Facilitated & Targeted Neighborhood Renewal Efforts
Community Building Partnership of Stark County, Inc. is committed to restoring the health and prosperity of Stark County neighborhoods. CBP accomplishes our mission by leading and directing partnership-based, neighborhood specific revitalization planning efforts and by developing needed community development policies, programs, and tools that promote resident investment of time, effort, and money in their homes and neighborhoods.
Examples of how Community Building Partnership of Stark County, Inc. worked to accomplish these goals in the past include its facilitation of the Summit Neighborhood Planning Coalition and the development and management of the Summit Neighborhood Revitalization Plan; as well as CBP’s effort to form a partnership-based plan for the NEAR neighborhood and its Mahoning Road Economic Development Project.
Summit Neighborhood and the Summit Neighborhood Revitalization Plan
In 2004, the Summit Neighborhood Planning Coalition was formed, bringing together a group of stakeholders interested in Canton’s neighborhoods convened by Stark Community Foundation and facilitated by Community Building Partnership of Stark County, Inc. These stakeholders included the City of Canton, local foundations, the building industry, the lending and financial services industry, resident leaders, and neighborhood-based non-profits, to help shape the plan and provide resources. The Summit Neighborhood Planning Coalition agreed to focus a systematic revitalization plan focused on the Summit Neighborhood. The Summit neighborhood is the nearest to downtown neighborhood on the northeast quadrant, bounded by 12th St on the north, Tuscarawas on the south, McKinley Avenue on the east, and the Canton Park System on the west.
The following five core strategies emerged and became the basis for the Summit Neighborhood Revitalization Plan:
- A “Parade of Homes” presented by the Building Industry Association’s non-profit Urban Housing Foundation featured 8 new market rate homes aimed to encourage middle income residents to live in the Summit Neighborhood;
- Housing rehabilitation of existing rental homes to home ownership opportunities for current renters sponsored by the Freed Housing Corporation;
- Targeting visible signs of crime in the area through a concerted Safety Campaign managed by Multi-Development Services;
- Owner-occupied rehabilitation lending through local non-profits; and,
- Identifying a catalytic development project in the lower tier of the neighborhood dealing with high rental rates and vacant property in that portion of the neighborhood.
Summit Revitalization Plan Results to Date click here.
NEAR Neighborhood Renewal & the Mahoning Road Economic Development Project
Another active example of how Community Building Partnership of Stark County, Inc. worked to restore the health of Stark County neighborhoods is its work developing a partnership-based, targeted neighborhood renewal effort that emerged as the Mahoning Road Economic Development Project. This project, supported by NEAR, J.R. Coleman, Community Building Partnership of Stark County, Inc., the City of Canton, Stark Community Foundation, SARTA and other major foundations focused on implementing a community-involved process to create a viable plan to improve the appearance and viability of the Mahoning Road Corridor in NE Canton. This effort was based upon the economic development plan sponsored by NEAR and supported by a Stark Community Foundation Neighborhood Partnership grant in 2000. The Mahoning Road Economic Development Project calls for the redevelopment of nearly 2 miles of Mahoning Road, with new sidewalks, roads, intersections, underground utilities, lighting, and signage; total project projected cost: nearly $21 million dollars. A variety of federal, state, and local funding has been applied for and/or received; J.R. Coleman hopes to break ground on Phase One no later than 2013.
Community Building Partnership of Stark County, Inc. assisted in identifying the potential partners, forming the working partnership between these organizations and provided financial support to help pay for the Project Coordinator position. CBP current roles includes training and advice to the project, as well as leadership on the Steering Committee.
This effort has emerged as a community involvement model as the J.R. Coleman leadership has “listened” to its resident partners and added two important components to this effort.
The first component was to respond to resident’s initial concerns regarding visible crime in their neighborhood. As in Summit, residents strongly endorsed a crime prevention strategy as key to their continuing support for this large scale physical project. As a result, CBP assisted in the development of a 2nd Weed and Seed site in the NEAR neighborhood; again, bringing over $500,000 in crime prevention and community building funding into the City of Canton.
The second component, a Neighborhood wide Celebration, called the Rock and Rod Reunion, is an effort to bring the community together and celebrate its diversity and blue-collar roots.
One of the major successes of this effort has been the emergence of J.R. Coleman as a steward for the neighborhood. A long time community institution, J.R. Coleman had never seen their role in community and economic development as a core mission focus. However, with their success with the Mahoning Road Economic Development Project, J.R. Coleman changed their mission in 2007 to include stewardship of the community.
NEAR Partnership Results to Date click here.
City of Canton: Canton Neighborhood Project
Neighborhood Strategist David Boehlke and Neighborhood Workplans
In an effort to challenge our thinking in regards to neighborhood redevelopment strategies, Community Building Partnership of Stark County, Inc., along with the Stark Community Foundation and the Canton Development Partnership, sponsored national Neighborhood Strategist David Boehlke for a technical assistance visit to Stark County in April 2009.
The purpose of David’s visit was to:
- Provide feedback on current efforts in Stark County that CBP directs or facilitates;
- Provide feedback to our CDC non-profit partners on their strategies and activities, specifically in Summit, NE /NEAR, SE Canton, and Massillon;
- Provide examples from across the country of activities, projects, and strategies that might work in Stark County communities;
- Provide feedback on downtown renewal efforts in Canton and Massillon;
- Provide motivation, hope, and challenges to our plans and activities.
Background on David Boehlke
David Boehlke has spent over thirty years working in neighborhoods and assisting community-based nonprofit organizations. This work has included more than 100 cities and towns nationally with special emphasis on older neighborhoods in cities with little growth or even with declining populations. That can mean cities that have long-term weak housing markets such as Saginaw, Michigan, and cities that are facing slower transitions, such as Rochester, NY. Perhaps the most dramatic example of these changing markets is the New Orleans area, where David worked with three localities, each dealing with different challenges following the devastation of the Katrina and Rita hurricanes.
To better assist such a wide range of communities, David created the Healthy Neighborhoods Concept, an innovative approach to understanding community stabilization. The concept looks at what is working successfully in each market and what is undermining stability. It puts particular emphasis on identifying and highlighting community assets and finding proactive ways to galvanize neighborhood change.
The analysis focuses on re-building the “demand” side of neighborhood investment while greatly strengthening traditional resident involvement. This means promoting communities as “neighborhoods of choice” where more people decide to live, to invest, and to improve their homes and where more neighbors are involved in community decisions. Over the last 15 years, he has teamed up with nearly a dozen cities to put some of these ideas into action. His best-known writing on the concept is the monograph “Great Neighborhoods, Great City”.
David is also well known for his optimistic belief that neighborhoods will change but that change can be managed in ways that work better for residents. He firmly believes that even seriously dis-invested neighborhoods can again thrive and can be places where the word “neighborly” has real meaning.
David graduated from Johns Hopkins University and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and taught at colleges and universities until beginning his work in neighborhoods. In addition to contracting with local governments, he has partnered with national and local funders, such as the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Baltimore-based Goldseeker Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
David toured a variety of neighborhoods in both Canton and Massillon and has provided specific written advice to CBP, and the CDCs working in these communities based upon his Healthy Neighborhoods philosophy.
Canton Neighborhood Project Results to Date click here.
Community Building Partnership of Stark County, Inc. continues to work effectively with local government, nonprofits, businesses, community members, and foundations to garner support for these facilitated and targeted neighborhood renewal efforts throughout Stark County.
For more information, please contact:
Joel Owens, Director
Community Building Partnership of Stark County, Inc.
Foundations Centre
400 Market Avenue, North, Suite 220
Canton, Ohio 44702
330-458-0962
