The Heart of CBEL
Written by Tim Buckley, February 2023
“Everybody wants to be resilient, to stay or become healthy in our lives, right? What robs us of our resilience and vitality are things like illness, under-employment, personal loss and stress. Lack of resilience can rattle us loose from our foundation.”
Neighborhoods can experience a lack of resilience too, says Dr. Wendy Ellis, Director of the Center for Community Resilience. “Adverse environments,” things like chronic poverty, inadequate education, and discrimination erode resiliency from communities, she adds. But just as each person can be restored to resilience and boost immunity, so can neighborhoods, communities, states, and countries.
Historically, support for communities is aimed at reducing barriers for individuals without addressing the chronic adverse environment underneath. That’s like sending aid after an earthquake, or hurricane, when the community is already flattened. Community Business and Educational Leaders (CBEL) is a Salem/Keizer initiative that helps build resilience for individuals and neighborhoods at the same time. CBEL’s work doesn’t prevent earthquakes, of course, but does help neighborhoods to systematically reduce the challenges that create adverse conditions.
It's important to understand here, however, that CBEL is only one part of a bigger picture, a collaborative effort. You could say we’re like a trickle of electricity to recharge a low battery. The neighborhood itself is the battery, the ultimate source of power, brimming with family life and potential. CBEL merely provides a current, through a cable made up of engaged community allies and partner initiatives. The combined effect is a healthier and more energized neighborhood.
The neighborhood itself is the battery, the ultimate source of power, brimming with family life and potential.
The heart of community resilience is the Neighborhood Family Council, made up of neighbors and supported by CBEL. The Councils organize, set priorities and recruit others to join. It is this grassroots priority structure, rather than a top-down approach, that makes this resiliency model so powerful and effective. It nurtures civic engagement at the neighborhood level, creating a cascading effect of new leadership, more volunteers, increased neighborhood social connections, more fun, higher student achievement, increased levels of trust, and decreased homelessness, all because of a giant uptick in support for one another. The Neighborhood Family Council is the nucleus of hope, inspiration and innovative problem solving.
In its first year or so, CBEL’s work focused on the Hallman-Northgate Neighborhood Family Council. Click here to read more about their events and accomplishments. In 2022, CBEL’s focus broadened to include the Kennedy Neighborhood Family Council. Read about their recent Winter Wonderland event using the button below.
In 2023, the focus will broaden again, to include two additional neighborhoods. Ultimately, CBEL’s Building Community Resilience agenda is to help jumpstart and sustain 16 Salem/Keizer neighborhood family councils. According to the Center for Community Resilience, when that happens, the multiplier effect of neighborhood resilience will be felt throughout the entire metropolitan area. Salem and Keizer will begin to bristle with increased social and economic health.
By then, CBEL will add to a mountain of accumulated data validating the Building Community Resilience model, being rolled out across the US. By strengthening families, and in support of world class education, Salem and Keizer will join other cities where every child grows up in a safe, stable, nurturing home, enjoys good health, succeeds in school, and goes on to become financially self-sufficient.