2009 MetLife Awards: Asset-Based and Community-Centered Community Revitalization
Date Published: 12/03/2009
Author: Charles William Wilson
CASE STUDY
Metanoia Community Development Corporation & North Charleston Police Department,
2009 MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Neighborhood Revitalization Award
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Metanoia Community Development Corporation and the North Charleston Police Department successfully worked together to reduce crime and to revitalize the Chicora-Cherokee community in North Charleston, South Carolina. Metanoia's community development approach emphasizes holistic asset-building that includes building leaders, establishing quality housing and generating economic development. Early on in its partnership with the police, Metanoia identified increasing homeownership rates (then 25%) as a priority. Through redeveloping vacant homes and empty lots in crime-generating areas into quality affordable housing, Metanoia created opportunities for previous renters to become homeowners. This investment further fostered stability in a community that had been written off as a "crime-infested" problem area. Ranging from housing development and reclaiming public parks to the revitalization of a commercial corridor, the partners' strategies resulted in a 16% decrease in overall crime with over 65% drops in certain target areas.
Topic: --Community Safety
Type: Case study / model practice