Neighborhood Renaissance Nile Gardens

Transcription

1 Neighborhood Renaissance Nile Gardens Taskforce Meeting February 7, 2012 People and Education Committee Rhae Parkes, EJP Consulting Group, LLC Facilitator/Technical Assistance Provider Johnnie M. Green Chairperson Sharon Y. Williams, Opa-locka Community Development Corporation Staff Liaison

2 Participants* David Thompson Elvira Smith Fred Funeus Jannie Russell Lyra Logan Marilyn Oliver Nelson Mary Alice Brown Mayor Myra Taylor Nancy Napolitano Sharron L. Henley Sophia Lacroix Susan Trauschke- McEachin Johnnie M. Green Chairperson Sharon Williams OLCDC Staff Liaison Rhae Parkes Facilitator/Technical Assistance Provider Emily Holt Technical Assistance Provider *See attached sign in sheet for names and organizations. This list is comprised of participants that signed in. It will be updated to add anyone omitted. Summary of Committee Discussion Overview of People/Education Component The People/Education Task Force Committee is charged with the task of developing strategies for people and education for the Choice Neighborhood Implementation (CNI) grant to be submitted April 10, The Task Force is comprised of members that have a very good knowledge of the neighborhood and a thorough understanding of the families in Nile Gardens. The discussion at today s meeting engaged the participants in a dialogue about how best to prepare for the opportunities and challenges in the next few weeks leading up to the application deadline. Data Needs To acquire the necessary data needed for completion of the application and to score well the following will be required: Target Residents The Gardens Apartments Residents have been involved to assist with the Resident Needs Assessment survey. The survey will help determine what the needs of the residents are (health, education, jobs, etc.) and provide a profile of the households to be served. Neighborhood Residents.

3 Understanding household composition will help with addressing the education and supportive assistance requirements. Recommendation: Miami Dade Comprehensive Plan. It was recommended that this group understand the plans for the neighborhood as outlined in the Miami Dade Comprehensive Plan. School Data Developing the strategy for schools is a priority to demonstrate how students are achieving academically and how progress will be made after revitalization begins. The education strategy must ensure that residents between the ages of 0-18 will have access to high-quality early learning programs. Lyra Logan briefly described the education initiative for North Dade Middle School. OLCDC and the Florida Education Fund are partnering with North Dade Middle School to provide tutoring, test taking skills and a math camp. North Dade Middle School is one of the feeder schools for Nile Gardens residents. Susan McEachin, principal of Opa-locka Elementary School, offered to provide the school data required by the NOFA. Susan explained the recent changes in the school structure for the neighborhood, with Opa-locka Elementary serving as the neighborhood elementary school (where she serves as Princiapl), followed by North Dade Middle School, and Miami Lakes Senior). There are also several charter schools that serve children in the area. Community and Resident Engagement Following-up on the efforts to involve and inform residents, OLCDC has organized an event for Saturday, February 11 to make a push to complete the survey and use the time to answer frequently asked questions. A flyer will be sent to all participants. OLCDC s second strategy to involve residents in the planning process is to hold a total of 4 resident meetings. The first resident meeting was held on January 31. Recommendation: In addition to current activities, participants suggested the following priorities as a possible means of achieving successful community engagement and buy-in from Nile Gardens residents and stakeholders: 1. Continue the efforts of involving and informing the residents of what the OLCDC and the Task Force committees are doing. 2. Engage school leadership, faith based organizations, the City of Opa-locka and other stakeholders to spread the word. 3. Involve the residents to ensure that factual information is provided through their network of word-of-mouth information gathering.

4 People Strategy Target Populations. The target population for the purpose of this grant is the residents of The Gardens Apartments. o Original Families currently living in The Gardens Apartments o New Families that move to the neighborhood after revitalization. To address new residents moving into the revitalized site, it is proposed that the new development will include additional units (over and above the 328 units to be replaced). o Neighborhood Residents living in the Nile Gardens neighborhood but not in Gardens Apartments units. Several members asked about which building would be included in the target neighborhood. Specifically, they asked about the 42 vacant units in a building now called the pinks where they know six families are currently living. Priority Areas There was considerable discussion about available opportunities for residents and stakeholders in the areas of employment, replacement housing and case management. To aid in this area, Rhae Parkes explained that there will be a comprehensive case management approach to coordinate the strategies to connect the residents to all available resources. Employment and Training. Rhae Parkes confirmed that residents will receive first priority for jobs created as a result of the revitalization plan (e.g., construction). Recommendations: Several participants recommended that Sylvia Daughtrey from Youth Co-op be contacted to participate on the task force to provide information and available resources on employment and other training programs. Relocation and Mobility Counseling Rhae Parkes assured committee members that every effort will be made to make sure residents have the first opportunity to return to the new units. OLCDC and its partners have made a commitment that no family will be displaced. Several Task Force members expressed concern about how the displacement of residents from their neighborhood could negatively impact neighborhood schools as a large portion of their student populations have to leave the affected area. Willie responded that the CDC s goal was to build new housing before the old housing is torn down to prevent school mobility among neighborhood children. The Task Force expressed a concern for safety and referred to data presented about crime statistics. Security is a critical concern and the participants expressed an interest in making sure the site is designed to enhance security, while remaining transparent.

5 Partnerships/Collaboration A comprehensive resource directory will be developed to document the inventory of existing supportive and community services that exist in the area that can aid in the delivery of supportive services to neighborhood residents. This will become a collaborative effort between all of the agencies involved and the City of Opa-locka. Gaps in available services will be identified as the resource directory is compiled. This will be further discussed at a later meeting. Funding and Sustainability The CNI grant allows for up to 15% of the grant to be used for supportive services. This means that approximately $4 million will be available to provide supportive services for this initiative. In-kind and cash commitments to leverage CNI dollars must be firmly committed as of the application deadline (April 10, 2012). Each partner is asked to consider how its organization can assist with the required match. An explanation of allowable in-kind commitments is included in the handout distributed at the meeting and will be posted with the committee meeting minutes on OLCDC s website. Follow-up/Next Steps: 1. Mayor Taylor or Elvira Smith will provide data and statistics on children 0-5 years of age. 2. Sharon Williams will request a copy of the Miami-Dade County Comprehensive Plan from Dr. Sid Brown. 3. Emily Holt will talk offline with Susan McEachin to determine the exact school data needs for the CNI application. 4. Sharon Williams will follow-up with Mayor Taylor to get Sylvia Daughtrey s contact information and will follow up to see if Youth Co-op is interested in serving as a service partner for the NRI. 5. Mayor Taylor will provide the contact info for the City department that can provide the Business and Service Providers Inventory. 6. Sharon will develop and distribute a sign-in sheet at each committee meeting. 7. Sharon will update the People/Education Committee Contact List and send to members for review. If your contact information is incorrect, please send any revisions to Sharon. 8. Each committee participant will review the list of organizations on the People/Education committee contact list and determine whether they have additional suggestions for the potential partners. Committee members will send the contact info of any suggested partners to Sharon. 9. Sharon Henley of the Urban League will provide a copy of a worksheet to assist service providers with determining the in-kind services their organizations can provide and calculating the value of their in-kind contributions. A copy of the worksheet is attached. 10. Rhae and Emily will assemble a sample Letter of Commitment that Sharon will distribute to the group to give partners a better idea of the information their organizations need to provide.