Happy Pumpkins, Building Community

Community building doesn’t get much more tangible than this. The peppy beat of music filling the air, dancing kids, smiling pumpkins, and a call to come together as a neighborhood and be empowered to make it a place you love and enjoy. We celebrated community at a block party on West Avenue in Elyria’s southside neighborhood recently. The party was more than a social gathering, it was part of our larger effort to foster genuine connections between neighbors and understand our community’s needs. Those connections are empowering neighbors to work together as part of the ONE (Ohio Neighborhood Engagement) Lorain County initiative, a pilot program that uses mini-grants for neighborhood improvement in Elyria and Lorain.

Youth dive in to painting pumpkins at the Southside Elyria Block Party

During the summer and into late fall, the residents of West Avenue completed work beautifying their street. With tremendous leadership from Ward 5 Councilman Marcus Madison, the residents were connected to each other and to resources that could help them patch the holes they identified in their neighborhood.

Volunteer Mike Mierau, from Simplified Facilities Group, Inc. patches a concrete step on West Avenue in Elyria

Residents on West Avenue identified unsafe conditions where elderly neighbors were gingerly stepping over the same hole in their front porch every day, or climbing up steps with rotted boards or crumbling concrete. These obstacles can be dangerous hazards and in winter almost a guaranteed cause of a slip or fall.

For other residents, the need was for fixing storm damage to homes from several seasons ago, high up on eaves that are too narrow and too high to reach with a conventional ladder. The exposed wood continued to weather with each passing winter.

Through El Centro, which served as a fiscal sponsor for the resident groups, the ONE Lorain County mini-grants provided supplies like paint, brushes, concrete mix, and wood to repair porches and install handrails.

With the help of volunteers, holes were patched and fresh concrete made old steps look new. New trim was cut and installed, no longer an eyesore. Careworn landscaping was spruced up, weeds pulled, and yards mowed.

Program Improves Neighborhood’s Look and Connections – Chronicle Telegram

Residents that did not participate in ONE Lorain County chose to do projects on their own: a house got a fresh coat of paint, a new porch was built on another. By the day of the block party, West Avenue was looking noticeably different.

As an outgrowth of the ONE Lorain County initiative, a new group called the Southside Neighborhood Network was formed. The group had its first meeting just a few days before the block party.

Brenda Warren, a southside Elyria resident and community organizer, kicked off the meeting with about 20 residents in attendance with a few thought-provoking questions.

“Are you a superstar? A responsible, creative, team player? Do you have a positive attitude? Do you take charge? Have a desire to grow and change? All of us are superstars, we all possess many if not all those qualities. You are a superstar of the Southside Neighborhood Network! I want us to start making a positive difference in our community…We can come together and share our struggles together and be unified. We can be the change agents for our part of the city.”

Calls for sign ups for the Southside Neighborhood Network

At the block party, residents ventured out in the warm sunshine on a breezy and unseasonably mild October Saturday. They danced in the sunshine with the help of a DJ, painted pumpkins with their children, and listened as Brenda Warren called them to action. “Sign-up! We are here to find out what folks are concerned about in the community. If you’re a resident of the southside, from downtown and from one side of the river to the other, be a part of the Southside Neighborhood Network.” 

African Royalty Dance Troupe performed several traditional African dances for the crowd.

Southside Pride on Full Display – Morning Journal

When we embarked on the pilot program of ONE Lorain County there was hope that it could bring small groups together to help each other, share ideas, learn from one another and in the end, know their neighbor more than by a passing wave. ONE Lorain County was intended to empower neighbors to vocalize the needs with each other and in turn be each other’s resource for filling the need or bringing the idea to life.

The creation of the Southside Neighborhood Network is everything we had hoped to see as part of the vision for how ONE Lorain County could impact and help neighborhoods. Lorain and Elyria’s residents that participated are true superstars of their communities and we can’t wait to see what comes next.

Pizza, anyone? Linda Styer, Brian Frederick, Councilman Marcus Madison, and David Borocz-Johnson serving up lunch for hungry friends

We give huge thanks to Councilman Marcus Madison and Pamela Carter, Councilwoman for Ward 3 in Lorain, for all their hard work and leadership; to Victor Leandry and El Centro; to Lorain and Elyria City Schools and Boys and Girls Clubs of Elyria for use of their facilities; and to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lorain County for providing childcare and activities.

Are you a superstar, too? This project was made possible because of flexible grant dollars from superstars that donated to endowment. 

If you would like to help us respond to community needs such as this, read more about the Campaign for Emerging Opportunities. A campaign in honor of Brian Frederick will provide the Community Foundation with flexible resources to address the most critical needs of the community, now and in the future.