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We have long
complained about the physical condition and negative reputation of our
neighborhood. All these negative
factors cause many of the children here to be teased and labeled because they
live in the neighborhood in and around “The Grove.” An article in a national newspaper listed this community as one
of the worst in the nation in which to raise a child. Most of the residents here had come to
accept the fact that that is just the way it would be---forever.
When HOPE VI
was awarded to Greensboro, many started to wonder and hope. Can our neighborhood become one that’s
strong, stable and beautiful? Can it
be a great place to raise children?
Now we are thinking that maybe it can.
I say maybe
because receiving a HOPE VI grant does not automatically mean that the end
result will be a positive one.
Greensboro’s HOPE VI must have the right ingredients. My opinion is that the most
crucial/critical ingredients have to be:
The coming
together of as many residents as possible in an effort to rebuild a sense of
community and connectedness to each other.
We must bond together as never before and become united.
Community
leaders/representatives must be a true liaison between the HOPE VI process
and the residents they represent.
Residents who represent the community at HOPE VI meeting must go back
and share all information they are gathering and learning during the
meeting. The leaders and
represent-atives also must meet regularly with the residents they are
representing to hear their wishes, ideas, and concerns and take them back to
the HOPE VI process.
All parties who
work on the HOPE VI projects must involve the neighborhood from start to
finish. They must never leave the
neighborhood out of what they are planning/doing. There must not be any entity that bypasses neighborhood input.
There must be
an ongoing process of mapping, developing and planning for use of our
neighborhood assets. We will have a
weak HOPE VI if we only focus on the needs and weaknesses of this
neighborhood. It is absolutely
crucial that we learn about the capacities, skills and talents of the folk
here. There is not one individual who
does not possess something positive that can be tapped to help the
neighborhood.
The most
important ingredient: truthfulness and fairness for all our people, especially
those who are weakest and most vulnerable.
Success with
HOPE VI means a stronger neighborhood: better housing conditions; a greater
mix of incomes, residents being better off whether they decide to rent or
not; an organized neighborhood that identifies and learns to use its own
assets to solve problems and keep the community strong, stable, beautiful,
and nurturing for our children; where new small businesses emerge among us;
with no outside individual or organization controlling what happens here.
This formula,
in my opinion, can yield for Greensboro one of the best HOPE VI
revitalizations in the nation. I believe we can do this. For our children's sake, we must.
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