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NeighborWorks Community Building and Organizing Programs - Snapshots from the Field

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Here are samples of what our Community Building and Organizing Members do in their local communities:

What a Small Group of Volunteers Can Accomplish!

Youth enjoying the Chelsea Neighborhood Block Party organized by local residents in the summer of 2010.

Chelsea Neighborhood Developers (CND) was founded in 1979 to revitalize the Addison-Orange Neighborhoods of Chelsea, Massachusetts. Chelsea is a dynamic small city located just minutes away from the heart of Boston.

While the total population of Massachusetts was flat from 1980 to 2000, Chelsea’s population grew by 38 percent. Chelsea is the fastest growing city in the region, creating opportunity for housing and businesses alike.

Chelsea is mostly populated by foreign-born residents. CND's Community Engagement Team seeks to work with these neighbors and familiarize them with their new culturally diverse neighborhood. As part of Chelsea Neighborhood Developer’s community building activities this summer a team of eleven volunteers, who participated in two event-planning workshops in June, worked to plan and carry out the annual CND Block Party in Bosson Park.

The volunteers put on this event and were in charge of everything -- from securing food donations, designing invitations and reaching out to invite the neighborhood to the party, to welcoming people to the event, giving out T-shirts, doing face paintings (shown in the picture above), serving chicken and burgers and dancing to live music from a local band. They brought over 200 people together for the celebration. The party was a great success. It was the first time trained volunteers have taken charge of the annual gathering and the turnout was better than ever.

To learn more about Chelsea Neighborhood Developers visit their website, like them on Facebook, or follow their blog.

Mentoring Tomorrow's Leaders

Asian American for Equality (AAEE), located in the heart of Chinatown in New York City, has a 35-year history of empowering the disenfranchised to speak for their rights.

This summer they continued this tradition by building community at their Chinatown Summer Street Festival where they reached 15,000 local residents and workers. The Festival’s theme “Building Green and Healthy Communities” included Go Green Chinatown! Youth Initiative, a youth-led action plan that tackles designing a community garden and a cooking oil recycling campaign.

By actively engaging youth in leaderships roles, the organization is ensuring that the hard work done and the milestones achieved by past generations of Chinese immigrants continues. They are building a sustaining base from which younger generations can take on the baton.

For more information on the Community Building and Organizing work done at Asian Americans for Equality please visit their website, like them on Facebook, follow their blog and check out the inspiring video about Confucius Plaza on vimeo.

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