 |
Urban Ministry Resource Guide | Archive | Contact | Subscribe/Unsubscribe
The Emmanuel Research Review is a publication of the Emmanuel Gospel Center, and features articles, papers, resources, and information that we believe are helpful and relevant to urban pastors, leaders, and community members in their efforts to serve their communities effectively. |
Introduced by Brian Corcoran
Research Associate, Emmanuel
Gospel Center
Managing Editor, Emmanuel Research Review
In the October issue of the Emmanuel Research Review, Khary Bridgewater, Project Manager of the Youth Violence Systems Project (YVSP) provided an introduction, overview, and update on the work of YVSP in Boston.
In the current issue, Paul Bothwell, Community Liaison of YVSP, shares briefly about the community process and neighborhood research of YVSP. As Paul mentions, communities with high levels of violence need to learn and lead the way in reducing violence and rebuilding healthy youth and vibrant community. The Upham’s Corner Neighborhood Briefing Document is an example of practical neighborhood-specific research that has informed and inspired community residents engaged in the process of reducing youth violence while also contributing to the broader process of building shared vision, collaborative design, providing insight, experimentation, and public reflection toward building vital communities.
As always, we welcome your feedback!
By Paul Bothwell, Youth Violence Systems Project Community Liaison
|
The Youth Violence Systems Project (YVSP) was born out of community need—the need for communities in Boston with high levels of violence to somehow develop the people, the tools and the resources to learn and lead the way in reducing violence and rebuilding healthy youth and vibrant community. YVSP was also driven by a conviction that those communities most impacted by youth violence must also have the most say in what interventions are designed and implemented for reducing youth violence. Furthermore, within highly impacted communities, young people themselves are the most profoundly affected by the violence and must be a significant part of the solution-design process.
|
The problem is that most often the communities that suffer the most violence have the least in tools, resources and power for any comprehensive interventions. YVSP is an attempt to bring the best of organizing, research, and systems thinking tools to community residents and organizations in Boston, to empower them to “organize, plan for, create and control” (as expressed in the local Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative mission statement) long-term, sustainable interventions that reduce violence and build healthy, stable communities.
Early in the community-process of the YVSP, it became clear that one valuable tool for residents and collaborative partners is information about the community—accurate, useable, relevant, and neighborhood specific. Sounds simple—but no one had assembled it in a way that is useable by community residents. Emmanuel Gospel Center’s Senior Researcher Rudy Mitchell and staff were up to the challenge, and were able to draw together a Neighborhood Briefing Document for each community that participated in YVSP. It gave a brief look at history, demographics such as population trends, family structures, housing, churches, schools, racial and ethnic changes over time—the challenges as well as the current neighborhood assets for moving forward.
The Neighborhood Briefing Document for Upham’s Corner and other neighborhoods are a gift to the community, a small piece of foundation work that said, “You’re important; who you are is important. Together you can build from where you are now to who you want to be—and the YVSP is here to help you move forward.” One youth program director said, “I haven’t held in my hand a tool so simple, but so powerful, for helping youth see who we are in this community and giving us a whole new view of how we could work together to really make a difference.” That’s pretty good—and that’s even before the real work of systems thinking and computer simulation model-building began. Each piece of the process has helped in building a “Collaborative Learning Community” in each neighborhood, that is steadily working at learning and leading in community change!
Click here to download the Neighborhood Briefing Document for Upham’s Corner. (PDF file, 2.78 MB).
What’s Inside the Uphams Corner Neighborhood Briefing Document?
[ top of section | top of page ]
Emmanuel Research Review, copyright © 2004-2009, Emmanuel Gospel Center. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint any or all of this newsletter, contact , Senior Researcher, by e-mail or write to us (address below).
Emmanuel Gospel Center
2 San Juan Street
PO Box 180245
Boston MA 02118-0994
Send your ideas and comments to:
Click here to subscribe to the Emmanuel Research Review and EGC's e-mail publications!
EGC never shares our e-mail list with anyone.
UNSUBSCRIBING: In each e-mail you receive, there will be a link to unsubscribe or change your areas of interest. Emmanuel Gospel Center uses 
which guarantees the permanent removal of your e-mail address from the Emmanuel Gospel Center list.
