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During this time, it was labeled a ghetto area because immigrants, blacks from the South and minority Irish and Italian Americans started to move in and the influential whites were moving out. The area was becoming multi-cultural and being redlined due to racism by the two major institutions that influenced the area - the city government and banks.
The redlining caused landlords to burn down apartment buildings for insurance money as the housing market declined. People were dying in the fires, companies were dumping waste products and trash on the empty lots and drug dealers set-up shop where homes one stood. The neighborhood had deteriorated to a point where humans could no longer live safely and healthy.
The city government decided that the community needed to be saved and made plans without including the community residents in the planning of the community initiative. The residents revolted and demanded they become involved in the planning as it was their neighborhood and felt they knew its needs best. The DSNI was then born.
Over time the DSNI included resident surveys, forums, focus groups, etc. to get the residents' input. Community meeting were held at Saint Patrick's church which reached out to its parishioners to include them in the initiative. The community began to build "social capital" to coordinate efforts to create free space or "environmental capitol", affordable housing or "physical capitol". In addition, the long-term relationships that DSNI began to create at this time and currently continue to grow, per Frasher & Kick (2005), using the the "political activist approach (p.26)". This approach changes the institutional structures; as in this case, the city and banks, to help further alleviate poverty in the area and grow the community creating "economic capitol (Netting et al, 2012)".
The biggest connection the community made was with the city's mayor. The community achieved "political capital" and support from the mayor and his office due to the strong community organization and "human, spiritual, and cultural capitol (Homan, 2011)". Together the community was able to build affordable houses for the neighborhood, push out drug dealers, create a DSNI youth group, make open areas for children, create a sense of togetherness as "mutual support (Netting et al., 2012)" was utilized, and understanding that each little small step forward equals a big step in the right direction.
The Douglas Street Initiative can be conceptualized by the system theory noted by Netting, et al. (2012). Per Netting et al.(2012), the system theory describes how the function of each individual, group, and organization depends and links each other "horizontally" within its community and creates "vertical relationships" with communities outside of the local community to utilize each other's resources. This is demonstrated by DSNI by assessing the community's needs and acquiring support from the government in forms of grants, banks in the form of financial security, and the creation of the DSNI website. The website connects people internationally and creates awareness of the DSNI. It also provides an easy source for donations to be accepted and information for the donors to understand where their money is being used. Furthermore, the online store also provides monetary capital and helps spread the initiatives progress through books. The sites wish list is the best source of connecting DSNI with other organizations, private companies, corporations, foundations, etc. as it gives a starting point for linkage and building relationships.
Work Cited
Fraser, J., & Kick, E. (2005). Understanding community building in urban America. Journal of Poverty, 9(1), 23-43.
Homan, M. (2011). Promoting community change. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Netting, F. Ellen, Kettner, P.M. & McMurtry, S.L, & Thomas, L. (2012). Social work macro practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
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