What does trust have to do with it?

As mentioned in my last post, building a trusting relationship with the community in which you plan to work is arguably the most important piece to justly entering a community. On my first day on the job at Storefront, I got a glimpse of community trust. Ryan and I took a trip to Highland Park to visit the 6 Points Innovation Center (6 PIC) which is currently under construction. 

 There is not a community space like 6 PIC in Highland Park at this time. With this being a new establishment, there had to be some trust built with the local businesses and residents. He proceeded to tell me about how he had been working in Highland Park (before his position at Storefront) for 5 years. He knows the small business owners in the area.  He knows many of the current needs of the community. He knows the history of Highland Park and the community members there know him- by name. They stop to have conversation and wave from across the street.  

Storefront has helped many of the local business with facade improvements, streetscapes and helped organize community events. When the idea of 6 PIC sparked, Storefront was able to receive input from partner organizations and residents. Working in tandem became easier because the trust was there. Community members trusted that Storefront was invested. Soon, we will have offices at 6 PIC in order to be more present. Not only has there been a strong rapport built though projects and conversation but we are going to be physically present in the community. Presence is power when it comes to making an impact.

Giles and the Groundwork RVA team

So, how do you build trust with a community?  This starts with building a connection. Having a point of entry is one of the main ways to begin working with a community. Many times getting connected with a point of entry is difficult. From my experience, I have gotten to know community leaders or members simply by attending community events. Immerse yourself in the culture of the community. Sometimes being informal is a good way to begin a formal process. Remember, it is as important to make connections as it is to take care of the connections you have made.  For me this means catching up for coffee to discuss current events within the community or potential partnerships. It means volunteering my time at a community event. The goal of being present at such event is so that I am more present and that I can have genuine conversations with community members. In this way, I am being intentional about my efforts to build rapport which may result to a trusting relationship.

Another important aspect of trust building is to understand where you and a community are starting from on the spectrum of trust. Sometimes you can begin work with a community at point 0. In this way, the community feels neutral about your agency in regard to trust. However, there are some communities that may not trust your organization or organizations similar to yours. Maybe you are beginning at a point of -2. In order to know where you stand with a community, it is important to examine your organization’s (and similar organizations) past relationship with the community. Maybe before trust can form, reconciliation efforts need to be made.

A commitment to service is another element of trust building that can be seen from Storefront’s relationship with Highland Park. If you say you are going to deliver a service, you should do it. Some of my mentors have stated the phrase "Under promise, over deliver." This can help you to ensure that you are keeping your promises as sometimes you're capacity to deliver could change. Also, trust building means to value the input of the community. In my last post I stressed the importance of working with communities. This looks like including community members in the planning process as well as the actual project. Not only will working together increase the bond, but it will let communities know you respect them, their knowledge and skill. Consider how one may form healthy friendships. The process is the same when building a trusting relationship with communities. 

Join me on next week's post to further this conversation around trust. Before you leave, I'd like you to answer this question:

What are some ways you have built trust with the community that you work with?

Please comment below or contact me at jackie@storefrontrichmond.org

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 Read more about 6 PIC: http://www.storefrontrichmond.org/blog/2016/4/20/storefront-to-open-youth-led-collaborative-in-highland-park 

Upcoming Monthly Topics:

HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE STRENGTHS? HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE NEEDS?

Understanding why recognizing resiliency is just as important as identifying the problems when assessing a community

WHAT IS AN INTERVENTION WITHOUT COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT?

Examining why community engagement is the basis for an effective intervention

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF IT WORKED?

A summary of ways to evaluate community interventions and practice.

How do we know it's okay to come in?

 

When applying for a job, you normally do some research about the company, right?  Researching a community is just as important. Often, we as helpers are so eager to jump into working with a community that we forget to take a step back and assess our process of entering a community. This post will invite you to consider a few things before beginning your work.

Points of Entry

In order to enter a community, some point of entry is required. This is sometimes a person or organization that you have a connection with. Sometimes, you will have to work to build this connection.  This stage is the first and arguably most important stage in this process. Building rapport will be discussed in more detail in my next post. 

Need

 We also forget to take a step back and ask “Am I needed in this community?”  Unlike jobs who post their needs on Indeed.com, communities are not always reaching out for assistance.  To better understand the need you would want to do a needs assessment. The best research is done by asking the people who live there about how they perceive the need. You cannot force a community to want to work on an issue in their community that you identified. The community may not be ready for change around that issue. Meet the community where they are.  Not allowing for these elements can result in wasted resources, the under-utilization of services and the stripping away of a community’s right to self-determination.

 Assets 

When you are applying to a job you may be interested in what your coworkers are like and what their role is.  In regard to community, you should be aware of existing programs or agencies that already doing work in the area related to the identified need. Maybe you coming into that community would mean a partnership with existing organizations.  However, be careful of over saturating a community with services which can lead other communities being under-resourced. Additionally, be aware of the existing and often overlooked skill sets that are in the community. For example, one resident may have a background in landscaping. You may want to bring that resident on your planning team for a community garden you are trying to implement. To justly enter a community is to utilize existing talent. You should also identify the community leaders who are already working on the issue. Sometimes you’re role may to be help this leader further the work by leveraging resources. Sometimes your role will be to be a connector between existing leaders, groups and organizations. Justly entering a community means being okay with leading from the back or working with and not for.

So less of this

www.designingforcivilsociety.org

And more of this

jeannelking.com

Culture

It is important that the values of your organization align with the values of the community. If they do not, is there a space where the two values intersect? It is easier for conflict or distrust to occur between community and organization when the two sets of values never overlap.

Many new job applicants want to know what kinds of customers the company serves. This is similar to understanding the demographics of the community you plan to work with. However, simply knowing the demographics is not enough to justly enter a community. Find out the flavor of the community. Who are the majority? Who are the minority? What is the history of the neighborhood? Does this have any impact on who lives in the community today? Who might live there in the future? Find out where the residents shop. Find out what it looks like when they are joyful. How do they react when they are hurt?

Finally, being trauma-informed is so important in justly entering communities. Many communities have experienced some form of trauma whether it is the rate of violence, burdensome physical design, or policy that caused gross disinvestment.

Sometimes there have been cultural assaults on communities created through policy decisions. Consider the redlining practices of the 1930s that devalued many thriving African American communities.  (Visit this link to learn more on redlining http://dsl.richmond.edu/holc/ ) Sometimes trauma can make entering a community difficult. It means being more sensitive to what community has been through and intentionally considering past assaults before and during the work you are performing. Richmond has a Trauma Informed Community Network that is working to help organizations carry out trauma-informed work. 

These  are things to consider even before beginning work in a certain neighborhood. It seems like a process in itself, right? It is. It’s the planning to plan. The nod of approval from community is one that I am still trying to figure out. So far, I think it looks like you being asked to partner with an organization. It looks like a client applying for design assistance on your website. It looks like a community leader seeking your consultation. It looks like a resident filling out an application for your service. Sometimes it looks like you coming from a well thought out and sensitive approach when asking to enter a community. Keep justice in mind each and every time you enter a community.

This conversation was brief so please contact me at jackie@storefronrichmond.org or comment below.

Upcoming Posts:

WHAT DOES TRUST HAVE TO DO WITH IT?

Building rapport and taking care of relationships

HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE STRENGTHS? HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE NEEDS?

Understanding why recognizing resiliency is just as important as identifying the problems when assessing a community

WHAT IS AN INTERVENTION WITHOUT COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT?

Examining why community engagement is the basis for an effective intervention

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF IT WORKED?

A summary of ways to evaluate community interventions and practice.

How do we justly enter communities?

My name is Jacqulyn Washington but most people call me Jackie. As a graduate student of social work, I am focusing on community engagement, revitalization and resilience. Here at Storefront for Community Design, I am researching  how to justly enter communities.  This topic is so relevant to us all because we all enter communities in some way. In just one day, I pass through 3 neighborhoods. Think about which communities you drive through on your way home.  Have you ever thought about what impact you have or don’t have in those communities? What about your own community? How does your job or school intersect with surrounding neighborhoods?

I am not only researching how to justly enter communities by reading peer-reviewed articles and textbooks but I am researching in a truly active way. I am learning though meeting, talking, partnering and participating in communities. Over the next 5 months, I will be sharing this journey with you through updates on Storefront’s blog. The thoughts posted here will be an expression of my academic, professional and personal knowledge relevant to community work. I invite you to use this blog series as an interactive way for us to have a community conversation on ways to justly enter communities. Each month a new question will be presented followed by weekly posts on related topics. These can be found below.

Please leave a comment below on what justly entering a community means to you!

What's Next:

1. How do we know it’s okay to come in?

An overview of things to be considered before entering and how to recognize the “nod of approval” from the community

2. What does trust have to do with it?

Building rapport and taking care of relationships

3.How important are the strengths? How important are the needs?

Understanding why recognizing resiliency is just as important as identifying the problems when assessing a community

4.What is an intervention without community engagement?

Examining why community engagement is the basis for an effective intervention

5.How do you know if it worked?

A summary of ways to evaluate community interventions and practice.

Jackson Ward Community Garden Seeks Assistance

A year and a half ago in her Jackson Ward apartment, Jourdan James began dreaming about how to access more green garden space in her neighborhood. Now she is applying for non-profit status and furthering her plans for turning the triangular plot of land at 620 Chamberlayne Parkway into a community garden and educational space. 

The plot is uniquely situated at a major gateway to the neighborhood, which sets it up to be a verdant usher into the neighborhood.

She is seeking assistance with a landscape plan of the 8,200 sq. ft. space, using approximately 4,000 sq. ft. for 12 raised bed gardens and the remaining space for storage, education, bee-keeping and leisure. The Jackson Ward Community Garden will be a space to learn about native flowers and vegetables as well as sustainable gardening practices. Some concerns she faces already include water access, fencing, and accessibility to all neighborhood residents. She also has plans for an updatable mural site for the dreary winter months.  

For those who are interested, the scope of this work requires about 2 to 6 hours of your time. The deliverables are a site-plan and elevation rendering due by the end of October to help this forming non-profit raise funds and share their ideas for community green space and sustainability education.

mOb Design Session Fall 2016

We are excited for our fall semester's worth of design session projects. Read about them below!

ON THE STREET

A Sign of the Times

Use the frame of the "Stonestreet Diamond" sign on 209 East Broad Street to create a new sign for Walter and Urban Corps new development. "The sign doesn't have to/need to say anything, it should just be a sign of the times and fit in the existing frame." Walter Parks' vacant lot near the intersection of Foushee and Broad Streets is also available for improvement or action.  There is a budget for improvements at both locations TBD based on proposals presented to Walter and his team.

Orleans Street

Transform Orleans Street into a 'great street' through a series of mOb-style interventions. The final terminal of the new Bus Rapid Transit System (completion scheduled for October 2017) will be located at Rockett's Landing. Orleans Street connects the community of the Greater Fulton Neighborhood to this high-speed transportation hub. The street requires urban / streetscape designs to transfigure the barren street into a more abiding space for pedestrians and neighbors.

• Find out more about the BRT here

VCU Honors College

The Honors College is looking to create a bolder profile by creating an unusual and inventive physical presence with their building. Work within their existing public spaces to create a striking and innovative connection between the street and the college. All elements of the building and public spaces are fair game.

FI Sky

Redesign an ignored outdoor courtyard space with FI Sky, a program that implements innovation for traditional classrooms. The site is on the southern side of Grace Harris Hall on West Main and Harrison. This project includes but is not limited to landscaping, plant selection, and educational spatial design. 

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Brooks Diner

Revamp the identity of an existing restaurant that is a beloved community gathering place. They will need interior design solutions but also are looking to expand and enliven their outdoor spaces through landscaping or an exterior dining area.

• Learn more about the Diner here

HI Richmond Hostel

HI Richmond Hostel is about a year old, and functions as both affordable overnight lodging and as a community center. HI Richmond is located in the old Otis Elevator Company building, which has also been used as a women’s prison from about 1980-1999. 

Currently, the basement is unfinished, somewhat of an informal storage area, and not zoned for permanent use. However, the basement does get traffic: they have hosted wilderness medical training classes down there, community theater and comedy groups use it regularly as a rehearsal space, and they sometimes hold larger meetings down there. 

They are looking for ways to activate and improve their basement in ways that both reference their building’s history, benefit the Richmond community, and speak to their larger organization’s mission (fostering a more tolerant world through travel).

• Check out the Hostel here

Neighborhood Assistance Officers

Rebrand the identity—uniforms, logos, badges, perhaps even the name—of the Neighborhood Assistance Officers. These officers are non-sworn, civilian, unpaid volunteers who provide critical support in varying capacities to the Richmond Police Department.

• Check out the NAO program here
• Check out the current uniforms here

RECOVERY & CONSERVATION

Richmond Behavioral Health Authority

Design sewn products using the research Kerrie and Cassandra have done over the past six months with hand-rolled custom fabric. This project will also require organizing workshops and further research.

• An article on Design Ignites Change about the program, Recovery by Design.
• Example of an outcome from last semester.

Giving to Extremes Medical Missions

Develop the visual identity for Giving to Extremes Medical Missions for their public media presence: professional and promotional materials across print and social media platforms. GTE is a group of physicians who conduct surgical missions in Central America, as well as train local doctors. They are a relatively new organization and don't have any visual collateral yet. 

• Check them out here.

Clean City Commission

Develop a grassroots litter prevention campaign for Richmond. The campaign will focus on two areas, both North and South: Highland Park and along Reedy Creek. This project will focus on one of these areas and encourages innovative, active, and whimsical (read: non-slogan) solutions. 

Storefront to open youth-led collaborative in Highland Park

A bright light is on in a row of empty storefronts in the Highland Park neighborhood. It’s a Wednesday evening and a group of high schoolers are hovering around a table with markers, tracing paper, and floor plans of the 3000-square-foot space on Meadowbridge Road. Architect and Storefront board member Allison Powell hands a marker to one of these students, who elaborates on an idea for punctuating the cavernous space with bright colors and vertical text on the pillars. Another student chimes in with an idea to fill the parking lot with hammocks for reading. Everybody agrees on one thing: don’t build any walls here.

Potential location of the Six Points Innovation Center (6PIC) in the Highland Park neighborhood, the 3000 block of Meadowbridge Road.

This is a snapshot of the early phase of renovation for the 6 Points Innovation Center (6PIC), Storefront’s newest initiative supported by the Robins Foundation. Storefront will partner with Groundwork RVA, Saving Our Youth Virginia, Boaz & Ruth, and other organizations to create a new space for after school programming that operates at the intersection of design education and community engagement. Participants will enter the 6PIC as agents of change, and set the agenda for the community through design, planning, and organizing strategies. To start, the founding 6PIC team has been working closely with our team of architects to develop a conceptual design for the space.

Concept rendered by architect Burt Pinnock, based on sketches from the founding 6PIC team.

To make 6PIC a reality while sustaining our location in the Arts & Cultural District, we need your support. If it’s $500 or even $5, your donation is an investment in the ability for young people to connect more fully with urban planning and design. Storefront believes that design is not a luxury. Everyone should be able to realize the potential of the city — from the front porch, to the back yard, to the sidewalk, to the neighborhood.

Farmstrong Seeks Assistance with Shed Conversion

This volunteer opportunity has been filled as of April 14, 2016. Stay tuned!

Can Storefront help the Green Team plan a rehabilitation of the shed that would be useful and inspire pride to Armstrong’s farmers?

Farmstrong is an agricultural site in the east end located at 2300 Cool Lane on a property that is privately owned, and serves the community of Armstrong High School, which is located directly to the east of the site.

The site is currently not producing crops, but by spring will have a variety of produce, flowers, and cover crop.  The Armstrong Green Team are the primary caretakers of the Farmstrong site.  The Green Team, composed of 12 high school students who primarily live in the neighborhood of north Church Hill, Creighton Court, Mosby Court, and Fairfield Court, been working on the site for one year.

On the site sits a shed, which was once a refrigeration unit for a flower vendor on Cool Lane.  The shed is functional as a storage area for tools, however, it needs help.  It is dark, has the appearance of being full of spiders, and is not the proud shed that the Green Team aspires to use.  

mOb Design Session Spring 2016

Every semester, Storefront's community design apprentices at mOb (Middle of Broad) take on community-initiated projects under the guidance of a professional mentor, VCUarts faculty, and Storefront staff. This semester, mOb students representing Fashion, Graphic, and Interior Design departments at VCUarts will be taking on 16 projects. The projects focus on creative design strategies for new urban mobility, historic preservation, socially engaged art practices, community gardens, and more. For the first time, we will also be welcoming students from the School of Engineering. Read more about the projects below:
 

BIKES AND ______. 

Lewis Ginter Mobile Education Station
Prototype a mobile education station for Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens that could be tested on campus and used in funding proposals.

Bibliospokes
Work with the Richmond Public Library to design a trailerable library, to be hitched to an electric bicycle, and taken to events around the city. Work on the Bibliospokes identity may also be included within the project scope.

• Here's what they're working with.

• Here's more information on the program.

Existing Bibliospokes trailer.

Rag & Bones Bike-in Theater
Transform an underutilized parking lot into a bike-in theater.

• Learn more about their programming here.

• Check out the site here.

Bike-in theater site (Rag & Bones to the left).

Bike & Pedestrian Plan for Spoonfed
Apply the principles of the bicycle master plan to the public and private spaces around Spoonfed, a restaurant in Westhampton.

• Check out the site here.

• Skim the Bicycle Master Plan here.

PARKS & URBAN AGRICULTURE

Farmstrong Shed
Work with Armstrong High School Green team to rehabilitate a former refrigeration unit — now used as a shed — to better accommodate gardening tools.

• Here's an article on Farmstrong.

• Read more about the client organization, GroundworkRVA.

Community High Greenhouse
Work with Community High Green Team to develop a plan to rehabilitate a vacant greenhouse.

• Here's the Green Team's facebook page.

• Check out the project site here.

James River Park System Wayfinding
Expand upon the outcomes from Fall 2015 to develop robust prototypes for a wayfinding system for the James River Park System.

• Here's what they did last semester.

Outcome for new signage system developed by mOb in 2015.

Poetry for Trash
Socially engaged art project that enters the conversation of litter with poetry. Build professional signs that can be installed in public space, which offer instructions for participation in the Poetry for Trash project.

• Their website explains the project far better than I do.

RECOVERY

Richmond Behavioral Health Authority
Determine the placement of posters created from last semester, oversee their production and installation.

• An article on Design Ignites Change about the program, Recovery by Design.

• Example of an outcome from last semester.
  

Rams in Recovery
Design a space in the Well for Rams in Recoevery — a student-run group for students overcoming substance use disorders.

• More about Rams in Recovery.

After-Care Dental Instructions
Develop after-care instruction for patients undergoing complex dental procedures, who often must comply with after-care instructions. This is a common problem among health care providers who serve urban populations like Richmond.

Camp Kesem Magic Booth
Create a magic booth as a fundraising tool for Camp Kesem, a camp for children who have parents with cancer.

• More about Camp Kesem here.

Grace & Holy Trinity Meditation Scrapbook
Redesign a book on meditation, which has existing content compiled by Candy Osdene.

PRESERVATION & REUSE

Cookie Factory Water Tank
Design a water tank wrap for the Cookie Factory Lofts.

Water tank at former Interbake Building at 900 Terminal Place.

Greensville County Training School
Communicate the vision of Marva Dunn to transform the Greensville County Training School into a community center.

• Citizens United to Preserve Greensville County Training School.

• Read more about the fascinating history of Rosenwald Schools here.

Remains of Greensville County Training School in Emporia, Virginia.

Pop-up RVA Recap

In September 2015, Storefront piloted the Pop-up RVA initiative, as an opportunity to test the pop-up friendliness of Richmond. The success of the project illustrates a united vision of neighbors who see pop-ups as a strategy for reactivating Richmond’s many dormant commercial corridors.

A few months after the event, we are taking a detailed look at the process we underwent to activate almost 4000 square feet of vacant commercial space at North 2nd & East Broad Streets. This recap also explains the challenges and benefits of having a pop-up in Richmond, while suggesting a path forward.

Assist JRPS with North Bank Park Redesign

THIS OPPORTUNITY HAS BEEN FILLED.

 

The James River Park System is seeking assistance with the development of a conceptual plan to improve the entrance to the North Bank Trail at the terminus of Texas Avenue in the Maymont neighborhood. While many improvements have been made along this portion of the North Bank Trail to improve connectivity to Texas Beach, the entrance is currently characterized by its parking lot, which leaves little room for paths that prioritize the many runners, cyclists, hikers that move through this entrance. We are seeking a team of landscape architects to re-envision this entrance. JRPS hopes to leverage the outcome of this consultation as they seek funding to implement this project.