

Takeaway

Features

Brownsville Partnership

What?

Takeaway

Features

What?

Takeaway

Bicis del Pueblo

What?

Takeaway

Features

What?

Takeaway

What?

Takeaway

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