What Our Partners Say
Pete Hutchinson
Harwood Place for Public Ideas Faculty MemberFlint, Michigan
In February, 1999, 14 Flint stalwarts began
a journey through the Place
for Public Ideas. The first session centered on
identifying common
aspirations and building trust amongst the
class. It should be noted
that many of us did not know one another prior
to meeting in the Place.
There has been a community impact created by
the Place. This impact can
not necessarily be assessed seeing a direct
correlation between
intentional initiatives of the Place and
programs taking place in the
community. However, based on the participants
involved in different
initiatives that are also Place alumni it is
safe to assume that there
is more than a little influence from the Place
is in each of the
initiatives.
There is a group of members of the first class
who have continued to
meet on a somewhat regular basis for breakfast
and have been involved
separately or collectively in a number of
initiatives that have had a
major impact on the community. Examples of this
include developing and
distributing a directory of resources for the
homeless, that was
developed with the input of over 150 of our
homeless, involvement in
identifying and nurturing new and young
leadership to engage in our
local political system, infusing Harwood
Institute concepts into the
strategic planning of Metro Housing Authority,
and the merger of the
community’s four main economic development
agencies.
Additionally, there have been a number of
initiatives that have grown
in part from seeds that were germinated in the
Place. Recalling the
second class of the Place's desire to see
Flint's pride enhanced
through improving its physical appearance, we
currently have a number
of initiatives being coordinated by Keep
Genesee County Beautiful that
are fulfilling the goals, such as mobilizing
neighborhoods to do
clean-ups (Citizens Nuisance Task Force),
working with school children
to establish a norm against littering (Keep
Genesee County Beautiful)
and training new leadership to work with
neighborhoods to implement
beautification projects (Applewood Urban
Gardening Initiative). In
addition, there are major streetscape projects
scheduled or that have
been completed in Downtown Flint, the Cultural
Center, and the Third
Avenue corridor, all of which have Place alumni
involved.
Many of those in attendance at the meeting with
then Superintendent of
Flint Schools, Dr. James Ray, were involved in
the leadership of a
current grassroots initiative to improve our
schools called Great
Schools. This group has received input from 200
plus citizens as to
what they would like to see in our schools and
have presented a report
to our school board, which is currently working
to bring those
aspirations to fruition.
There is currently a move taking place to bring
greater coordination
between city and county governments. To say
that this is meeting with
some resistance would be an understatement;
however, the fact remains
that we are exploring ways to create a seamless
master plan, to funnel
our federal block grant dollars through one
governmental unit, not two;
to bring together the 911 systems throughout
the county; and to explore
utilizing some department personnel to work in
both the city and the
county governmental systems.
Those who went through the Organizational Place
series have also been
involved in initiatives that have served to
move our community forward.
Those who were involved in the United Way's
Place, moved forward the
work began in the first class of the Place
program review and created a
new system for funding that has been adopted by
the United Way. The
doing away of "United Way" agencies and opening
up the funding
opportunities for any agency was a radical
approach that made a large
impact on services in our community.
Additionally, their four areas of
focus and serving as a convener in each of
those areas has also created
a much more systematic approach to the delivery
of services in our
community.
Many members of the Cultural Center Place went
on to work on a Ruth
Mott Initiative to develop a Community Cultural
Plan. The plan that was
developed is currently being implemented
throughout the community,
expanding the accessibility of the arts to many
who have previously not
had the opportunity to take part, and
acknowledging that culture does
not necessarily only take place at the Cultural
Center.
One can plainly see that the original goals of
the Place alumni group
continue to be worked on and have grown to
include major segments of
our community. We continue to work to bring new
leadership to the fore
and support their efforts; we continue to
enhance our community's pride
through efforts to positively impact the
physical environment; and we
are continually working on bringing the city
and county closer together.