jobs today, houses tomorrow

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Emily

The Baptist Town neighborhood has austere statistics in terms of the poor quality of housing, low home ownership rates, and homelessness. These challenges largely inspired the Baptist Town Neighborhood Revitalization and are among the primary reasons that my fellowship exists. Despite this great need, plans to install a minimum of eleven new homes in the neighborhood could not be brought to fruition this year for a number of reasons. After initially being devastated by what felt like a failure, my hosts and I rallied around the myriad other ways to positively impact Baptist Town. Safer, more attractive pedestrian routes were created at the entry points to the neighborhood, we completed two parks, a playground, new signage throughout Baptist Town, and held the largest Community Day celebration to date, GOODat Day.

New seating, shade structures, and the playground in the background.

Each of these activities reminded us that as important as housing is, it is one component of the multi-faceted approach needed to bring about long-term change in this neighborhood. One of my hosts, the Greenwood-Leflore Economic Development Foundation, provided the leadership that allowed us to respond to one of the other great needs in Baptist Town: employment. Building upon the skills residents shared during GOODat Day, we offered a competitive small business grant. We awarded the grant two weeks ago. Along with the funds, two grant winners have received business cards and will participate in four question and answer sessions with local experts who can help guide their fledgling businesses.

Economic Development Foundation Executive Director, Angela Curry, and GOOD@ Small Business Grant winner Roger Williams made front page news

Our grant winner has already reported that because of the equipment he was able to buy with the grant funds he has been able to continue detailing cars in cold weather and his profit margin has increased. Though we are working hard now in hopes of beginning the housing component of the neighborhood revitalization as early as January, this work has given us insights into how to more holistically respond to the needs of the Baptist Town community. As the first year of my fellowship quickly wraps up, I am looking forward to a second year in which new homes are realized, and we can support this work through education, health, and employment related initiatives.

awesome GOODat day video

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Emily

As soon as we thought up the GOODat theme for Baptist Town Community Day, I thought of Dash. A long time resident of the neighborhood, he films many of the talented rappers in the neighborhood, and he is good at it. Thanks to Dash, we have great documentation of an awesome day.

More video clips from GOODat coming soon.

what’s your GOODat?

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Emily

When Enterprise was awarded eight $5,000 grants from the Fetzer Institute to be used for love and forgiveness based events, I had a little trouble explaining to the local team what this meant. It turned out to be a question of semantics though, and we moved to framing the question of love in the context of value. What surfaced through this conversation was the importance of valuing oneself, and that this is a prerequisite to being a parent, child, employee, employer, teammate, neighbor, and human who is loving and forgiving. One step further, we asked ourselves how we acknowledge value, or skills and talents, across cultures in the United States. The answer was in the simple phrase, “You are good at…..” or “I am good at…..”

Based on the discovery of GOODat, and the possibility for spreading love that it brought, we began planning the third annual Baptist Town Community Day around a theme of asking and showcasing what the residents of Baptist Town are good at. We asked each other in meetings, “What are you good at?”, and my co-planner Carl Winters and I asked people as they walked, drove or biked down the street, “What’s your GOODat?” Sometimes people were uncomfortable with the question, sometimes they had lengthy answers, but what became clear is that the residents of Baptist Town (and Greenwood) are GOODat a lot things.

Activities throughout the day were planned around the responses to, “What’s your GOODat?”, and as we finished setting up, neighborhood kids were already showing how good they are at jumping and playing. After that, the day officially kicked off at 11 and residents began to visit booths set up by the Leflore County Health Center, the WIN Job Center, and the Harvard Community Development Project. At each booth, important information was available, as well as raffle tickets for door prizes. The cost of a raffle ticket? Answering the question, “What are you GOODat?”

Face painting also began at this time, and Keyauna Gatston showed her artistic skill throughout the day.

The most common answer to the GOODat question was “cooking”. Residents volunteered to cook and serve chicken, ribs, hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, cole slaw, and fruit. Willie Fisher, shown below, began manning the grill at 8 AM and was still serving up chicken and ribs when I left in the evening.

While lunch was being prepared, the DJ opened up the mike to anyone interested in sharing a musical talent. Lady Trucker, a professional singer, got the crowd dancing with her music, and she was followed by a praise dance by a local teen.

There was about an hour of rain in the afternoon, but few people left the event, and stayed to enjoy afternoon activities including art, bingo, a cake walk, more face painting, the inflatables and the new playground. Rosalind Wilcox led the art activities and created house numbers and name plates for residents to attach to their homes, while many residents painted their own sign boards.

While many resident shared what they are GOODat through activities, others wrote on the GOODat chalkboard (to be hung in the neighborhood community center when it is complete), shared their stories of growing up in Baptist Town with the event videographer Dash Brown, or included their skills as a door prize in the form of a GOODat gift certificate. Raffle winners could choose from a hair cut, nail art, dance lessons, or car detailing from their entrepreneurial neighbors.

Throughout the day and the planning process, I was impressed with the many volunteers who shared their time and efforts and the support from the greater Greenwood community (especially the City Public Works Department). As we asked each other, “What’s your GOODat?”, I believe we were acknowledging that we are all valuable, and that was the magic of the day: each individual and what they contribute to the community by simply showing up.

GOODat chalkboards

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Emily

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Saturday was the third annual Baptist Town Community Day. The theme was GOODat, and hundreds of residents came together and participated in activities celebrating the skills and talents of individuals and the neighborhood. Pictures of the day are coming soon, but here are some photos of the prep work that went into creating the blackboards used throughout the event.

a playground at last

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Emily

Three little girls sat on a bench yesterday evening pointing at each new piece of playground equipment. “I’m going to play on that one, and I’m going to play on that one, and I’m going to play on that one.” As concrete footings were drying volunteers had to remind neighborhood kids that the playground wouldn’t be open until this morning.

Through the many surveys conducted in Baptist Town over the past ten years, residents have consistently emphasized the need for activities for children, specifically a playground. Despite this, when I began my job in January, no funding for a playground was in place. That changed when I met Cyndi Long from a local office of GE Capital Aviation Services. We began to work together, and she supported our grant application to the GE Volunteer Foundation. Cyndi and her co-workers were flexible and creative, and joined us in leading a kid’s only community meeting in April to brainstorm with neighborhood kids what they most wanted in the playground. As a result, we won a grant from the GE Volunteer Foundation for $4,000, and the local GECAS branch sponsored approximately $3,500 in play equipment and supplies. A crew of GE volunteers to construct the park was also a part of the grant award.

Yesterday, twenty-eight volunteers from GECAS, including Greenwood residents and many who drove down from Memphis, brought to life what had previously only existed on paper. Starting with swings and bouncers on a grassy site in the morning, the group wrapped up the day with a completed playground by evening. When I visited the site this morning, the three little girls were true to their word – playing on every piece of equipment we had installed. In the short time I visited today, a dozen kids jumped, slid, climbed and see sawed. I know this demographic is enjoying the result of this project, but the realization of something so long asked for seems important to the community as a whole. “Hopeful” is a word I have heard a lot in regard to the playground project. I am honored to be a part of something hopeful, and am looking forward to GOODat day on Saturday where we continue to celebrate the people of Baptist Town of all ages.

I am grateful to so many people for realizing this playground. As I continue to work in the field of social impact design, each project demonstrates that nothing is completed by an individual, but is the product of many collaborators. Obviously, GE and Cyndi played huge roles, but whether you drove a truck, lent a wheelbarrow, lent a hand, wrote about the day, or enjoy hanging up-side-down from the monkeybars: thank you, this would not have happened without you.

new signs in Baptist Town

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Emily

photo credit: Richard Elliott

street signs

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Emily

New street signs were installed in Baptist Town last week. They are brown to designate the neighborhood as a historic district, and feature the new Baptist Town logo on the left side. It was a rush to order many of the park and entryway items before the grant period ended July 31, but the schedule has worked out better than I could have planned. Each week something new arrives, and the step by step face lift of Pearl St., Pelican St. and Avenue A continues!

thinking of PID week

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Emily

Some not to be named grant administrators visited Baptist Town last week. They weren’t sure why we would implement such an architectural sign in a neighborhood undergoing revitalization. The thought that came to mind was a phrase often used at Public Interest Design Week last March in Minneapolis. It was nice to have a succinct answer: “Everyone deserves good design.”

*The paper sign is a mock-up and will be replaced with a metal version later this month.

6 months in….

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Emily

June was a rocky month for this project, but the team here in Greenwood is committed to seeing this through, and I feel lucky to be part of such a positive group. After taking a few days off to recover during the 4th of July holiday, Richard and I are back in Greenwood, and rather than hiding out until we’ve figured out answers, we’ve been spending extra time in Baptist Town. A few hours with neighborhood residents each of the last three days has energized and inspired us. There is no substitute for spending time with community members in this line of work.

The following article was published in the Greenwood Commonwealth on July 2, 2013.

Baptist Town Project Suffers Setbacks

by Jeanie Riess, Staff Writer

Bill Crump says recent setbacks for the Baptist Town project won’t prevent it from moving forward.

“We are committed to getting this project completed one way or another,” the chairman of the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation said.

Two new setbacks recently were added to the list of challenges the project has faced since its inception in 2010.

The bill to redirect 26 “Katrina cottages” donated to the city of Greenwood by the Federal Emergency Management Agency was not picked up during a special session of the Legislature in June.

The bill would have given the city, which now owns the cottages, the authority to donate them to the Fuller Center, a nonprofit charged with installing the permanent houses. The city does not have the legal authority to make such a donation; it can only sell the cottages as surplus property.

The cottages are the kind of small structures used to provide housing on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. The new, brightly colored homes, which are to be installed in Baptist Town to help revitalize the century-old black neighborhood in Greenwood, are sitting at Greenwood-Leflore Airport.

“We had the legislation ready,” Crump said. “Sen. (Lydia) Chassaniol and Sen. (David) Jordan were prepared to introduce the legislation to give the city the authority to donate the cottages to the Fuller Center. Rep. (Linda) Whittington and Rep. (Bobby) Howell were ready to introduce the bill to the House.”

Crump said he and Angela Curry, executive director of the economic development foundation, along with Emily Roush Elliott, the architectural fellow managing the project, had also worked with Gov. Phil Bryant’s office to introduce the bill. Only the governor has the authority to add a bill to the call of the special session.

But the Legislature was meeting to discuss the expansion of Medicaid, an issue that Crump said proved so contentious and critical that it pushed any housekeeping issues off the table.

This isn’t the first time the Baptist Town project has seen defeat in Jackson.

In April, state Rep. Willie Perkins amended the same bill to redirect the cottages to a nonprofit of his choosing, one that Crump and his team didn’t feel was a good fit for the houses. The bill died in the Senate, once again rendering the cottages ownerless.

Crump said he’s looking into other options.

“The people of Baptist Town deserve this project,” he said. “The 30 people who have made out applications deserve these houses.”

Curry agreed, and she said in an email that the economic development foundation will keep working to get the cottages placed in Baptist Town despite the setback.

“We have encountered some obstacles, but we cannot abandon this project as it is too important to the residents of Baptist Town,” Curry said. “After all, the mission of this foundation is to improve the quality of life for residents in our community. The fruition of this project will help to do just that.”

The project encountered a second bump in the road last week, when Crump’s team decided to pull out of its partnership with the Foundation for the Mid-South, the organization managing the grant money for the installment of the cottages.

Crump said the decision to split from the group came about because the Foundation for the Mid-South did not feel that the Fuller Center was qualified to handle the project.

Crump’s team, however, is committed to working with the Fuller Center.

“They’ve put up more than 30 houses in Greenwood,” he said. “So we decided to continue on with Fuller and not with Foundation for the Mid-South. We would love to continue working with Foundation for the Mid-South, but their requirements were not in accordance with our plans.”

Because the foundation was the manager of the funding provided by the Walton Family Foundation, Crump said the split will affect some of the money.

“That money will be sent back to Walton,” he said.

He insisted, however, that it would not be to the detriment of the project.

“We do have plans to at some point make a proposal straight to Walton for some phases of this project,” Crump said. “But we’re not waiting for Walton. We have other sources of funding we are going to draw from.”

For Crump, the only issue standing between the cottages and their new owners is the legal hurdle of donating them.

“Everything else is in place,” he said. “The land has been purchased; Greenwood Utilities has done the initial work with power lines and water and sewerage. We have a fantastic team of people who’ve been committed to this for months and years. Everybody really feels we have to get this completed.”

architecture | equality

– Emily Roush-Elliott

Tag Archives: Baptist Town