Underneath the Praise – The Anatomy of Neighborhood Success
Written by Tim Buckley, September 2023
Earlier this month, Salem-Keizer’s School Board and its new Superintendent, Andrea Castañeda, publicly acknowledged CBEL’s neighborhood family councils (NFC) because of the impact of their events on community health.
Eduardo Angulo accepts special recognition during the September Salem-Keizer School Board meeting
The week before, at a CBEL Collaborative gathering at the Seymour Center, the same groups of individuals were celebrated for having demonstrated their capacity to build neighborhood resilience.
Members of all 3 Neighborhood Family Councils present to the CBEL Collaborative on September 7, 2023
Steps to Neighborhood Resiliency – How NFCs make Change Happen Quickly
Connections and Civic Engagement. The first line of support in each of these neighborhoods – Hallman-Northgate, Kennedy, and Highland – is one another. Getting to know your neighbors establishes safety and trust. Reaching out to help each other out is the best first way to build stronger communities.
NFCs embrace an outward mindset mentality. When we put others first, a culture of collective generosity quickly replaces a culture of isolation and fear of asking for help.
Impact Initiatives, assembled by CBEL, are primed to respond to additional neighborhood needs, whether it is for rent or repair assistance, early childhood learning resources, or community health services. These are free or low cost, and often staffed by people familiar with the community.
The reach of CBEL’s three Impact Initiatives expands in all directions to include more than 40 other community organizations that have overlapping objectives. Here is a sampling of that extensive web of support.
Strong Family Fund and other rapid-response funding sources
Low barrier family shelters, supported transitional housing, and affordable permanent housing
Multiple Discipline Care Teams who have tentacles into every facet of community life
Innovative partnerships to lower barriers to home ownership
In the older social development model, the person or neighborhood in need had to learn the system’s vague and diverse requirements. Too often, bureaucracies, red tape, confusing applications and “silos” created by separate organizations made family and neighborhood progress next to impossible.
The new model of social development is driven by the needs of each neighborhood, not social service administrators. Building Community Resilience relies on a shared vision of community health, supported by a collaborative network of organizations who look at individual outcomes, problem solve together, communicate effectively and share data that reflects neighborhood progress.