Now is the time to speak up and get involved . . . the city is doing a Neighborhood Study and here are some details of what they are looking at. Look for community conversations next month.
Here’s the first thing I have seen in writing, but there have been lots of meetings and discussions up to this point and reports, but they were all oral reports up til now. Here’s the working outline of what the report will contain.
MADISON NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER STUDY – Outline for Report & Time Line
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
Background Role Centers play in our community How they are different than other “service providing agencies” Generalist vs specialists
Purpose (Why we need to study)
History of Centers
United Neighborhood Centers
Core/Facility Use model
Boys & Girls Club – first national model of center
Wisconsin Youth Company – first social enterprise model
Warner Park Creation & funding/operations model
Open Schoolhouse model
Short history on each center (year originated, moves, other significant changes, current size, etc.). Centers description of themselves.FINDINGS
1998 (Last year of UNC) Map
Operational Funding
Capital Funding
Centers funded, Centers not funded
2011 Map
Operational Funding
Capital Funding
Centers funded, Centers not funded
Current Neighborhood Center Service Areas
Areas Not Served by a Neighborhood Center
Gaps in Service (need compared to current capacity)
Results of community conversations with residents
Review of models used by other cities & options to considerCONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
APPENDICES
DISCUSSION ON REPORT
Here’s a few highlights of the conversation.
– Report will include Warner Park at the Mayor’s request, it is a different type of community center.
– Staff says that many people look at this and say “So, you’re only talking to neighborhood centers?” No, there will be 4 forums North, South, East and West. (But not downtown?)
– In 2002 there was a huge study, they spent two years and lots of money and nothing came of it in new policies, but there is a thick book on each center and the individual centers may have benefited from it.
– Tim Bruer asks if there will be an assets piece to this, will they look at other organizations providing services in the areas – like churches and schools and libraries. They says yes.
– Shiva Bidar-Sielaff asks about resident feedback, will it be not just asking about neighborhood centers but what services are or are no in their community. What is the unmet needs? Yes, that is the intent.
– Matt Phair asks if they will be looking at demographic information in the neighborhoods. The answer is yes, but . . . its hard to determine the population served areas for some neighborhoods.
– Phair says they need to look at gaps and deserts. (Yes, there’s that word, its been used several times now, deserts of services – its the new city hall buzz word.)
– Dan O’Callaghan asks if planning staff is helping with the mapping. The answer is yes.
– Bruer asks if they are looking at the Neighborhood Indicators – again the answer is yes but . . . there are not nice tidy boundaries of neighborhood centers and data areas in the Neighborhood Indicators.
– Skipped a long Bruer babble or two.
– Bidar-Sielaff says the history of centers is good, but might need a comparative model piece, it could go to a definition of a neighborhood center – they can be many things. When you call it history it seems like you are saying this is how they are formed, but you might want to point out the various models that can form. Different models do different thing, Centro Hispano or Kennedy or Neighborhood House serve citywide populations and then there is a traditional neighborhood center service a geographic area, then there is Warner Park which is completely different. – Bidar-Sielaff says she also wants to look at the goals to funding the centers.
– Phair points out there could be a hybrid model along with the ones that now exist.
– Bidar-Sielaff says that she saw the chart of who funds the centers, but she would like to know what each of them are funding.
– Bruer asks where Mayor Soglin is going, he knows he wants to work on anti-poverty issues, do we have a sense of where community based poverty initiatives vision would be and how community centers fit in with that?
– Anne Monks says that neighborhood centers are very important to Soglin, he is sympathetic to the needs of the Southwest side of Madison, but he is waiting for the study and is open to working with staff on the subject.
– Bruer continues to try to nail down the Mayor’s staff – he’s kinda obnoxious about it.
– Bill says that there are quarterly meetings with neighborhood center directors, the planning effort is a dialog with them, we expect them to be full partners, we have said that we can’t do this in an office and dump it on them, they think it is a good process.
– This will be on the agenda every month for updates and input. The working outline will change as they proceed.
– Phair says the community conversations might be better if there are roundtables on some sides of town, to get a group together of the major players, neighborhood leaders, public health nurses, etc so not just a public meeting, but a brainstorming of the leaders, I’m sure you could do that in all areas of town, you could ask what are the needs, what are you seeing?
– That was it, the mostly liked the outline.
Here’s the timeline that was not discussed.
JANUARY
Outreach to all CDD Committees, Mayor, other City departments, institutional partners, Council Leadership, Centers (ongoing)
Staff and center data collection, mapping, etc.FEBRUARY
Updates to CDD Committees, Mayor, other City departments, institutional partners, Council Leadership
Staff and center work continuesMARCH
Conduct Community Conversations – Focus Groups
Updates to CDD Committees, Mayor, other City departments, institutional partners, Council Leadership
Staff and center work continuesAPRIL
Analysis, draft recommendations
Briefing and draft recommendations discussed with all CDD Committees, Mayor, Council Leadership and Centers
Drafting of final reportMAY
Briefing of Common Council prior to their 5/15 meeting
So, keep your eyes open for a community discussion near you, unless you live downtown.
