NEIGHBORHOOD PARTNERS INITIATIVE (NPI)
PROJECT SITE ASSESSMENT
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
Neighborhood Partners Initiative
(Text adapted from Block-By-Block, the newsletter of the Neighborhood Partners Initiative published by The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.)
Officially launched in 1996, the Neighborhood Partners Initiative (NPI) is a homelessness prevention and community revitalization project of The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation that targets one- to five- block neighborhoods in the South Bronx and Central Harlem where there is an identified risk of housing abandonment and future neighborhood decline.
The NPI has a broad mandate: build the capacity of the neighborhoods, prevent homelessness by improving housing conditions as well as by increasing economic opportunity, fostering resident leadership, and strengthening ties among individuals, families and institutions in the community.
Within each of the five neighborhoods currently participating in the NPI, the Foundation has identified a lead organization to work with residents to develop and implement a community revitalization plan: Abyssinian Development Corporation and Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families, in Central Harlem; Highbridge Community Life Center, Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council, and Bronx Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN) in the Highbridge, Morrisania, and Mott Haven sections of the South Bronx, respectively.
In the first year of the Initiative, UTAP has provided each of the five
partner organizations and their local leadership group of residents and
other neighborhood stakeholders with planning information aimed to facilitate
their efforts to develop a Neighborhood Vision Statement. Thus far UTAP
has compiled for each neighborhood an assessment of baseline planning conditions;
conducted programmatic research; and held issue-specific planning sessions
and workshops.
Abyssinian Development Corporation
Abyssinian Development Corporation, Inc. (ADC) is a Harlem-based community development corporation with a 10-year history. As a program of ADC, Community Vision Project was designated to work with residents of West 127th, 128th and 129th Streets between Lenox and Fifth Avenues to improve the quality of life in Harlem by designing and implementing programs and developments that: (1) increase the availability of quality housing to people of different income levels; (2) enhance the delivery of social services, particularly to the homeless and elderly; (3) foster economic revitalization; (4) enhance the educational and development opportunities for youth; and (5) build community capacity.
Bronx Association of Community Organization for Reform Now
Bronx Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN) was first organized in the neighborhood of Mott Haven in 1993 as a local affiliate of the national grassroots network. Presently, ACORN's primary mission in the South Bronx is to encourage community participation and help tenant associations, landlords, and homeowners to improve the physical condition of their communities and to promote sound management of existing residential buildings. As a partner in the NPI, Bronx ACORN has targeted four blocks in the South Bronx between Alexander and Brook Avenues just to the north of East 138th Street.
Highbridge Community Life Center
The Highbridge Community Life Center (HCLC) has been an active family advocate and multi-service agency operating in southern Highbridge for the past 15 years. Neighbors in Highbridge, a program of the HCLC, was developed to coordinate the Neighborhood Partners Initiative on Anderson Avenue between West 162nd and 165th Streets. The Initiative works with local tenant associations, institutions and residents to strengthen existing organizing efforts and improve the overall quality of life for all residents of the block.
Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council
The Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council, Inc. (MBSCC) has been providing comprehensive social services to residents of the Morrisania/Mid-Bronx neighborhood since 1970. In addition to family support and health care services, economic development programs, employment services, child care and youth programs, MBSCC has been involved in community housing development and management since 1984. MBSCC's Neighborhood Partners Initiative focuses on the neighborhood centered on Morris Avenue near E 161st Street and immediately east of the Grand Concourse.
Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families and Community Pride
Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families, a multi-service agency with a 25-year presence in Central Harlem, developed Community Pride to work in partnership with residents of West 119th Street to combine empowerment-based social and educational services at the family level, tenant organizing at the building level, and an array of resident-led neighborhood revitalization efforts, all aimed at preventing homelessness and improving community life in South Central Harlem.