April 12, 2007

Hands Across Kalamazoo: Eastside Neighborhood Association and Kalamazoo College

KALAMAZOO, MI—West meets east when a class of students from Kalamazoo College cross the city of Kalamazoo to join hands and work together with Eastside neighborhood residents. The goal: an improved and revitalized community. Kalamazoo College and the Eastside Neighborhood Association (ESNA) have partnered to build an Eastside Neighborhood Development Initiative: a mission to provide needed services for the Eastside community to ensure a safe and attractive place to live and work. The idea was first envisioned by Pastor Milton Wells of Open Door Ministries, along with Frank Barrett, president of the Eastside Neighborhood Association Board of Directors, and brought to Pat Taylor, director of ESNA, to bring to fruition. The initiative was then proposed to Kalamazoo College, where 25 students (mostly juniors) in Professor of Anthropology Kiran Cunningham’s “Qualitative Research Methods” class took on the project. Interviews of Eastside residents are underway and will be conducted over the next eight weeks by teams of Kalamazoo College students and neighborhood residents.

“This initiative will help us advance our mission of revitalizing the Eastside neighborhood through a process that builds upon the strengths, talents, and assets of our neighborhood,” says Frank Barrett, president of ESNA Board of Directors. “The first step in this process will be to complete an inventory identifying all the many talents, skills, abilities, and capacities located within our neighborhood. These teams of students and residents will be knocking on doors to interview neighbors. The information they gather from these interviews will then be used to connect residents with common interests and identify opportunities to build on the capacities in our own neighborhood. Ultimately, the goals of this initiative are to use this information to expand economic development opportunities within the neighborhood, build and strengthen neighborhood businesses and service organizations, create positive, neighborhood-based youth and family activities, and improve the quality of life.”

According to Cunningham, the experience will help her students to learn interviewing skills, observation and recording of data, and a quantitative analysis of that data. “More importantly, the students will be a part of an initiative that will empower them as well as the residents of the Eastside neighborhood. This is a project that is all about changing perception of who we are and what we have to offer. Sometimes just talking about our skills and talents reminds us that we can do a great deal to change the world we live in.

Pat Taylor says: “Our hope is that with this initiative we will not only improve our own neighborhood, but be a model to other neighborhoods. We all have a vision on how we want to live. This ‘asset mapping’ will help us understand how our residents can share in that vision, connect with one another, and how we can work together to realize that vision. It is important that we have everyone’s input!”

Volunteers to participate in the initiative are invited to stop by the Eastside Neighborhood Association office at 1301 East Main or call Pat Taylor, director, at 269.381.0700 with questions or concerns.

A Fellowship in Learning: At Home in the World, Kalamazoo College is a national liberal arts college and the creator and home of the Kalamazoo Plan. By emphasizing scholarship, civic engagement, and foreign study, Kalamazoo College cultivates a fellowship in learning among students, faculty, and a community of scholars throughout the world. Its students shape elements of the Kalamazoo Plan—rigorous academics, career internships, study abroad, service-learning, and a senior individualized project—into an educational experience that provides insight into the meaning of the kind of citizenship that is at home in the world.