Building Sustainable Communities Forum & 20th Anniversary
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The Building Sustainable Communities Forum and our 20th Anniversary Celebration was a great success!
WORKSHOPS
Innovative Programs that Increase Family Income & Wealth
Family economic security plays a key role in Building Sustainable Communities.
This session explored three sample programs in Houston and lessons learned. The presenters discussed programs relating to increasing family financial security through:
• Financial education
• Individual financial counseling
• Employment supports
• Accessing public resources
• Case management
Participants discussed important questions about barriers, what’s happening in Houston’s neighborhoods and how to build on current efforts for increased impact.
Handouts: List of Local Resources
Fostering Safe Communities: CPTED Principals In Action
SafeGrowth is LISC’s community planning and capacity building model tailored for locally-driven safety initiatives. The SafeGrowth process integrates law enforcement, community developers and residents in the creation of customized solutions to neighborhood public safety concerns. This session gave an overview of the basic principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and how GO Neighborhood teams applied CPTED to their SafeGrowth projects in Houston.
Handouts: Safety Audit Checklist, SafeGrowth Principle Description, SafeGrowth To, For, With Principle Description, Crime Statistics Demo Data Sheet
Using Your Neighborhood Project as a Community Organizing Tool
This interactive session was for beginner to intermediate community organizers who plan and implement community projects that address identified needs, issues or opportunities in their neighborhood and for anyone interested in LISC’s approach to community organizing. The following questions that community organizers often ask were discussed:
• How do I know I have enough community input before planning a project?
• How do I most effectively bring new project team members “up to speed” on project plans, solicit their input and help them feel ownership of the project without wasting current team members’ time?
• How do we make progress on project implementation if we keep including new people with new ideas on our project teams?
Resources:
Resident Leadership and Facilitation Work Book by the Annie E Casey Foundation
Organizers Workbook co-produced by LISC Indianapolis GINI program and the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center
The Community Tool Box has over 7000 of free materials on essential skills for building healthy communities.
Building and Sustaining Relationships
Jim Capraro Web Resources
Collaborative Agreements by the Center for Civic Partnerships
Collaborative Decisions Making developed by The Center for Collaborative Planning
Why Sustainable Community Design Matters
This session was for neighborhood leaders who are interested in how design-thinking and brainstorming can help generate community development strategies that build on local assets and catalysts. The session focused on resources available to assist in envisioning the future of a neighborhoods. Mini-charettes focused on one of three topics: civic spaces and public art; economic development and housing; or green spaces, gardening and food.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER & PANELIST BIOS
Luncheon Keynote Speaker
Dr. Manuel Pastor is Professor of Geography and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California where he also serves as Director of the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC’s Center for Sustainable Cities and co-Director of USC's Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII). Pastor holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has received fellowships from the Danforth, Guggenheim, and Kellogg foundations and grants from the Irvine Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the California Environmental Protection Agency, the California Wellness Foundation, and many others.
In recent years, his research has focused on the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities in the U.S., which has been published in many journals.
His most recent book, co-authored with Chris Benner and Martha Matsuoka, is This Could Be the Start of Something Big: How Social Movements for Regional Equity are Reshaping Metropolitan America (Cornell University Press, 2009). Click here to read full description of Pastor Publications, awards and research.
Discussion Session Facilitators
Jim Capraro is the Executive Director of the Greater Southwest Development Corporation (GSDC) since 1976. Under Jim’s leadership, GSDC has achieved over $500 million in community development projects and created or retained over 6,000 jobs in its Southwest Chicago neighborhood. GSDC’s development projects range from small business to the creation of elderly housing, attracting major retailers, and the $300 million expansion of the worlds largest bakery, Nabisco. GSDC is a Chicago LISC New Communities lead agency that is pioneering comprehensive community development. To read more go to Capraro Consulting
Susan Rogers is the Director of the Community Design Resource Center at the University of Houston's Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture where she is also an Assistant Professor. She holds a Master's of Architecture and Master's of City Planning in Community Development from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Architecture from University of Houston. She has managed twelve community design projects completed by the CDRC over the last four years in partnership with 15 community-based organizations and over 500 residents and stakeholders. She is the co-author of "An Architecture of Change" in Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism and her articles have appeared in Places Journal, Cite, The Architecture and Design Review of Houston, and ArtLies, A Texas Art Journal.
LaTanya Flix has dedicated her career to improving the lives of disadvantaged children, youth and families. A native Houstonian, Flix was happy to return home in 2008 to become executive director of The Women's Resource of Greater Houston (www.thewomensresource.org), an organization that annually provides free financial education to more than 2,500 individuals and implements a leadership development program for high risk 9th - 10th grade girls.
Flix has also worked in faith based community development, affordable and transitional housing and consulted for small and large nonprofits including the United Way of Houston and Casey Family Programs.
Flix is a Woodrow Wilson fellow in Public Policy and International Affairs and earned a master’s degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s of arts from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
Brandon M. Wheeler, THIVE Financial Counselor / Case Manager, has worked with the United Way THRIVE Initiative since May, 2009. In this unique role, Brandon coordinates client care across an expansive system of service providers, as well working along side the United Way to craft the emerging THRIVE collaborative. Brandon has a Masters in Marriage & Family Therapy from the University of Houston - Clear Lake and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Houston. In addition to clinical experience concentrating in couples therapy, Brandon serves on the Board of Directors for the Texas Association for Marriage & Family Therapy and is the Past-President for the Houston Association for Marriage & Family Therapy. Additionally relevant to Brandon's work with THRIVE, he is a certified Credit Counselor through the National Association of Certified Credit Counselors.
Patricia L. Garris is a claim section manager with State Farm Insurance Companies in Houston, Texas. She has been a member of the Houston Local
Advisory Council for over 7 years and is currently the Fund Development Chair.
During her career with State Farm she has held a variety of positions including zone underwriting consultant, auto claim superintendent, and target
markets manager focusing on the development of multi-ethnic markets. She was
also the community involvement manager for Texas.
Pat has also earned the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) designations, in addition to a certificate in Entrepreneurship from Rice University. She was a founding member of the Boston College Center for Corporate
Citizenship Roundtable where she helped develop the new standards of
excellence for the community involvement profession.
In her current capacity Pat develops learning journeys, and facilitates scenario
planning for middle managers.
EXHIBITORS
At the event a number of city-wide non-profit agencies and the two Pilot GO Neighborhoods were represented in the exhibitor hallway in order to create a learning environment where community leaders, development professionals and other event attendees could see various examples of program or projects that help build sustainable communities. For information about the exhibitors who attended the event, please click here.