Official Lee County Government Web Site

Neighborhood Building

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Programs focusing on rebuilding neighborhoods are rapidly gaining recognition across the country. Utilizing federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Lee County's Neighborhood Building Program identifies a community's assets and helps to develop plans to build upon them. The Lee County Department of Human Services Neighborhood Building Program operates in three phases: survey (assessment phase), planning (strategy phase), and implementation.

Neighborhoods are first targeted by high concentrations of poverty. Target neighborhoods must exhibit strong established leadership, which is one of the most critical requirements for the success of this program. As neighborhoods (currently Charleston Park, Pine Manor, Page Park, Harlem Heights, Palmona Park, and Suncoast) are assigned to the Neighborhood Building Team they work closely with the communities leaders. The Neighborhood Building Team also joins forces with local partners (non-profits, service agencies, and faith-based organizations) to bridge the gaps community assets cannot. The Progress of each Neighborhood can be followed in its respective Phase Report.

Goal:
Because community self-sufficiency is the program's overall goal, services are purchased only when the identified assets in the community cannot bridge an identified gap. The priority ranking that identified needs are given are determined by a neighborhood survey, focus group input, and plans developed in partnership with neighborhood residents. The primary persons responsible for the implementation of the plan are the Neighborhood Builder and the Resident Coordinator specific to each community. The Neighborhood Association, of course, will be very much involved since the program, in order to be successful, must implement the neighborhood's plan and represent the residents vision for their neighborhood.

Summary:
The Neighborhood Building Program can only be successful if it is planned and orchestrated to delicately balance infrastructure needs with the social needs required to maintain them. Both Social Capital and Infrastructure Capital are pieces of the same effort. While infrastructure personnel focus on physical improvements, social needs personnel concentrate on the social fabric and neighborhood association organizational capacity building. In order to attain thriving neighborhoods, a holistic approach involving both physical and social improvements is needed. Thus rebuilding targeted Neighborhood Revitalization Districts through a redevelopment process that is neighborhood-driven, asset-based, and focused on community relationships. Neighborhood Revitalization District residents must be empowered to define and develop solutions to their problems. Neighborhood Meetings are the place where problems should be discussed, decisions made, and solutions developed. The condition of the entire neighborhood must be taken into consideration. Addressing only one part of a neighborhood's liabilities while ignoring all other factors that define neighborhood quality of life has led, in the past, to large capital investments and low results. One neighborhood revitalization plan will be developed for each neighborhood district. It will have two components, one for infrastructure activities and the other for social enhancements of the neighborhood. The holistic, Neighborhood Building approach to neighborhood revitalization matches investments made in infrastructure and affordable housing with investments made in human capital.

The Neighborhood Building Program is made possible by the utilization of federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds from Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

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