Recommendations to the Campus Committee : an organizing strategy for the North End of Springfield, MA

Abstract

The North End neighborhood of Springfield, MA is one of the poorest areas in the entire Commonwealth. For many years, agencies in the community have worked to provide basic services to the residents, who are primarily Puerto Rican. For the past twelve years, the major service organizations in the North End have tried to collaborate in an effort to better serve residents. Out of this collaboration came an idea to create a campus for lifelong learning. Since 2006, these service organizations and many other neighborhood institutions have been a part of what they refer to as the "Campus Committee." The purpose of the Campus Committee is to create and implement the "Campus Concept", which will provide lifelong learning opportunities to community members. Members of the Campus Committee continue to struggle with how to find resident leaders to participate in the process of creating and implementing the Campus Concept. This thesis is an attempt to provide an organizing strategy to find this leadership. This document provides evidence that the Campus Committee must actively search for leadership. Leadership will not simply emerge largely due to of historical trends, disproportionate power relationships, and a mistrust of the service organizations. Thus, the Campus Committee must use relationships that the North End Outreach Network has, and continues to make, as a vehicle for finding leadership. Once that leadership is found, the Campus Committee must have space within its own organization that will allow residents the opportunity to take responsibility for planning and implementing the Campus Concept. The Campus Committee must realize that its most valuable resource is the residents of the North End. .

(cont.) Resident involvement with this process will build skills, give residents a sense of ownership over the Campus Concept, and will ultimately ensure longevity of the project