ENP Blog

Intersection Safety Demonstrations

February 7, 2023 Daniel Dominguez Serving Our Neighborhoods

When was the last time you walked across Herndon or Blackstone Ave? Yes, you read that right, walked across. Quite a daunting task, wouldn’t you say, to venture across 6 lanes of high speed traffic!

The same sentiment is what activated Our Voice Project (OVP), a Neighborhood Association in Southwest Fresno, to voice concern in regard to the necessary infrastructure upgrades to the intersection, but to no avail. The local news has even done a segment highlighting the unsafe conditions of the intersection. View it here. OVP, in partnership with The Fresno County of Public Health and Every Neighborhood Partnership, applied for a state issued grant that would allow them to temporarily display the changes they deemed necessary to safely cross the streets of MLK Ave and California Ave. California Walks (CalWalks) awarded The Kit of Parts to the Fresno collaboration! On November 10th the intersection of Martin Luther King Ave & California Ave was temporarily shut down.

On November 10th, 2022, Southwest community members and organizational partners arrived at 5am to begin installing the temporary crosswalk art and setting up the half mile long protected bike lane.

Data for Your Neighborhood

January 13, 2023 Gabrielle Piceno Equipping, Serving Our Neighborhoods, Serving Our Schools

At ENP, we get excited about maps and data. We believe that in order to love your neighbors and your neighborhood, you have to know them. This includes data that tells a bigger story of the trends of each neighborhood, as well as individual, personal stories that data cannot capture.

ENP has created data sheets of Fresno neighborhoods as a resource for churches and community partners who want to learn more about their neighborhoods so they can make informed decisions and take relevant action steps. We focus on neighborhoods as they are defined by elementary school zones, for a total of 92 neighborhoods in the City of Fresno.

One Neighborhood at a Time with City Advance

January 11, 2023 Grace Berg Equipping, Video

“The gifts and the abilities are already there in the neighborhood. We know the next generation of leaders are there. So we start with blessing and we know that the Spirit moves.” – Andrew Feil

Andrew Feil and Artie Padilla speak at City Advance’s last virtual gathering

Every Neighborhood Partnership’s Executive Director Andrew Feil and Central Valley Community Foundation’s Director of DRIVE Initiative Artie Padilla shared with City Advance about the progressive and transformational work that ENP does in local schools, civic engagement, and residential neighborhoods with our volunteers and church partners.

Andrew and Artie explained how ENP has positioned itself as unique teachers, as its staff train churches and community partners to expand the vision and knowledge of transforming Fresno one neighborhood at a time. ENP does this in classroom settings, and also creatively through our Drive Tour.

This meeting was LOADED with resources and some incredible ideas for other organizations trying to reach their neighbors. City Advance has broken segments of the video into “chapters” so you can jump into the video at any point.

Want the notes from Andrew and Artie’s presentation? You can grab your own copy of their notes by clicking the button below.

Download the Notes Here!

How to Serve Your Community (No Matter Your Life Stage)

January 9, 2023 Ashley Goldsmith Literacy, Neighborhood Presence, Parent Engagement, Perspectives, Saturday Sports, Serving Our Neighborhoods, Serving Our Schools

Developing a Heart of Service at a Young Age

Mary Avigliano knew when she grew up, she wanted to help others. As a child, Mary developed relationships with volunteers of local urban ministry organizations who left a life-long impact on her and her family.

“If it weren’t for a group of people who were passionate about urban ministry knocking on my family’s door when I was a kid, I wouldn’t be sitting here.”
~Mary Avigliano

In 2008, when Mary was a recent college graduate with a little extra free time, she became one of Every Neighborhood Partnership’s first volunteers.

Social Capital and Economic Mobility

January 5, 2023 andrewfeil Economic Development

Over the last 3+ years, ENP has been a part of a local initiative called The Fresno D.R.I.V.E. Initiative (Developing the Region’s Inclusive and Vibrant Economy). One of the central values is that together we want to create an inclusive, vibrant, and sustainable economy for residents in the greater Fresno region.

We know that Fresno lags behind in economic development and what we have learned over the years is that we are one of the least economically mobile cities in the United States. So how do we change that?

LivingUNDIVIDED 2023

January 4, 2023 Gabrielle Piceno Equipping

LivingUNDIVIDED is a 6-week cohort experience that empowers communities to change the narrative of racial justice. Communities engage in faith grounding, teaching, small group conversations, activities, and assignments in pursuit of racial solidarity and justice. LivingUNDIVIDED is designed for individuals from churches and faith-based organizations that are open and interested in exploring the intersection of faith and race.

Entering 2023 with Applications from Isaiah 65

January 4, 2023 Gabrielle Piceno Perspectives

One way that Every Neighborhood Partnership lives out our value of being a Jesus-centered organization is by having devotionals during our staff meetings and retreats. These devotionals include Scripture readings or other types of character or leadership development topics.

Isaiah 65:17-25 is a Bible passage that has long been a driving motivation for ENP’s work. We commissioned the “In Fresno as it is in Heaven” artwork based in part on this passage (you can read more about it here) and at our Fall 2022 staff retreat, we examined those verses together.

Read, Watch, or Listen: 2022 ENP Staff Picks

December 23, 2022 Gabrielle Piceno Equipping, Perspectives

As 2022 comes to a close, here are some of the things our staff have read, watched, or listened to this year that have informed our work and/or personal development that we wanted to share as a resource.

Reimagining Community Land Use in Fresno

December 14, 2022 Grace Berg ENP News

Every Neighborhood Partnership (ENP) and its local partners are launching a community driven land use educational initiative, Fresno Community Land Use Academy (CLUA). Fresno CLUA aims to expand access and facilitate more inclusive engagement in Fresno’s land use and urban planning processes so that land development decisions benefit all Fresnans, especially those local residents who live in neighborhoods where land use decisions have caused environmental injustices. Housing, health and economic disparities are often based on location, race and income.

The attached article from the Urban Institute lays out the benefits and impacts to implement a Community Land Use Planning Academy, like Fresno CLUA. To learn more about the framework of Community Land Use Academies, read this article

Reimagining Community Planning Academies: A Framework for Transformative Community Land-Use Education By Joe Schilling, Emily Bramhall, and Ananya Hariharan

Thanks to a grant from the Kresge Foundation and with technical support from the Urban Institute, ENP will spend the next year launching this new city-wide initiative. We are looking forward to witnessing the ways this will positively impact the environments of so many Fresno residents.

Stay tuned for more updates from Fresno CLUA!

DRIVE Initiative and Civic Infrastructure

December 8, 2022 Germán Quiñonez Economic Development

What a better way to end the year than by clarifying some important questions about ENP’s neighborhood development role in our city. For example, many have asked, please explain the DRIVE initiative to us in plain terms and in more interesting ones; what the heck is civic infrastructure?

The Fresno DRIVE Initiative is a 10-year investment plan to develop an inclusive, vibrant, and sustainable economy for residents in the greater Fresno region. It is sponsored by the Central Valley Community Foundation with support from the James Irvine Foundation.