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10

Neighborhood Empowerment

I. Defining Neighborhoods

A. Neighborhood: A community or place within a larger community

B. Neighborhoods based on size

1. Immediate neighborhoods: Consists of a limited number of family units and lodgings located in a relatively small area

2. Extended neighborhoods: Larger than an immediate neighborhood and might include several square blocks

3. Community neighborhoods: Includes 30 square blocks or even more

C. Neighborhoods are based upon residents’ common characteristics, values, interests, or lifestyles

II. Functions of Neighborhoods: Promoting Optimal Health and Well-Being

A. Arena for social interaction

B. Provision of mutual aid

C. Arena for people to communicate and share information

D. Allow people to assert their social status

E. Provision of an organizational and political base

F. Qualities of strong neighborhoods

1. A good school system

2. Good, safe areas for children to participate in play, sports, and other positive recreational and cultural activities

3. Effective management of children’s behavior by presiding adults

4. Ready availability of and access to good health care facilities and services

5. Easily accessible public or other community transportation so residents can go to work or school, access health care, and undertake other necessary activities for daily life

6. Good availability and facilities to meet daycare and other child care needs

7. Strong support network of families and adults to watch over children, provide support, and serve as positive role models

8. A reasonably safe environment with low or nonexistent levels of criminal activity, hazardous environmental dangers, and racial conflict

III. Describing Neighborhood Structure

A. Approach one: Interpersonal interaction, identification, and connections

1. Highlight 10.1: Communities Based on Interpersonal Interaction, Identification, and Social Connections

2. Six basic types of neighborhoods

a. Integral neighborhoods: Neighborhoods manifesting high levels of interpersonal interaction, identification with neighborhood, and social connectedness

b. Parochial neighborhoods: Neighborhoods high on interaction and identification but low on community connections

c. Diffuse neighborhoods: Neighborhoods with a strong sense of identification, but experience little social interaction and do not feel the need for social connectedness

d. Stepping-stone neighborhoods: Neighborhoods where residents may positively identify themselves with the neighborhood but have low levels of commitment to interact with other residents because they won’t be there that long

e. Transitory neighborhoods: Neighborhoods that resemble stepping-stones in terms of the transitory nature; however, residents have much less access to resources and are probably not moving up in the world—just moving. Residents have low levels of social interaction and identification

f. Anomic neighborhoods: Neighborhoods that are dysfunctional and provide little support

g. Anomie: A sociological term that means social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values often involving personal unrest, alienation, and uncertainty that comes from a lack of purpose or ideals (Mish)

3. Highlight 10.2: Brief Commentary on the Nature of Neighborhoods

B. Approach two: Neighborhood groups and value implementation

1. Formal and informal groups in neighborhoods can play a significant role in the attainment of individual and social goals in American society

2. Mobility involves a continuous flux in a neighborhood’s population

3. Impersonality involves lack of connection and caring among neighborhood residents

IV. Neighborhoods, Ethnicity, and Social Class

A. Strengths of ethnic and cultural solidarity

1. Solidarity communities: Composed of people in the same racial or ethnic group, who share history, culture, language, or religion. Solidarity ties are usually based on birth (Rubin & Rubin)

2. Highlight 10.3: Projects to Enhance Neighborhood Strengths

a. Murals

b. Gardens

c. Community playgrounds

B. Social class

C. Segregation

V. Processes of Change in Neighborhoods

A. The invasion-succession model: Based on the idea that conflict occurs when new groups of people reflecting certain racial, cultural, or religious characteristics move into areas already inhabited by people with different characteristics

1. Invasion: The tendency of each new group of people coming into an area to force existing groups out

2. Succession: The replacement of the original occupants of a community or neighborhood by new groups

B. The life cycle model: Views neighborhood change as a decline, with a neighborhood undergoing predictable phases from birth until death

C. The political capacity model: Perceives a neighborhood as having the ability to pass through various stages as it develops its political viability and power

VI. Neighborhood Centers, Empowerment, and the Promotion of Health and Well-Being

A. Neighborhood center: A community-based agency that advocates for community residents and works with them to provide a wide array of services meeting their needs; it is funded through a variety of services

B. Settlement houses: A response to changing social and economic forces

1. They developed in response to three changing social and economic forces

a. Industrialization

b. Urbanization

c. Explosive immigration

2. Settlement houses: Places where ministers, students, or humanitarians settled to interact with poor slum dwellers with the purpose of alleviating the conditions of capitalism

C. Settlement houses and generalist social work practice

1. Settlement houses formed a strong partial foundation for generalist practice within communities

a. They addressed the problems of people in an environmental context instead of focusing on individual pathology

b. An environmental focus led naturally to an emphasis on advocacy and social reform

c. They emphasized the empowerment of people

D. Neighborhood Centers Today

1. Community neighborhood residents are key factors

2. Emphasis on community assets

3. Neighborhood centers can help neighborhoods work together

4. Linkage among neighborhood units

5. Highlight 10.4: What Effective Neighborhood Centers Can Do

a. Establish a positive and effective sense of self as a neighborhood and as a resident of that neighborhood

b. Social activities and celebrations

c. Maintenance and clean up

d. Opportunities for interpersonal interaction

e. Sharing resources and organizing volunteer help

f. Training and education

g. Support for various organized groups

h. Evaluating services provided by the local government

i. Protection and safety

j. Provision of various services

k. Collaboration with managers of public programs

l. Housing improvement and business development

m. Enhancement of political clout

n. School improvement

E. Examples of Neighborhood and Community Projects—Resident Empowerment

1. Residents in a public housing project identified unemployment as a major problem

2. Local chapter members of the National Association of Black Accountants volunteered time to help community residents and local businesses

3. A group of neighborhood residents living in a small town determined that they needed a place to hold community events

4. A neighborhood center’s members became concerned about teens having little to do when school was out

5. One neighborhood center identified homebound senior residents’ need for help plowing snow in winter and spading gardens in preparation for spring planting

6. Residents of a suburban neighborhood concluded that they needed greater communication among themselves about community events and each other’s activities

7. Community residents in St. Louis addressed the problem of teen pregnancy by establishing the Teen Outreach Program 20 years ago

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