THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 14, 1995 TAG: 9508140134
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: BY THE PEOPLE
An occasional series on citizens taking steps to build better
communities.
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER AND TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Long : 204 lines
Chad Gilbert and Kimberly Morris never saw themselves making much difference in their neighborhoods, let alone the city.
Andy Bigelow was active in his neighborhood but kept a suspicious eye toward City Hall.
Now all three say they feel invigorated about civic involvement and count the Hampton city government as a valued partner.
Gilbert, Morris and Bigelow are part of a budding crop of community activists trained by the Hampton Neighborhood College, a new program sponsored by the city's Department of Neighborhood Services.
This spring they learned skills such as community organizing, public speaking and partnership building with local businesses. During 10 class sessions, they looked at the inner workings of city government and developed an awareness of Hampton's diverse mix of neighborhoods.
The 15 participants applied their lessons in homework assignments that brought them to the city manager's office, to other neighborhoods and on police patrols. They also formed new friendships and contacts across the city.
The city touts the free college as a way to help restore trust between citizens who have grown cynical and apathetic about their government, and bureaucrats who look at residents as having only narrow self-interests.
While the city prepares for a second semester, to start in September, the first graduates are bringing their skills back to their neighborhoods. Now, other Hampton Roads cities, impressed with the concept, are talking about forming a regional neighborhood college.
At its best, the college could help residents feel a sense of responsibility for their city, instead of simply paying taxes and using services.
``Going to the college has opened my eyes about a lot of things we can do. If I had never gone to the college, I would still be sitting there on my butt, just complaining like everybody else,'' said Gilbert, who hopes to organize an annual arts festival in his Wythe neighborhood. ``Now I don't mind getting out there doing things. One person can make a difference.
``Now, instead of saying to the city, `You can do this for me,' I say, `What can we do together to get this done.' I'm looking for innovative ways. This is a whole new way of looking at things.''
To college coordinator David Blackburn, changed attitudes represent the first signs of success. They also mean that the walls between citizens and government are beginning to blur.
``We want to find new ways to be mutually accountable, to find new ground for that,'' he said.
A retired Army colonel, Blackburn has been with Hampton City Hall for five years. He describes himself as ``kind of a missionary'' for building partnerships between citizens and their government.
To carry out that mission, the college includes several city employees in each term. This spring, five participants were municipal workers; 10 were community activists.
``When I looked at their neighborhoods, I saw them as day-to-day maintenance,'' said Lynn Swanson, a 14-year city employee, now a senior park manager. ``They saw the neighborhoods for what they could be. Now I see what they want, what they're going for. It's helped me connect with what they want to do and help me work out a long-range plan.''
But Swanson also benefited in a different way: The neighborhood activists began to understand the difficulties she faces on the job.
``A lot see what we have to do on a daily basis and why we don't get to what they'd like on a daily basis,'' Swanson said. ``A lot of understanding comes when you take down that guard of `I'm a city person and I'm a tax-paying resident.' ''
Blackburn believes citizens want to contribute more to the vitality of their communities. He cites the results of the few similar programs in other cities.
In Dayton, Ohio, where citizens have taken part in a Neighborhood Leadership Institute for a dozen years, the classes have ``created a body of people who have a broader perspective of what the city is - rather than a narrow view of just their own neighborhood,'' said Cilla Shindell, superintendent of neighborhood affairs.
Many Dayton graduates have been appointed to city boards and commissions. They also serve on administrative boards that help decide budgets and projects for the various neighborhoods.
In Hampton, graduates say they are enthused, but most have yet to implement their ideas or harness new energies.
But Blackburn, a believer in accumulating and celebrating small victories, notes that change often takes time. He is pleased with the ideas that are bubbling up and the changes in the first group of graduates.
Kimberly Morris, a 28-year-old mother, considered herself too shy for front-line civic activities in Hampton's Park Place.
``I used to say to myself, `How do those other people find the time? How do they have the courage?' '' she said.
Morris recalled how scared she'd been about entering the Hampton Neighborhood College, writing reports and standing up to present her findings.
But now she is helping lead a neighborhood clean-up effort through partnerships with several city agencies and businesses.
She's also preparing to compile information about Park Place as the first step toward an inventory of the neighborhood's needs and potentials.
The college, she said, also is making a difference in her personal life, giving her more confidence to further her education at Thomas Nelson Community College. She'll be working toward a degree in early childhood education.
Andy Bigelow said he, too, was reluctant to enroll in the neighborhood college.
``I was feeling that it might be just another public-relations effort and not really productive,'' Bigelow said. ``My concern was they might not be sincere, plus the amount of time required in it.''
His skepticism didn't last long.
``I initially sat down in the chair as a cynical person, but I got up out of that chair as a believer in a lot of the things they were talking about.''
He also was impressed with his classmates, who came from a broad spectrum of Hampton neighborhoods - affluent, middle-income and poor; white and black.
The classroom mix was a rare experience for most of the students. But by the time they took a midterm bus tour of the city, all were treating each other as old friends and trusted allies.
Classmates ribbed one another as the tour bus plied Hampton's streets.
At one point, the bus passed a monument company where a stone marker was being made for Bigelow's Riverdale neighborhood. The object stood in a yard filled with tombstones.
The jokes began.
``Does that mean you have a dying neighborhood?'' one classmate teased Bigelow.
Another wisecracked about ``Riverdale planning ahead.''
The tour was fashioned as a rolling classroom, with students taking turns making reports about their neighborhoods. To prepare, each had to research the name of the neighborhood, its age, boundaries, population characteristics, zoning, historic sites and goals or projects.
The classmates already had held a session on diversity, but they expressed deeper appreciation as the bus rolled from low-income neighborhoods to middle-income and affluent.
Mary Johnson emphasized to her classmates the importance of a restored church in her Newtown community. ``Every neighborhood has something that is a focal point, and we've got ours, and we're lucky,'' she said.
Addie Threatt reviewed the history of Aberdeen Gardens, designed and built by African Americans in 1934 as part of a New Deal housing program.
Jackie Pritchett reported that Elizabeth Lakes, developed in 1952 on an old dairy farm, had the first cul-de-sacs in Hampton.
Pritchett described her neighborhood's activities, including community barbecues and awards.
``You go down there,'' she instructed the bus driver, pointing down a tree-lined street. ``That house there is the one that won the yard-of-the-month. That's my house! And, that's my husband sitting on the porch!''
On the tour and in the classroom, the neighborhood activists swapped ideas and learned new ones.
``It was real humbling to see that others could have the same goals I have, the same ideas, same fears, same hopes and dreams,'' Gilbert said. ``Being in the Neighborhood College made me more open and not afraid to speak to other people about more things.''
Now, Gilbert said, he's making a better effort to reach out to African-American neighbors in Wythe instead of continuing to keep his distance. ``I want everybody to feel they're part of a functioning neighborhood,'' he said.
As a result of his increased knowledge of social issues and programs, Bigelow said he's changed his attitude about governmental services.
``I got a dose of reality,'' he said. ``It's changed my view on where the priorities ought to lie.''
The college also gave him ideas on how neighborhood groups and other civic associations could do more for themselves.
Bigelow said his Riverdale neighborhood could help itself by developing a partnership between aging homeowners and rent-a-teen programs, which provide services such as lawn care and house painting.
The college even helped activists who considered themselves experienced. Al Foster already understood the importance of partnerships, noting that his Tidemill-Machen neighborhood has been working to develop stronger bonds between the civic league, PTA, school and athletic association.
``This has reinforced what I want to do and some ideas about resources,'' said Foster, who now wants to expand his neighborhood partnership to include churches and the Chamber of Commerce.
Foster also is the new president of the Hampton Federation of Civic Leagues. He hopes to parlay his Hampton College contacts into increasing membership and developing programs that find common ground with City Hall, instead of continuing the more usual adversarial relationships.
Although they've ``graduated'' from the Neighborhood College, the former students don't intend to let their new-found friendships fade.
They've already formed an alumni association. Activities will include preparing a pot-luck lunch for students in the next session, which begins Sept. 14, and hosting the graduation later this fall.
Meanwhile, the alumni association is working with the Department of Neighborhood Services to prepare a series of ``graduate seminars.'' These miniclasses will focus on improving skills such as community organizing and planning neighborhood improvements.
``It's a gamble for the city,'' Bigelow said. ``The best way for a bureaucratic organization to work is to leave everybody in the dark. But if you show them how to organize, you may have a problem on your hands - or you may create a lot of goodwill.
``I'm sure the city of Hampton is banking on creating a whole lot of goodwill,'' he said.
Or as Chad Gilbert said: ``I feel part of Hampton now, instead of just a resident.'' MEMO: A neighborhood college might come to your city/B3
ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
Chad Gilbert: Working harder to reach out to his African-American
neighbors in Wythe instead of keeping his distance.
Kimberly Morris: Helping lead a Park Place clean-up, and working
toward an inventory of the area's needs and potential.
KEYWORDS: PUBLIC JOURNALISM by CNB