Tulsa’s Promise Neighborhoods: Moving Towards Cradle-to-Career Services

Good news continues to roll in for the Kendall-Whittier and Eugene Field Neighborhoods.  Last December, CAP received a $500,000 Promise Neighborhood planning grant to focus on revitalization in both communities. The inspiration for Promise Neighborhoods is based on the successful model of New York City’s Harlem Children’s Zone, a program featured in Waiting for Superman and various other media. These grants fund programs in high poverty neighborhoods which have a proven capacity to build partnerships and possess the necessary systems to track kids through school, so no one falls through the cracks.

This week, the Tulsa World reported that Tulsa Public Schools pledged to provide longitudinal data to track Kendall-Whittier and Eugene Field students as they progress through school.  This collaboration also includes a pledge to join with other partners in efforts to reform educational strategies. Taken together, this means CAP is in a better position to compete for a $7 million dollar grant to provide cradle-to-career services to children in the Eugene Field and Kendall-Whittier neighborhoods.

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New Neighborhood Initiative Seeks ‘Catalytic’ Investments

The Washington Times reports on a new program proposed by the Obama administration to transform poor neighborhoods across the nation. The initiative, which builds on the Hope VI model, will concentrate action and funding on urban neighborhoods and coordinate investments ranging from public transit to new housing, early childhood education, farmer’s markets, and school reforms:

The HUD budget request Congress will consider in coming months says the program will seek to transform poor neighborhoods into “functioning, sustainable mixed-income neighborhoods by linking housing improvements with appropriate services, schools, public assets, transportation and access to jobs.” …

“The goal of the program is to demonstrate that concentrated and coordinated neighborhood investments from multiple sources can transform a distressed neighborhood and improve the quality of life of current and future residents,” the administration argues in the budget, also saying the initiative “would challenge public, private and nonprofit partners to identify neighborhood interventions that would have the largest return on federal investments.”

If only there were a neighborhood in Tulsa where something like that is already happening? Oh wait – there is!

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Westside Harvest Market Opens (Grandly) Saturday

The Westside Harvest Market (2232 S. Nogales Ave) is having its grand opening celebration this Saturday from noon to 3pm. They’ve actually been open for a while now, but now that the Eugene Field neighborhood’s first grocer can accept food stamps and WIC, they’re having a big to-do.

The event will feature free food (hot dogs and brisket, and stuff for the herbivores among you), music, door prizes, and a jupiter jump.

The store is the result of some very big-hearted and visionary people at First United Methodist Church and Global Gardens, as well as the involvement of neighborhood residents over the course of planning.

The  market will bring fresh groceries and produce to the area at more reasonable prices than the bruised bananas and stale crackers at the nearby Shell station. I also hear there may be some very locally grown produce from the farmer-children of Global Gardens at Eugene Field starting this summer. The building also boasts a small coffee lounge, a teaching kitchen (to help parents learn how to prepare meals with fresh and nutritious ingredients), an art studio, and classroom space for Global Gardens.

The teaching kitchen is in need of new or gently used supplies and equipment. You can bring in your own or purchase off the Harvest Market’s registry at Target. Access it online or request the list under the name Donnie Caddy at your local store.

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Image used under a Creative Commons license from flickr user Jeremy Brooks.

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Fresh Food and Groceries Return to Eugene Field

The Harvest Tulsa grocery store will have its “soft opening” this Saturday, and will be open from 10am to 6pm. The store, located on Nogales just north of W. 23rd St., will make groceries and fresh food accessible to the residents of the Eugene Field area. The project is the result of collaboration between Global Gardens, some committed members of First United Methodist Church, Eugene Field elementary, and neighborhood residents.

Prior to the opening of the Harvest, the only s0urce of groceries for the neighborhood was the area convenience store, outrageous mark-ups, unhealthy food, and all.

The store will eventually accept WIC and Food Stamps (it must first be open for a certain period of time) and hopes to carry produce grown by the elementary schoolers with Global Gardens plots.

I hope to make it out there on Saturday and check it out. And you should too!

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Westside Coalition?

One of my projects here at CAP is to reduce tenant mobility for our project-based Section 8 community, Brightwaters. The community is in a depressed area on the west side of the river, at about 23rd St and Southwest Blvd. We want to get some sort of coalition going over there so that residents have a voice with other community partners, such as police (Uniform Division SW) and Eugene Field school. I’m not aware of any functioning coalitions out that way, but comment if you know of anything. We’re working on organizing a meeting of some of the community players. So who all should be invited?

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