January 23, 2009
Neighborhood organizers see challenges and change
Message photo by Paul R. Leingang Benedictine Sister Jane Michelle, Steve Moore and Lucy Williams pose for a photo after a meeting at the Catholic Center in Evansville Jan.16. Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Lucy Williams and Steve Moore are eager for the challenge, in Moore’s words, “to get people out of the house, into the community, and be a part of this.”
“This” is the transformation of an Evansville neighborhood.
Williams and Moore are two of five people who went to Washington, D.C to a Neighbor-Works training institute, “Community Building 101: Community Building Principles and Ap-plications.”
They worked with people there from Ohio, Chicago, Philadelphia and other places, said Williams, and they all found that they had a lot in common. “They were concerned, they wanted to go back to their neighborhood and make a difference.”
That’s what Williams has wanted for a long, long time. That’s what Moore only recently came to realize.
The Glenwood area includes the residential and business district west of U.S. 41 and south of Riverside Drive. It is an area where changes are in the works — the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation plans to turn Glenwood Middle School into a campus for students from Kindergarten through the eighth grade, and the Evansville chapter of Habitat for Humanity has already purchased some lots in the area for future home construction.
Williams has lived in the Glenwood area since 1968. Since last August, she has been president of the Glenwood Neighborhood Association. She is active in her church, Memorial Baptist Church in Evansville, she’s retired from a career that included a position with the Evansville Housing Authority and now she “is available” to work toward bringing new life to her neighborhood.
Moore says he had not been active in his neighborhood — until he found out about the Habitat properties, located very near his home. That’s when he realized that “this is going to affect me.”
He came to the conclusion, “It’s going to happen with me, or without me.” By becoming involved, though, he realized, “I’ll have a voice.” His goal, and the goal of others in the neighborhood association, is to re-verse the indifference and the decline they see, and make their area attractive for residential and business life. Simply put, the goal is to make the Glenwood area “a place I want to live, a place where I want to do business.”
Moore has lived in the area 34 years. He and his wife have three children and they want to make sure that their children and their neighbors’ children have “the viable option to stay here.”
Williams has heard hopeful people before, and she has heard promises and plans be-fore. She has seen the times when “people have lost that trust” they had in someone or something that would make their lives better.
This time is different, she believes, because this time, there is a “strong, revitalized neighborhood association.” Members of the association will build up the community, witnessing to their neighbors of the value their participation will help to bring.
Some changes will be made within a year. Moore likes the idea of Glenwood Middle School becoming a K-8 school, and he hopes the change happens soon. Going to such a school, as he did, is “like having a big brother,” he said. The younger children learn from the example of the older ones.
Attracting retail business to the area may take a while, Moore believes, but he is hopeful that in time, he will see the return of businesses connected and committed to the local community.
Williams and Moore have high praise for the training in-stitute they attended. Others participating were Lu Porter, a Glenwood resident and a board member of Habitat for Humanity of Evansville; Serita Cabell, a Glenwood resident connected with the Carver Community Center in Evansville; and Bene-dictine Sister Jane Michelle Mc-Clure, the local Habitat chapter’s development director.
Participation in the training institute was made possible by a grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Develop-ment, which had been requested by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Evansville.