Paths to Purpose Portfolio
Finding My Why
Paths to Purpose, the First Community Community Development Corporation, and the Partnership for Reimagining Gainesville
To preface, I came into the Paths to Purpose program with a clean slate. I had just finished a hectic, COVID-tinged first year of my master's program; a transition that all but erased the paths of community engagement and service I had worked to build during my undergraduate experience here at UF. More than anything, I came in looking for an opportunity to evaluate and build upon my previous experiences, recenter my own personal motivations, and take the next step towards new ways to serve.
But what I found in Paths to Purpose was more than I ever anticipated. The lessons I've learned through Paths to Purpose have established a new understanding of what I'd like my professional and personal work to reflect. I'm learning how to be process, rather than goal or performance oriented; to seek to build relationships and learn from others as the first step in service; to understand my small place in the bigger system; and to understand the true, effectual power of collective action.
Through these lessons taught by our many community partners and through the work been able to do with them, I've learned that my passion in service is to create cooperative structures and relationships to empower the self-organization and self-expression of the community. With a bit more introspection, I've learned that this "why" is driven by a personal desire to connect others, and to encourage and enable others to come together in collective action. This desire for cooperation, reciprocity, and mutualism is something I've picked up and cultivated through my personal experiences and relationships. This also neatly falls within my motivations in pursuing a career in public service as a planner.
Through Paths to Purpose, I was able to get connected and eventually contribute to community development projects through the Partnership For Reimagining Gainesville and the formation of the First Community and Development Corporation. The Partnership for Reimagining Gainesville is an ongoing collaboration between the City of Gainesville, UF, and community non-profits to share resources and provide a means of building community capacity. The First Community Community Development Corporation is a non-profit aimed at "creating a process led by residents to work collaboratively with institutions, nonprofits, and organized community groups to prioritize improving the quality of life for underserved communities in Alachua County.". Each of these organizations are focused on creating cooperative, sustainable, and effectual relationships between the centers of power here in Gainesville - a theme that has recently framed the ongoing process of community development in Gainesville and my intention for service within Paths to Purpose.
“GNV doesn’t lack resources, it lacks abilltiy to engage people in them. How can we utilize students and faculty as SUSTAINED resources”
Pastor Duncan
Learning the Ropes
Community Entry Through the Graduate Planning Studio
The first semester of P2P happened to coincide with my Graduate Planning Studio course, which was tasked with developing a set of best practices and recommendations for Gainesville's Duval Neighborhood. This project was developed as a partnership with Carla Lewis of the First Community Community Development Corporation, to aide in the developmental planning of the newly formed non-profit.
One of the points stressed early on in P2P was on proper entry into the community - lessons of learning before acting; coming into service with humility; and leading with respect and reciprocity. This is something that I carried into the work during the Studio, passing on what I've learned through the leadership of the Studio team. Those guiding principles led to a successful project and a lasting relationship with Carla, one that has continued well past the work in the studio. This project laid the groundwork for and provided the appropriate community entry to enable the eventual development of the Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition.
Creating Space for Cooperation
The Development of the Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition
The second semester of P2P was focused on transitioning from community entry, and into project development and completion. For my project, I took the lessons learned from and relationships built with community partners and applied it to create an organization to fill the need for a connective, overarching,
cooperative effort to connect students to ongoing service opportunities in the community. This is where the Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition (NRC) was (re)born.
The NRC is a new version of a 6 year long effort by the Greater Duval Neighborhood Association to promote student capacity building through service in community organizations. Through my relationships with my mentors, namely Carla Lewis (Greater Duval Neighborhood Association, First Community Community Development Corporation), Andrew Telles (Partnership for Reimagining Gainesville), and Karissa Raskin and Brandy Stone ( City of Gainesville Department of Strategic Initiatives) - I was trusted leading a revisioning of this student capacity building initiative under a new banner, the Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition. This revisioning was intended to scale-up the previous effort and link students into the ongoing work of the Partnership for Reimagining Gainesville, the First Community Community Development Corporation, and many other community non-profits engaged in community development.
The Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition is "a grassroots, student-led coalition focused on establishing a sustainable, meaningful relationship between UF and Santa Fe students and faculty, community organizations in Gainesville/Alachua County, and other institutional resources.” The intention of this organization is to work in support of existing and ongoing community development efforts. Essentially, the NRC is an attempt to get all parties involved in community development and service to meet at the middle and create a more representative, collaborative, and effectual relationship.
The NRC organizes meetings and newsletters where students can be informed about the needs of the community and get matched up to organizations they can gain experience/make an impact at, improving both students individual and collective capacity. At the same time, those service opportunities for students provide a means for the organizations themselves to improve their capacity through the skills and services provided by students. In parallel, the NRC also pushes for process improvement within the existing service structures/initiatives it supports.
Within four short months, the NRC has grown its network to include 30+ student members and 50+ partner non-profits and student organizations.
Past Paths to Purpose
Leaving a Legacy with the Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition
The creation of the Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition is the culmination of the lesson's I've been taught in the 6 years of living and learning in Gainesville. It's an organization that aims to connect and support others, promotes cooperation above all else, focuses on the ability of talented, caring individuals to come together to make a bigger, broader impact. It serves to remind others that we're better when we work together, that anything that we have (resources, knowledge, connections, etc.) is more useful when shared.
The NRC is set to continue long after I'm gone. We have achieved community buy-in, established a clear definition of our purpose and mission, and created the infrastructure necessary for the work to continue in perpetuity. The immediate next steps for the NRC (within the next 6 months) are to work on scale and legitimization. These steps include conducting student outreach and expanding membership; developing tighter partnerships with UF and Santa Fe offices, colleges, student organizations, and institutions; creating a website and branding materials; and pushing towards process improvement within existing UF programs (Gator Volunteers, PRG, etc.). With time, the NRC is aiming to cement a permanent place in the network of existing community development and service initiatives, serving to provide connection and student capacity building.
