Principles 19 страница

Despite opposition to the survey from the Hyde Square Task Force and other community stakeholders, Urban Edge carried out the project and publicized the results in March 2000. As expected and feared, by both the activists and the professionals who evaluated the survey, the results sug-gested that residents would much prefer a large-scale store similar to K-Mart (Daniel 2000). Announcement of the survey results once again out-raged the community; many could not believe that Urban Edge was still considering K-Mart as a possible development project for Jackson Square (Kahn 2000).

To fight back, the Hyde Square Task Force and its YCOs hosted a com-munity meeting in May 2000, to which they invited guest speakers Al Norman and Tony Barros to better educate the community about the neg-ative effects of a K-Mart in their neighborhood ( JP Council 2000). Al Nor-man, a well-known advocate for the nationwide anti-K-Mart movement, spoke about the K-Mart Corporation’s unfair labor practices, as well as their disengagement from the community. And Tony Barros, president of the Hyde/Jackson Square Business Association, pleaded for the community to

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continue supporting local businesses that had been in the area for many years.

In June 2000, soon after the community meeting, youth leaders from the Hyde Square Task Force and representatives from Urban Edge attended a community forum where the two groups engaged in heated discussion about the future of Jackson Square (I. Sen 2003). The tension continued to build during the summer, until tragedy struck the community once again. On August 5, 2000, 15-year-old Cedric Ennis was stabbed near the Jackson Square Transit station (Bombardieri 2000). The wounded teenager crawled from the station, across the street, through the vacant lot that everyone had been fighting over, and finally collapsed and died in front of his friend’s house on Columbus Avenue.

The death of Cedric Ennis saddened a community that had longed for the day when there would be no more violence against young people. Many argued that if the vacant lot had not remained empty for so many years, things might have been different (Bombardieri 2000). In an effort to turn this tragedy into constructive community change, the YCOs organized a march on October 21, 2000, to take back the community (Miller 2000).

The march began at the vacant lot, where hundreds of young people showed up and participated in the clean-up of this long abandoned prop-erty. The group, joined by other community residents and city officials, then marched through the surrounding area chanting ‘‘Youth First in Jackson Square! ¡ Jovenes Primero! ’’ Eventually, they returned to the vacant lot, where they placed a banner, symbolically claiming the land as their own and as the future site of the youth and family center.

The march, attended by well over 200 people, delivered the youth’s message loud and clear, and the idea earned the support of city officials (Miller 2000). Immediately following this action, a representative from Ur-ban Edge wrote an op-ed in the local newspaper thanking the task force youth for organizing the march and promising the organization’s support in building a new youth and family center (Stoddard 2000).

Youth and Family Center: No Longer a Dream

In December 2000, Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council member John Demeter proposed lowering the voting and membership age in the council to 16 years (Lombardi 2000). Demeter, a board member of the Hyde Square Task Force at the time, stated that he was inspired by the work of the task force’s youth and proposed that young people be given authority to make official decisions in their own community. The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council unanimously voted in favor of the proposition and lowered both the voting and membership ages to 16 years. In the summer of 2001, Kim-berly Chacon and Oscar Vega campaigned for office and became the first

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youth leaders to be elected as council members (Two Teens 2001). This so-lidified the organization’s status as a highly respected and effective model for youth organizing.

Following the council election, the youth of the Hyde Square Task Force began working pro-bono with architect Dan Dilullo to come up with their vision for the youth and family center (Rudavsky 2002). Simultaneously, they developed and administered a youth-focused survey to gather infor-mation about what young people desired and needed in the community. With assistance from Jesus Gerena, the newly appointed community orga-nizer of the Hyde Square Task Force, these young activists increased their skills for advocacy and community organizing. Gerena guided them through the analysis of community power and training for basic organizing, in-cluding public speaking and media advocacy, in preparation for a long fight to bring the much-needed youth and family center to this community.

During a press conference in November 2002, this group of young leaders presented their vision for the new center, as well as their needs for more youth development services and programs. Their consistent partici-pation in hundreds of hours of meetings hosted by the Jackson Coordi-nating Group paid off when their vision was incorporated into the overall development of Jackson Square (Rudavsky 2002). With support from the community, as well as city and state officials, the youth and family center finally seemed within reach.

During the final Jackson Coordinating Group planning meeting on Oc-tober 2, 2003, young people once again publicly demonstrated their support for the new center, marching into the meeting chanting ‘‘Youth First in Jackson Square, ¡ Jovenes Primero! ’’ (MacDonald 2003). After the meeting, community residents approved the development priorities set forth by the group to include a youth and family center, affordable housing units, and small-scale commercial space. The Boston Redevelopment Authority gave its approval and a request for proposal (RFP) was released, soliciting in-terested developers to finally begin the revitalization of Jackson Square (Ruch 2003).

Future of Jackson Square

With many interested outside developers waiting for release of the RFP, local grassroots organizations realized that they needed to come together once again to make sure that the community’s needs and visions would be addressed and implemented. In the spring of 2004, two major local CDCs— Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation and Urban Edge— began discussions on collaborating as developer. Several months later these two organizations officially announced their collaboration, under the name of Partners for Jackson, and became one of the potential developers for

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Jackson Square (Ruch 2005). The partnership of these two CDCs was viewed as a symbolic reunion in a community no longer divided and now working toward a common goal. Soon after, the accomplishments and dedication of the young activists and the Hyde Square Task Force were formally recog-nized when the organization became the third member of the Partners for Jackson Development Team.

After release of the RFP on July 2, 2004, three potential developers, in-cluding Partners for Jackson, began preparing proposals that would include a youth and family center, mixed-market housing, and commercial space for small businesses. In January 2005, two developers—Partners for Jackson and Mitchell Properties, LLC—submitted their proposals, each hoping to become the future developer of this long-neglected project (Ruch 2005). During a community meeting in February 2005, hosted by Roxbury Com-munity College, hundreds of community residents gathered to hear both developers present their visions of a future Jackson Square (Ruch 2005). The night was symbolic and sentimental for many, because approximately six years before they had been in the same room protesting the K-Mart to be built in their community. As they listened that night, they realized that their dream for Jackson Square now was within reach.

The final twist in the Jackson Square Development saga came a few days prior to announcement of the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s decision to name the developer. Partners for Jackson and Mitchell Properties had decided to combine resources and present themselves as a unified front for the development of Jackson Square, with Partners for Jackson taking the lead (Jason 2005). At a June 1 ceremony, symbolically held on one of the vacant parcels waiting to be developed, young people, community resi-dents, and city and state officials gathered to witness the moment when this combined team was designated for development of Jackson Square ( Jason 2005).

This was a major victory for the community, particularly the youth and their advocates who had been fighting for years. Knowing that there still is a long way to go, they remain optimistic and passionate about the youth and family center, commercial and recreational space, and 400 units of mixed-income housing that soon will call Jackson Square home. As Mayor Menino and other public officials spoke about the history of Jackson Square, the young activists from the community were recognized for their hard work and strong contributions.

Throughout the six-year process, the youth of the Hyde Square Task Force attended every major community meeting and forum on the devel-opment issue. Their presence represents the power this community and its youth hold. Needless to say, the young people of the Hyde Square Task Force have won the battle. They have accomplished what many adults could not, and they established themselves as visible leaders in the community. They will continue their work to achieve the goal of bringing more resources to their community, and they will carry on the fight to make their voices

YOUTH FIRST IN JACKSON SQUARE! (¡ JOVENES PRIMERO! )

heard. Soon enough, they will be able to lead the fight from the youth and family center that they helped build!

Commentary and Analysis

The ten principles for examining youth organizations, introduced in chap-ter 4, are helpful when analyzing this successful case example (participation, leadership, staffing, structure, goals, target systems, strategy and tactics, finances, allies, communications). The campaign to establish a youth and family center arose from the context of a traditional turf-based organizing effort by the Hyde Square Task Force that initially focused on gang and drug violence. As neighborhood residents joined together to gain greater control over the redevelopment of the area, the need for a youth center sur-faced through a true ‘‘bottom-up’’ community-driven strategic planning process initiated by the task force’s executive director. Once it became clear that youth programming was an essential priority, and large numbers of young people became directly involved in the action group, strong elements of identity organizing based on age also emerged.

Participation by both neighborhood youth and adults was broad and deep through the many phases of this organizing campaign, which ulti-mately was successful owing to effective use of people power. Hundreds of residents—young and old—attended numerous community meetings and workshops that were part of the strategic planning process. A large number of other community groups were engaged in the fight to stop the opening of the K-Mart store. Indeed, the coordinating committee that led this part of the effort included more than seventy community residents and business owners. According to Gian Gonzalez, one of the youth leaders interviewed from the campaign, ‘‘You could easily turn out 100 people a night. ’’

The initial involvement of many youth was more for social than political reasons. As Gian explains, ‘‘A lot of it at the beginning was friends, to come and socialize. ’’ A strong bond developed among these youth, whose ages ranged from 13 to 17. ‘‘This became a second family away from the house, kind of, because I would see them most of the time—two or three times a week, sometimes four times a week. So, through the process of doing all that, I got really close with the people—I made a whole new group of friends. ’’

Leo Peguero, another task force youth leader, adds, ‘‘I guess the longer we were here, the more we liked it. And we never expected to be here as long as we were. I did not expect to graduate from high school. . . . The longer you were here, the longer you wanted to stay. It happened, you know, that we’d gone off to college and still come back. ’’

Over time, the active participation of youth activists began changing some of the negative perceptions about teenagers that were held by many adults in the community. Leo explains, ‘‘Before that, me and my brother and

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my friend, we were seen as trouble makers; and once you start doing stuff like this, you start to notice that people actually change the way that they look at you. They start to give you a little more respect and expect more things from you and better things from you. You do feel good about yourself. ’’ There was a growing recognition that youth could make a posi-tive contribution to the community. According to Leo, ‘‘Like we started to get a lot more teenagers and it was just like when teenagers are given a chance, they become something really good. ’’

Participation in community organizing activities enabled these young leaders to gain skills, confidence, and a sense of self-esteem. Gian explains:

So after that, talking to everybody and everything, I broke out of a shell of being quiet and not being able to talk to people. I got to express myself a lot more than I would have if I’d stayed home. By public speaking and talking to people, I’ve gained more experience in speaking. I gained more confidence. The task force has really helped me a lot finding what I was good at.

This positive experience contributed to their continued involvement over time, despite the many hours of work entailed. Leo adds, ‘‘It’s very addic-tive once you start feeling good about yourself—and it’s the main thing that I got from this place—this place makes you feel good. ’’

Youth leaders entered the fray in earnest at the Roxbury Community College public hearing on the K-Mart development proposal, attended by Boston City Councilors and several hundred people. And their efforts were recognized when they were officially designated as representatives for young people and awarded one of the thirty organizational member votes as part of the community’s voice on the Jackson Coordinating Group’s activities. The team of fifteen YCOs was introduced at the Hyde Square Task Force’s annual meeting with hundreds in attendance, and these youth ac-tivists set in motion the Youth First in Jackson Square campaign.

Overall, more than two hundred youth were directly involved in the action group, with large-turnout events at another community meeting to oppose K-Mart, the march following the death of the 15-year-old who was stabbed, and the final Jackson Coordinating Group planning meeting. But a hallmark of this campaign was the steady, consistent participation of young activists in hundreds of hours of community meetings to envision, plan, strategize, and negotiate for the new youth center. Gian describes it: ‘‘We would go everywhere. That’s how we got to be known so well, was that we were at every meeting all the time. Basically, put it this way, every time there was a meeting that had to do with that plot of land, wherever it was—we were there. ’’ This regular involvement over the course of several years—often through protracted and difficult discussions—clearly demon-strated the commitment, perseverance, and follow-through of the core group of youth leaders.

YOUTH FIRST IN JACKSON SQUARE! (¡ JOVENES PRIMERO! )

The fifteen YCOs provided both leadership and staffing, functioning in the role of organizer/leader that is so typical in youth-led organizing. They performed a number of staffing roles, including recruitment, designing and administering the youth survey, and gathering factual information about various aspects of the campaign. Gian elaborates:

The whole organizer thing was really, really new to me and I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I started gaining more knowledge about what it was that they were doing. We got a lot of projects where we had to go out and meet with people, talk to people, having them come to meetings that we were having and stuff like that to let them know what we were about. That’s how we started by letting people know who we were and what was the difference that we were trying to bring to the community.

And they also functioned as leaders, representing their constituency at numerous community planning meetings and serving as visible spokes-people at marches, rallies, and large public events. Leadership was not vested with one or two youth; rather, it was shared and collective throughout the campaign. Leo says, ‘‘Well, at that point we were not separated into different levels of organizers, but definitely in a group. ’’ This de-centralized leadership model has enabled the group to deal effectively with the chal-lenge of young leaders aging out, replacing them through an orderly pro-cess. Gian adds, ‘‘So now there’s a whole new group, pretty much nobody from the original group is in the YCO now. They are all pretty young and trying to learn, like the history, and trying to go on their own. ’’

Individual development of both leadership and staffing skills was a product of both structured training sessions and learning through direct experience over the course of the campaign. The workshops on power anal-ysis, public speaking, media advocacy, and basic community organizing were classic components of a leadership training curriculum. However, this more formalized instruction served only to supplement the rich on-the-job education gained through participation in this extensive community struggle. ‘‘To put your point across was kind of hard. Sometimes, when it comes to being a kid, it’s harder to have them listen to you. So when you’re a kid, you have to have the point straight, ’’ Gian explains.

Actually, financing for the youth community organizer staff positions was quite minimal. At first there was no money at all; later, team mem-bers were paid a very modest $50 every two weeks by the Hyde Square Task Force. As this book went to press, youth team organizers were paid at the hourly minimum wage; but consistent with their past track record, these organizers/leaders continued to donate large numbers of uncompensated hours. Leo says, ‘‘At that point, we used to be here for a lot more hours, getting a stipend really didn’t matter. . . . We used to go from school and stay here [at the task force office] the whole time and put in a lot of hours. ’’

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The YCO team was an outgrowth of the Hyde Square Task Force struc-ture, and the task force has remained the host agency for this locally based youth-led organizing effort. However, the external structural recognition achieved by the YCO when it was treated as a separate entity from the task force and allotted an organizational vote on the Jackson Coordinating Group was unusual and quite impressive for a newly formed youth group. The lowering of the voting and membership ages to 16 years for the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council also was striking and enabled the YCO to play an active and equal role with adults in this larger area of Boston, transcending both traditional age and spatial boundaries.

The goal of opening a new youth and family center was part of a larger reclamation program for the Jackson Square neighborhood that also in-cluded affordable housing and small-scale commercial space. The YCO used the youth-focused survey to identify the need for a youth services facility and then worked with a pro-bono architect to create the actual vision for the center. Once this goal was firmly established, a number of interim objectives were set and met as important steps in the overall campaign. Certainly, the most significant and challenging objective was to stop the development of a K-Mart store on the very parcel of land envisioned as the site for the new youth center. Neutralizing Urban Edge’s backing of this retail store and winning their support for a new youth facility were critical pieces of this objective.

There were multiple target systems tied to the YCO’s ultimate goal and secondary objectives. Initially, the mayor and city council were targeted at public meetings in an effort to involve the city of Boston directly in the redevelopment of Jackson Square. There was a positive resolution when the mayor directed the Boston Redevelopment Authority to take responsibility for monitoring the redevelopment process, and the Jackson Coordinating Group was established to represent the interests of the community. Leo adds, ‘‘It’s really cool when you see changes that you can do here. ’’

While there was fierce and broad-based community opposition to the opening of a new K-Mart store, the corporation was less a target than Urban Edge, which was the sponsor of the redevelopment plan that included this large business enterprise. Clearly, the youth-led action after the stabbing death was the turning point for Urban Edge, as evidenced by the CDC’s publication of a local newspaper op-ed supporting a youth and family center immediately after this high-profile community event. And finally, the Boston Redevelopment Authority was successfully targeted by the entire Jackson Coordinating Group as an acceptable request for proposal was gen-erated and developers acceptable to the community were selected.

A mix of strategies and tactics were employed, depending on whether relationships with the various target systems required collaboration, per-suasion, or adversarial contest (Warren 1975). Obviously, this community organizing effort featured community development, but vintage social action strategies and tactics also were brought to bear on target systems that

YOUTH FIRST IN JACKSON SQUARE! (¡ JOVENES PRIMERO! )

exhibited a range of resistance to community members’ vision for accept-able redevelopment and change. Essentially, a persuasive campaign ap-proach was used to win over city officials and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and once consensus had been established, relations and inter-actions between community members and municipal decision makers ten-ded to be collaborative.

The large and vocal turnouts at the different public meetings effectively convinced elected officials and institutional leaders to heed the wishes of community members who opposed the establishment of a K-Mart store. The YCO team carried signs and spoke passionately about the need for youth services in the community, and the youth-focused survey data supporting this position were presented with great tactical skill. Use of the Youth First in Jackson Square campaign slogan dramatically conveyed the essence of this youth-led organizing initiative and captured the general public’s imag-ination. The YCO also employed the media effectively, presenting their vision for a new youth center compellingly at a press conference. Overall, the Jackson Coordinating Group, including its youth representatives, fol-lowed through conscientiously throughout the entire planning process, presenting a unifying and unswerving voice from the community.

On the other hand, a more adversarial approach was taken vis-a`-vis Urban Edge, as community members pressured with tactics designed to force the CDC to drop support for developing the store. Youth activists were involved in heated exchanges with Urban Edge leaders during the early stages of the campaign. Leo explains: ‘‘We always had somebody—an adult—who would try to make a statement by a teenager sound stupid. ’’ Within ten weeks of the much publicized and tragic stabbing death, the YCO organized a march to take back the community, cleaned up the aban-doned property near the MBTA station, and symbolically claimed this plot of land as the site for the new youth facility.

Certainly, the violent death of the 15-year-old was a traumatic and profoundly sad event that had deeply wounded members of the Jackson Square community. However, the YCO used this tragedy as an organizing handle to leverage constructive change, channeling positive energy into unifying direct action and hope for the future. This tactic was broadly supported by the community and won the respect and support of city officials. It also compelled Urban Edge to abandon plans for building a K-Mart and to make a commitment to open a new youth center on this emotionally charged vacant parcel of land.

An extensive list of allies from other community organizations—the small business community, neighborhood health centers, tenants councils from public housing developments, community development corporations, hu-man services agencies, area churches, municipal departments—and selected city and state officials supported this campaign. The action group also was able to enlist the services of a pro bono architect, an advocate from the nationwide anti-K-Mart movement, and several professional statisticians

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who evaluated and critiqued Urban Edge’s severely flawed survey of shoppers.

Perhaps most impressive was the strong positive working relationship between young people and adults that was exhibited throughout the cam-paign. Indeed, the YCO team was accorded equal status with adult groups in the Jackson Coordinating Group, and the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council took the unusual step of lowering the voting and membership ages to 16 years in order that youth could participate fully in official community decisions. The election of two YCO representatives broke new ground for youth–adult partnerships in Boston, helping set the tone for the collabora-tive and productive inter-generational relations that were a centerpiece of this community organizing initiative. Gian concludes: ‘‘I think that the best part is actually having people—adults—agree with me. . . having peo-ple see where I’m coming from, actually listening to my point of view of things. ’’

Finally, the youth organizing team used a mix of communication tech-niques to recruit participants from within the community and to carry their message beyond the immediate neighborhood. The most prevalent and effective form of internal communication was through face-to-face contact. Recruitment was done through street outreach in places where young people were most likely to hang, such as the MBTA station, schools, playgrounds, parking lots, grocery stores, and street corners. The YCO team also sys-tematically knocked on doors. Gian gives the details:

Basically, when we talked to people, we had them write down their names and numbers—stuff like that. ‘‘If you’re interested and you want to help us out. ’’ That’s a lot of the way we kept in contact. We had a really long list of people that we came in contact with who actually supported us in what we’re doing, so when it came time to have a meeting we just took those lists and we did a number of letters where we would fold, stamp, lick envelopes.

Flyers were used to publicize meetings and actions, while posters promi-nently carried the messages School is out. Where do I go? Kmart? and We must be a part of the process! at the public hearing before city coun-cilors. The powerful chant ‘‘Youth First in Jackson Square! ¡ Jovenes Primero! ’’ resounded at public events. This was very much a grassroots effort; various electronic media were not utilized to a significant degree for recruitment purposes.

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