Community Engagement
Community and neighborhood engagement is a critical component to developing a successful pipeline of supports and a plan that will ensure academic success for all children in the Central Promise Neighborhood. The voices, experiences, ideas and needs of Central residents and stakeholders help inform the plan and ensure that the vision of the Cleveland Central Promise Neighborhood is realized.
In June 2010,
Neighborhood Leadership Institute produced
Central Neighborhood: Building the Promise a report that detailed the engagement process and chronicled the voices of Central's residents, stakeholders, parents and youth. This initial engagement effort introduced the concept of a Promise Neighborhood to residents and their input influenced and shaped the initial grant application for a federal planning grant as well as for the pipeline design submitted in June 2010.
Although our application was not funded, the Promise Neighborhood community engagement has moved forward.
Authentic engagement of the residents and families in the Central neighborhood is a core value of the initiative. We are committed to build capacity and establish long-term relationships with Central residents. One of the most notable capacity building and engagement strategies for the residents of Central, is the Promise Resident Leadership Training. The purpose of the Promise Leaders is to further empower residents to lead, build, sustain and monitor the planning and implementation of the Cleveland Central Promise Neighborhood through relationship building, connection and advocacy.
The Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland hosted a round table discussion Jan. 10, 2011 of local and regional experts in the field representing community, academia, providers and local systems, with the keynote speaker, John A. Powell, executive director, Kirwin Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University. See his presentation.
Our goal for this learning exercise was to foster the exchange of ideas about engagement across backgrounds and experiences, as well as assess and challenge those ideas; in order to identify strategies and approaches for quality engagement to support planning for the Promise Neighborhood.
The area outlined above in red defines the boundaries of the Cleveland Central Promise Neighborhood. A little more than 1.2 miles and encompassing eight census tracts, the section runs from Euclid Avenue to Woodland Avenue and from East 22nd to East 55th streets. The initiative is partnering with three elementary schools in the area. Read the 09-10 school year state report cards on the three schools: Marion-Sterling, George Washington Carver and Carl & Stokes Central Academy.