This article was written by former ENP intern Alexis Kalugin.
Over the last few decades, institutional community development has taken over the structure of most community functions. Instead of finding ways to engage neighbors to be a voice of change in their community, most cities have put the burden of change on institutions. The problem with this narrative is that workers in schools, law enforcement, and healthcare are responsible for more community problems than they can handle. There is no relationship between the institution and the community to understand each problem. This approach becomes one size fits all and leaves a gap between the institution and the citizens.
Gabrielle PicenoRefunctioning Community Development
It’s amazing when you stop and reflect on the path that the Lord has been taking you down. Sometimes you don’t understand things along the way, sometimes it’s a smooth ride. I’ve been reflecting a lot the last couple of years and I’ve been processing where the Lord has me going in the path ahead. He’s provided a little more clarity for me the last month.
One of the ways that ENP has shifted its work during the COVID-19 pandemic is to begin working food access in our city. We have helped create food distributions, a food hub, and a food map.
Food Distributions
In partnership with Fresno Unified, Central California Food Bank, ENP, and many partner organizations and individual volunteers ENP is helping organize food distributions at select FUSD Schools.
I pray that each of you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. This historical time that we are currently living in has been such a roller coaster of emotions. We are seeing the horrible impact of the virus, yet we also see the common unity, or Community, working together to help us all get through this.
I felt compelled to give each of you, as financial supporters, a quick update on how ENP has shifted our work since March 13th when schools announced they would close due to COVID19.
As COVID-19 continues we want to continue to share updated information about ways you can serve during this time.
Word of Caution: Take the precations you feel you need to take. We are not medical professionals, but rather trying to give you options and ways to show Jesus like compassion during these times.
1 – Help Healthcare Workers by Sewing Masks or Gowns
Local hospitals and clinics have dire needs for both masks and gowns. Drop off at ENP’s downtown office (1719 L St) and we will get them to our local hospital partners.
We are in the midst of unprecedented times. COVID-19 and the potential impact on our city, state, country, and the world is rising in awareness as well as the importance social distancing and other efforts to flatten the curve.
ENP is continually monitoring the situation and wanted to let you know how we can love our neighbors and especially those on the margins.
Word of Warning: Take the precations you feel you need to take. We are not medical professionals, but rather trying to give you options and ways to show Jesus like compassion during these times.
2019 was a year of growth! We added a few new programs- including Read Fresno and Resilient Playgrounds, deepened our existing work, and continued to pour into resident and young adult leaders. All of this growth is thanks to our partners like you!
Financial Snapshot
Neighborhood Development
12 weekly neighborhood meetings
60 Residents trained in 2 Leadership Development Cohorts
30+ churches newly engaged in Southwest Fresno
8 Residents leading 14 Latin Dance Fitness classes each week
Leadership is often envisioned as an individual leading a large group of people. This is an accurate vision of leadership, although it is not a holistic vision. For example, rarely mentioned in the same sentence is that of motherhood and leadership .
In 2019 ENP was blessed to journey with 60 mothers from Fresno who accepted the challenge of participating in one of two leadership cohorts hosted by ENP. These residents, we believe, are already leaders as they are already equipped with gifts, talents, and abilities. Through authentic engagement ENP facilitated pathways to future development and community engagement. No surprise to us, mothers are, without a doubt, leaders of their communities.
Resident Leader Cohort’s Graduation held at Arte Americas downtown.
ENP partnered with Fresno Housing Authority at Legacy Commons, which has been instrumental for strategic place-based development. This partnership has led to growth in the neighborhood association group and the development of an additional resident leadership cohort (CAN). It has also resulted in the installation of security doors on each of the 128 apartments in the complex.
As part of community development and creative place-making, ENP was successful in helping a local partner acquire a one-acre vacant property for the purpose of building a neighborhood park. ENP conducted the outreach for the park design and acted as consultant on a state-wide grant. ENP also supported a resident-led project with the Vang Pao Neighborhood Association “familias en accion” to ideate and install thirty art murals in the community. The Callejon mural/Mural Alley project serves as a walking path and activity zone for community members to enjoy. Blight and litter abatement has also gone down in that space.
A glimpse of the beautiful Mural Alley project led by “Familias En Accion” in Vang Pao.
Neighborhood Fitness
Latin Dance Fitness is building resident leaders and healthier communities. Read this quote from one attendee: “With this class, I have lost 28 pounds (from November to January). This class is a positive place to work out without feeling judged. On days I go to class, I have more energy. I am in a better mood and it helps me relieve stress for a little while. In the class, I am out of my head and only focusing on the next move. Having bipolar, I often get stuck in my head and for an hour twice a week it’s nice to just be in the moment, focusing on the music and the moves. Spending time out of my apartment with positive people is such a good feeling”.
Literacy Mentoring
23 Elementary schools and 5 afterschool programs
258 Literacy and Read Fresno mentors
1,101 students impacted
530.75 hours volunteered per week
In 2019 Literacy Mentoring added 10 more schools, allowing us to impact over 300 additional students on a weekly basis. This is thanks to the partnership of 4 more churches and the newly added Read Fresno program with Fresno State. We have seen tremendous academic growth (students grew on average 443%), the building up of more young college student leaders, better supported teachers, and volunteers who are building real relationships with students, teachers, and families.
The LM program is also now in Spanish! We are able to work with kids in dual-immersion classrooms at both Centennial and Jackson elementary. One of the mentors Heidi White said “ I love it so much. I believe we are transforming lives by being in those classrooms.”
We have seen the gap close for students, especially when we have enough capacity (trained volunteers and supplies) to work with them in Kinder, 1st, and 2nd grade. This chart shows the classroom average of sight words known and the growth over the year.
This golf cart was created for the Winter Wonderland event at Williams Elementary by Read Fresno Mentors. Their love for their kids propelled them to work overtime and attend events outside of school hours!
We asked our students what they think in some key “Group think-tanks.” They said “it (literacy mentoring) makes me feel more smarter,” “I’m really happy they teach me and they help me learn about stuff” and “I want to tell her (my mentor) that I missed her and that I love her..” They also gave us new activity ideas- including adding playdough and car games.
Our Literacy Mentors come from many different places! For instance, at this training we had three parents, one pastor, one community member who found us online, and a college professor! It takes the whole community coming together if we’re going to see our kids succeed.
Read Fresno
# of Fresno State Community Members Involved as mentors: 49 # of hours of service provided by mentors:13,386.55$255,431.27 of Work Study awarded to students
Recreational Resilience
17,000+ sack lunches served to Saturday Sports kids
2 new programs launched: Resilient Playgrounds and FunFit PE
4,000+ college student service hours given
Recreational Resilience is ENP’s unique framework for promoting and developing individual and community resilience in under-resourced neighborhoods. This framework incorporates Resilience-Based Trauma Informed practices from the most relevant fields of scientific research with fun and playful recreational activities that are facilitated through safe, supportive and caring adult relationships. Through our network of community partners, ENP coordinates these relational based activities in two primary categories: Community-Based and Campus-Based.
Our Community-Based programs take place outside of the regularly scheduled school day. Saturday Sports (SS), a drop-in recreation program takes place on regularly scheduled intervals on Saturdays and is our main community-based program. During 2019, our SS programs have provided enriching recreational and relational engagement to over 400 individual students each month. On average, over the course of the program year, we mobilize more than 5,000 community volunteer hours and serve over 17,000 sack lunches to students in these high need neighborhoods.
Our Campus-Based programs take place on elementary school campuses during the regular school day. FunFit PE is a unique project where college volunteers provide support to classroom teachers by delivering fun, engaging physical activity to elementary students during regularly scheduled PE classes. The FunFit PE projects include activities like Yoga Ed, Kid Dance, Parkour Fitness, and Beat the Odds Drumming, a social-emotional drum circle program. The FunFit PE projects have served over 800 students on five elementary school campuses.
ENP’s Resilient Playgrounds initiative includes college volunteers providing semi-structured recreational activities for elementary students during recess. Over the last two school semesters, Resilient Playgrounds has provided semi-structured recess for over 400 students at two elementary school sites. Through our campus-based programs, ENP has mobilized over 4,000 volunteer service-learning hours, providing essential personal and professional development opportunities for the next generation of professionals who will soon be working and leading many of our social institutions. Even more importantly, these future professionals are providing safe, nurturing adult relationships that ultimately help to support and meet the social-emotional and relational needs of students in our community.
These girls are keeping cool on a warm day, coloring in the shade with their Saturday Sports leaders at Susan B Anthony. Our Satrudays include more than just sports!
Kids from Heaton Elementary are being led in fun, structured PE activities by Fresno State students. We are building healthy kids and college student leaders!
City-Wide Equipping
One of ENP’s core staff values is to be a learner. We start with listening to our communities, reading books, articles, and news, and then test that information in the real world lab of our community. Information that we or others we find helpful we pass on. This is not a complete list, but sampling of the type of information that we shared in 2019 to our community partners, residents, churches, and volunteers.
Housing Workshop – Lower Cost Alternatives to House Those in Need with the Fresno C&EDP on April 5, 2019 (20 in attendance)
Faith and Finance Training, March 31 – June 1, 2019: Faith & Finance is a biblically-integrated financial education program designed for low- to moderate-income individuals. The Chalmers Center trains church and ministry leaders to use the 12-week Faith & Finance curriculum to shape a concrete financial education ministry plan tailored for their own contexts. (15 in attendance)
Fresno City Scope in West Fresno, September 14, 2019: CityScope exposes folks to new neighborhoods and offers different models to engage holistic community development. (35 in attendance)
Neighborhood Development Workshops at Christian Community Development Association National Conference, October 10-11, 2019 (35 in attendance)
Trauma-Informed Training: Over 1,300 individuals have received some level of trauma-informed training; over 800 of these individuals have been trained using the Community Resilience Initiative (CRI) Trauma-Informed Curriculum.
710 CRI-Course 1 Train Informed Certifications
60 CRI-Course 1 Training of Trainers
30 CRI-Course 2 Trauma Supportive Training
3 CRI-Course 2 Training of Trainers
Additionally, over 500 individuals have received specially designed trauma-informed training related to individual specialized fields such as Foster and Adoptive Care, Social Work, After School & Recreation Programing, and Mentoring.
Below is your FREE copy of our 101 Church for City Drive Tour. Follow the directions on the PDF and listen to the tracks through SoundCloud. We hope that as you take the tour you will get to know our city a little better.
What is the Drive Tour?
This project is birthed from the many stories and people Every Neighborhood Partnership (ENP) has worked with over the years. We wanted to tell their story.
We want you to know just a few of the thousands of people in our city of good faith and good will that are working hard to love and serve our city.
OurHopes and Expectations
This is not about guilt, shame, or any ulterior motive. We serve our city because Jesus served us. We love others because he loves us. Our hope is that a story you hear resonates deeply with you. That it encourages you in your journey of loving God and others. That you are spurred on to love and good deeds.
Our hope and expectation are at a minimum; 1) that you are exposed to new areas and ministries in our city, 2) that you would pray for these people, places, and issues and; 3) that for some of you that you would join them in their work in our city. Your story and journey is unique, but we know God has good things in store for you and for others as you seek the prosperity of the city! (Jeremiah 29:1-14)
