Building community in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood
Name
921851135-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
26.84 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
5548c88e7cf244a0441642fb9e9b2914
Author(s)
Bertumen, Kassie D. (Kassie Lyn Dumlao)
Advisor(s)
Lawrence J. Vale.
Date Issued
2015
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Trauma Informed Community Building (TICB) is a new approach to community development that utilizes a "trauma" lens when engaging with communities that have been negatively impacted by concentrations of poverty and crime, social isolation and economic disinvestment. TICB first acknowledges the adverse effects persistent trauma has on individuals and communities and how these effects challenge "traditional" community building strategies. The practice involves a set of intentional strategies at every level of the social-ecological model-individual, interpersonal, community and system-to reduce the amount of chaos and stressors in individuals' lives, to build social cohesion among neighbors and institutions and to foster community resiliency over time. By implementing these strategies, the authors hypothesize individuals will increase their 'readiness for change,' which, in turn, lays the foundation and support for effective program and service delivery and sustainable individual and community change. They argue these two outcomes are critical when working with "trauma-impacted" communities that are undergoing any kind of major transition and disruptions-i.e., housing redevelopment and/or relocation. TICB was created by BRIDGE Housing Corporation (BRIDGE), a nonprofit affordable housing developer in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, based off of its six years of community building experience in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood, as part of the master redevelopment of Potrero Terrace-Annex public housing under San Francisco's HOPE SF initiative. In this thesis, I utilize the case study methodology and mixed-method techniques to explore what it means to approach community building with a "trauma" lens. I explore the evolution, implementation and early impacts of TICB at Potrero Terrace-Annex and I assess the value of TICB's framework as a whole and key lessons learned and challenges. Specifically, I examine the extent to which BRIDGE's community building activities have positively impacted the social dynamics of the economically- and socially-diverse North and South side Potrero Hill communities, increased public housing residents' civic participation and capacity, and helped transform systems, namely democratic processes and public education. I conclude with recommendations to inform policy, practice and future research.
Description
Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2015.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 146-157).
Subjects
Urban Studies and Planning.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Terms of Use
M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
Persistent DSpace Link
