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Housing
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Industrial
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Marketing
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Special Projects
CREATING A COMMUNITY ORGANIZING SUSTAINABILITY PLAN FOR CLEVELAND Thanks to a grant from the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland, Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition, the Center for Neighborhood Development at Cleveland State University, and Organize!Ohio who worked with CDC community organizers to develop a comprehensive plan to support CDC community organizing activities in Cleveland. CITYWIDE COMMUNITY ORGANIZING Community organizers from across the city began meeting in 2000. They came together as a committee at CNDC, similar to other groups and committees that meet regarding Restore or housing. This group organized a bus trip to Washington DC for a National People's Action conference on predatory lending. On the trip home the residents from across the city wanted to keep this energy going when they returned, and out of that, the Cleveland Leadership Summit was created. The summit had three years of success, but during 2005, organizers were finding it difficult to staff and recruit volunteers. During the regular monthly meetings of the community organizers at CNDC, the groups discussed the difficulty to staff the CLS. The community organizing committee did not have the capacity to organize CLS's anymore, however we did find them to be valuable and fruitful. We also did not have the capacity to continue or assist in staffing CLS committees, such as the safety committee and the education committee. The education committee is the only remaining committee that has survived, but has done so without a paid organizer, which it needs. Ian Heisey with BPDC has been dutifully filling that role, albeit un funded. In addition, the community organizers also recognized that there was the possibility of losing some of our colleagues due to funding cuts. With assistance from CNDC's past Executive Director, Mikelann Rensel, the group formed a subcommittee to discuss opportunities to further address community organizing in Cleveland and approached the Sisters of Charity Foundation for funding. Fortunately, SOC agreed to fund a strategic planning process. The process consisted of five sessions that included presentations and discussions on local and national community organizing efforts, brainstorming opportunities and the development of twenty-six guiding principals. Ultimately, the group determined a number of possibilities that we believed could better assist Community Organizers in both their profession as well as provide better services to the communities they serve. Through this process, the goal of the development of a citywide organizing position was proposed with the following being primary responsibilities of said position:
The Citywide model reflects a method in which CDC's can come together to work toward a common ground. We want to work smarter and collaboratively. The model assists in setting and reaching goals that achieve systematic change and bring about greater citizen participation and influence. In addition, the model allows for greater engagement and empowerment of the community and brings a unified voice to the table. This gives Community Organizers the opportunity to continue the work we are doing in our communities locally, while addressing the broader issues that effect all Clevelanders. Organizers would have greater citizen participation and engagement from the community, continued growth of local block clubs and neighborhood issues groups in addition to an increase in participation at the citywide level. Further it is though that the following goals could be met through the enactment of a Citywide Organizer position:
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Send mail to info@cndc2.org |
Cleveland
Neighborhood Development Coalition convenes monthly community organizer
committee meetings. Community organizers create neighborhood watch and
block clubs throughout their neighborhoods, but more importantly, they
work to organize residents to become involved in directing the development
agendas of community development corporations in their community.