Developing community service programs for public housing residents
Abstract
Public housing residents, often the recipients of social services, can be great assets to their communities as providers of community service. Self-Help in Public Housing: A Handbook for Developing Successful HOPE VI Community Service Programs was developed by the Corporation for National and Community Service to assist HOPE VI grantees in implementing community service programs from the initial planning stages to sustainability. The HOPE VI Urban Revitalization Demonstration Program by HUD funds the demolition and revitalization of severely distressed public housing.Issue
The intent of the HOPE VI Urban Revitalization Demonstration Program is to redefine how people interact within and beyond the physical borders of public housing properties. This is achieved through a creative, solid community service plan and program that empowers residents to take control of their community and increase their self-sufficiency, encourages interchange and collective work between public housing residents and the larger community, and ensures a successful and sustained revitalized community.Action
The HOPE VI Urban Revitalization Demonstration Program
In order to engage a number of residents and achieve success, community service programs should be designed in ways that tie community service activities to training, stipends and support, further education, and real job opportunities. Public housing residents must be active partners in the planning and implementation of a successful community service plan and program.
The sustained success of urban revitalization requires that the isolation and barriers between public housing residents and the surrounding community be dissolved. Your community service program should involve public housing residents as well as encourage individuals from the surrounding community to participate in the HOPE VI revitalization process.
Assessment Tools for Developing a Community Service Plan
Before a community service plan can be developed, there must first be an extensive planning process. This process should be guided and informed by the results of an assessment of community needs and a resident skills, needs and abilities assessment.
Engage personnel from a local university in the creation of the assessment tools and the training of people who will administer the assessment. Include residents in developing and administering the assessment to begin the process of active resident involvement in the community service plan. Once the assessments have been administered, university staff can be helpful in coding and collating the information. Consider the university group as a potential partner in the on-going evaluation of the HOPE VI community service plan.
Community Needs and Resources Assessment
Determine the needs of the community as a whole, the service needs of the residents, and the resources already available in the community. Consider the following questions in the assessment:
- What are the strengths and resources of the community?
- What specific health, education, and employment services do residents need for themselves and their children?
- What organizations are already present on-site and engaged in providing services or activities?
- What specific community needs do people identify for children, adolescents, parents, seniors, and people with disabilities?
- If there will be a general and extended relocation of residents, what services will residents need while they are off-site?
- What are the child care needs of residents?
- Are substance abuse services needed?
- Who do people go to when they have an individual or community problem? Names that are mentioned time and again can be considered natural leaders of the community. If there is no identified resident organization, the natural leaders can begin to form one or can be the first group of community service participants.
- Is there a youth organization on-site or in the neighborhood?
- What early childhood development services exist?
- What environmental and public space concerns do public housing residents and their neighbors have?
- What are the public safety concerns of residents and their neighbors?
- What is the potential for economic development?
Resident Skills and Needs Assessment
Determine the specific skills, abilities, and needs of public housing residents and their particular areas of interest in community service, education, training, and job opportunities. Consider the following information in the assessment:
- Present a clear definition of community service including the information that stipends, post-service educational awards, and other possible incentives may be available.
- Share with residents the specific ideas about community service programs generated by public housing authority staff and resident leadership. Are residents willing to perform those community service functions?
- What specific skills do residents already possess?
- What employment histories do residents have?
- What educational levels have residents achieved?
- Do residents work or receive some form of public assistance?
- What interests and desires do youth have regarding community service?
- What interests, desires and limitations do seniors have regarding community service?
- How many people with disabilities live in the community? Would they like to participate in community service?
The Planning Process
The original partners in the planning process for community service should be public housing authority staff and public housing residents.
Many residents have not had the opportunity to take part in a major planning process. Therefore, the process, structure, language and long hours often feel foreign and intimidating. Steps must be taken to ensure consistent and active involvement of residents in the planning and implementation process. Hiring community organizers, consultants, or residents to assist in the development and implementation of the community service plan is an allowable HOPE VI expense and should be seriously considered.
The earlier people participate in community service the more likely they are to continue such activities throughout their lives. Youth representatives should be included in the planning process in one of two ways: either as members of the adult planning team, or as members of a youth planning team charged with the development of the youth component of the community service plan.
It is equally important that seniors of the community be included and given leadership roles. Their time and wisdom is invaluable, and they can also communicate with and recruit nonparticipating residents.
Planning Steps
- Orient the planning group to HOPE VI, community service, and the development and implementation of a community service plan.
- Discuss the results of the assessment thoroughly and select priorities.
- If a major and extended relocation of residents is required, plan for off-site and on-site community service opportunities.
- Develop the various community service program components based on the national priority areas of public safety, health and human needs, education, and the environment.
- Invite potential partners to discuss the development of specific community service projects. Encourage the partners to enter into relationships with each other to leverage existing resources.
- Include very specific, measurable goals and objectives for each component of the plan, as well as a timeline including milestones for achievement of each goal and objective.
- Make the community service plan flexible throughout the life of revitalization.
Build broad-based community support as well as the financial resources necessary to continue programs beyond the term of revitalization, and plan how specific project outcomes will be sustained. Maintain resident enthusiasm through the direct and demonstrable results of community service projects. The more community service activities that are tied to opportunities for training, education, and employment, the more likely that community service can be institutionalized in the revitalized community.
Developing Relationships and Selecting Partners
Partnerships increase the impact of individual organizations, develop new leaders, build an ongoing power base, increase sustainability, and broaden the scope of programs.
It is important to make sure potential partners truly understand the concept of community service and how it is different from supportive services.
Successful urban revitalization requires the development of solid partnerships that can deliver needed services to residents in a fashion that promotes self-sufficiency rather than maintenance of the status quo and can create and deliver successful community service programs, positions, and training.
Select partners who will help the public housing authority and residents to develop bold, new, and creative designs for programs that truly meet community and individual needs. Consider the following criteria:
- Proven commitment to urban revitalization and the HOPE VI community
- Commitment of resources and the ability to leverage new resources
- Capacity to design new programs or make needed changes to existing programs so that they truly respond to the needs of the community
- Ability to effectively manage quality programs and get things done
- Aptitude for working with public housing residents as partners and treating them in a respectful manner
- Likelihood to make a long-term commitment to service
Establish effective communication and coordination among partners. Map all your partners, charting both coordination among them and also avenues of accountability.
Community Service Programs and Activities
Community service programs must be carefully planned and organized. Keep in mind the following national priorities:
- Human Needs
- Health
- Housing
- Senior and disabled needs
- School readiness
- School success
- Adult education
- Crime prevention
- Crime control
- Substance abuse programs
- Environmental risk reduction
- Economic development
- Physical revitalization
Examples of Community Service Programs
There are infinite possibilities for community service programs and activities. Following are several community service program ideas meant to serve as examples.
- To improve the quality of Head Start centers, create new community partnerships, expand the range of services offered through the center to meet family needs, help assess children's progress, renovate and repair facilities, increase parental involvement and offer extra assistance in the classroom so children experience more one-on-one activity.
- This intergenerational corps involves participants in activities that encourage parents to improve their own basic skills while they learn to engage children in learning activities such as telling stories, reading books, and singing songs.
- To improve the assistance provided to victims of crime, participants work with law enforcement, courts, medical personnel, and victim service providers.
- To increase the utilization of prenatal care and improve the health of newborns, community service participants, including some who are mothers themselves, receive pre-service and in-service training in prenatal health and baby care, home visitation, and community outreach.
- To reduce crime in areas plagued by violence, community service participants partner with police officers engaged in community policing. Many successful programs engage the very youth at risk of becoming offenders in making their communities safer.
- To allow continued independence of those in need, an intergenerational team of participants provides home-based services through the sponsorship of a health care or senior center.
Participant Development and Support
In order for the program staff and participants to have clear expectations of each other, it is strongly recommended that participants sign written contracts, which explain the responsibilities of participants and the training and support that are the program's responsibilities.
Training should occur both before and during the course of service activities. Partners who will sponsor specific community service projects should commit to training participants and provide the public housing authority with detailed plans for how that training will be conducted.
In order for many public housing residents and their neighbors to engage in community service, it may be necessary to provide childcare, health care, and other support services. Participants may also need G.E.D. and college-preparedness programs to take advantage of educational opportunities.
Whatever their jobs, each program staff member should be competent in basic counseling, crisis intervention, and referral to social services. In addition, many support services can be provided by other community service participants as part of their own service activities.
Programs should be designed so that both the community and the individual participant benefit. Community service programs should include activities and training which emphasize the active promotion of the ethic and skills needed for productive, active citizenship, life skills training, and the development of community problem-solving and leadership skills.
Strong programs build among participants a spirit of commitment to service, to the community, and to each other. The goals of a service project are more easily met and the work more rewarding when a philosophy of service is shared and teamwork with peers, staff, and partners is evident.
Whenever possible, HOPE VI plans should include opportunities for service-learning. The three basic steps of service-learning are sufficient preparation, performing the service, and analyzing the experience through discussion and reflection with peers.
The physical safety of participants must be of paramount concern, and programs that do not take appropriate measures to protect the safety of participants will not be approved.
Developing and Assessing Annual Objectives
Every program must establish:
- A mission statement
- Specific, measurable annual goals and objectives
- A system for tracking progress toward annual objectives
- A system for using "customer" feedback for continuous program improvement
- A system for collecting descriptive and demographic data
Context
For the purposes of HOPE VI, a community service program is defined as a program organized, administered, overseen or funded by a public housing authority or its designated representative, engaging individuals in meaningful service on a volunteer basis or through limited stipends to address unmet human, environmental, educational, and/or public safety needs through resident associations, community-based organizations, local public agencies, K-12 schools, youth service and conservation corps, institutions of higher education, churches or other religious entities and other such similar organizations.
In order to develop strong community service plans, it is critical to understand the distinction between supportive services and community service.
- The supportive service model approaches public housing residents and their families as recipients of services provided by agencies and organizations.
- The community service model engages residents, their families and neighbors as active participants, providers, and partners in the development and delivery of service programs and activities that improve the community and quality of peoples' lives. Additionally, community service includes a citizenship component, which encourages people to draw linkages between their service and its impact on the community.
Citation
Self-Help in Public Housing: A handbook for developing successful HOPE VI community service programs. Corporation for National and Community Service: Washington, D.C., 1995.Outcome
Participants in programs that combine community service and supportive services acquire employment and citizenship skills, improve their chances for success in the workplace and often become leaders in their own communities.
The result of positive participant experience is quality work done while individuals grow and reach new levels of self-sufficiency. Successful community service programs not only achieve direct and demonstrable results but also open doors for individuals to attain their job, career, and educational goals.
Posted On
May 10, 2001Resources
From The Resource Center library:
Self-Help in Public Housing: A handbook for developing successful HOPE VI community service programs