Paul Adams recipient of campus award

Paul Adams, ESLARP Campus Advisory Committee member, is the recipient of the 2008-9 Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement from the University of Illinois. Congratulations Paul!

FAA 199 students flyer neighborhood businesses for upcoming ceremony

On Saturday, November 15 eight students from the FAA 199 class worked with Project H.E.A.V.E.N.’S director, Carole Mayhall to raise awareness for an upcoming ceremony. The students distributed flyers to businesses and patrons along State Street in East St. Louis. Students also worked to address invitations for the upcoming ceremony recognizing victims, survivors and their family members

Later in the afternoon the students worked in Project H.E.A.V.E.N.’S office to sort supplies and assemble emergency bags for people in transition. The bags are part of Saint Clair County’s Project Homeless Connect which helps support the needs of homeless individuals and families.

Urban Affairs Association March 4-7, 2009

Janni Sorensen, Assistant Professor of Geography at UNC Charlotte and former ESLARP Assistant Director, will be presenting on ESLARP at the upcoming Urban Affairs Association's Annual Meeting in Chicago (March 4-7). Her presentation on March 6th is entitled "Neighborhood Planning in a Community-University Partnership" and is part of "Community Institutions: New Roles, New Challenges" session. Registration is open till January 12, 2009.

FAA 199 students preserve, clean-up, and provide support

This past Outreach Weekend, over twenty FAA 199 worked at several work sites over the weekend. Students worked in the City of Centerville with their city planner to transfer police reports into electronic format. This information will be used by the planner to create GIS maps that will allow the City of Centerville to visually see the locations of crime, and the types of calls their police department receive.















Other students helped Catholic Urban Programs preserve historic gravestones at one of the oldest cemeteries in East St. Louis.















Eight students worked at 41st Street Pullman Porter Park to shovel 20 tons of gravel into a walkway in the park. And a few students helped Christina Fisher, Director of Village Theatre, to organize supply closets in the theatre and their tool shed.















Due to the chilly weather on Saturday, most of the students worked indoors with the Katherine Dunham Museum to catalog their library, decorate the museum for the holidays, and clean and sort historic materials at two of Katherine Dunham's homes.

As usual, all the hard work was capped off by a stop at Pirtle's, for the world's best ice cream, before we headed home

November Outreach Weekend

Nearly 140 University of Illinois students and faculty participated in our November Outreach Weekend from November 14-15. Thank you to all the classes that participated-FAA 199, FAA 391, LIS 451, UP 474, and all the volunteers!

Project H.E.A.V.E.N.

ESLARP is partnering with Project H.E.A.V.E.N. (Helping to Empower All Victims Everywhere Now) – to help remember victims and survivors of crime this holiday season.

Crime victims and survivors will be honored with a tree of HOPE in the rotunda of city hall in East St. Louis. During the ceremony, survivors and family members will place an ornament on the tree to remember their loved ones.

ESLARP is helping to publicize the event by flyering local businesses and community centers. Project HEAVEN - Crime Victim Services works to assist victims of crime and collaborate with local service agencies to improve referral and direct services for victims in the greater East St. Louis area.

For more information on Project HEAVEN see: http://projectheaven-cvs.com/

Engaging scholars and practitioners

Last month, ESLARP had a presence at two conferences: Imagining America and the American Planning Association's 2008 Illinois State Conference.

In early October, Imagining America drew together a group of scholars, activists, community organizers, and all shades in between, to mutually engage one overarching question: what does it mean to do "public" scholarship? Abbilyn Harmon, an ESLARP graduate assistant, had the opportunity to reflect on this question many times over in the panels and activities organized for the conference, and found herself challenged by those from inside and outside the walls of academia.

Abby also had the opportunity to take part in the Publicly Active Graduate Education (PAGE) program, which brought together a group of 20 graduate students to aggressively take on this question as part of a daylong PAGE summit. At this summit, Abby presented her ESLARP-based Participatory Action Research course as a model of engaged critical pedagogy. Laura Lawson, ESLARP director, also presented at the conference about ESLARP's engagement in public scholarship.

The American Planning Association's 2008 Illinois State Conference was held here in Champaign from October 29-31. Planning students and practitioners from all across the state attended workshops and sessions exploring creating greener cities, better transportation, and the changing demographics of cities in Illinois. Sang Lee, an ESLARP visiting lecturer, presented on planning education, community organizing, and East St. Louis. She was part of a session exploring equity planning in practice. Ken Salo, an ESLARP Campus Advisory Committee member, was also part of the session, presenting on his work in north Champaign around environmental justice issues. Earlier in the conference, another ESLARP CAC member, Elizabeth Sweet, presented her work on gender and immigrants in Illinois.

FAA 391 students work with Eagles Nest

FAA 391 started their outreach weekend with a tour of Eagle’s Nest, a shelter for veterans that is currently in development. While at the site, we met with Martha Watts, the director of the organization, and she filled us in on the troubles they have had with previous contractors that have delayed the project’s completion. On Saturday, we returned to Eagle’s Nest where we met Ms. Suttle, a member of Martha’s board, and discussed potential landscape developments around the site. We then met Lily, the president of Dayton-Wedgewood, and George, another member of Martha’s board, and listened to their diverse concerns about political and economic corruption within the city. Afterwards, Lily provided us with delicious homemade chili and we prepared to pass out informational fliers about Eagle’s Nest around the neighborhood. While walking around, we met many friendly residents who voiced their concerns towards local issues. Lastly, we stopped at Pirtle’s Ice Cream on the way back to campus.

41st Street- Pullman Porter Park

September 26th and 27th were big days at the 41st Street Pullman Porter Park, as approximately 35 students from the Landscape Architecture department joined forces with community partners to work on maintaining and adding new features in the park.

Friday, community partners excavated a bed for a new walking path, and hauled away excess soil to create a berm to prevent future flooding in the park. Meanwhile, University of Illinois faculty members and community leaders marked out beds and staged mulch and gravel for the following day.

Saturday, students arrived to haul and spread crushed concrete gravel to create over 200 feet of new walking pathway. While some installed the new path, other students were given instruction on how to weed, edge and mulch planting beds. Following their instruction, they were able to put their new skills to the test by enlarging and establishing new planting beds to create space for additional plants in the park. A final group of students was able to clean out a neighbor's overgrown fence and haul the brush away to a central location for future removal.

Freedom by Design Demo and Design

Freedom by Design (FBD), the community service organization of the American Institute of Architect Students, began the construction phase of a multi-tasked project for Opal’s House. Beginning in the Fall 08 semester, the team of University of IL architecture students, ranging from undergraduate to graduate, will build a wooden ramp and a staircase on the rear exterior of the house. FBD works to enhance the homes of low-income elderly and people with disabilities through quality design.

On Friday, the volunteers stored the lumber for the staircase and ramp at the tool shed located at the Village Theatre. They also moved 50 computer monitors to Eagle’s Nest. The monitors are a donation from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Saturday, was demolition day. The two FBD co-chairs and 5 of the team members removed the existing staircase. The team also began installing toilet grab bars in the first floor bathroom. Once the railings are installed, the bathroom will be meet ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements. In addition to the construction projects, the students completed landscaping around Opal’s House, mowing the lawn and transplanting the petunia bush adored by the home’s namesake.

Before returning to Champaign, the students presented the drawings for the project to George and Essie Calhoun of Opal’s House, and consulted with their construction mentor about the project.

FAA 199 students spruce up the place

About 20 FAA 199 students volunteered at Opal's House on Friday, September 26. Opal's House is a shelter for survivors of domestic violence, and is gearing up to open its doors. The students helped Essie Calhoun, the director of Opal's House, clean and prepare the upstairs bedrooms for clients. They moved 10 beds from the basement to the second floor, and started assembling the bunkbeds that will be used by women and children.

On Saturday, September 27, the FAA 199 students worked with the City of East St. Louis Mayor's Office and Concerned Citizens of Precinct 12 on a clean-up in Precinct 12. Located in the Lansdowne neighborhood, students and community members cleared an overgrown alley, cleared Waverly Avenue of litter, and cleaned up vacant lots. They also enjoyed a delicious lunch catered by Concerned Citizens of Precinct 12. We capped the day off with a much deserved trip to Pirtle's Ice Cream.

RST 393 in Alta Sita and Precinct 12

The Recreation Sports Tourism 393 class began their weekend by cutting trees and stacking the brush at Opal's House for Essie. It was a bit more that we had anticipated but we got it done quickly. After that we surveyed and flyered in the Alta Sita neighborhood around Virginia Park where we are working on getting folks in the area to adopt that park. Almost 20 surveys were completed which exceeded our expectations.

Saturday started of with an excellent first meeting of those interested in the Virginia Park project. It wasn't a big meeting but it was attended by some area movers-and-shakers. We decided to have a second meeting 10/18 followed by a cook-out in Virginia Park to get more people involved. Saturday afternoon we went to CCP12 to work on their clean up. More tree cutting and I hope no poison ivy.

September Outreach Weekend

Over 100 volunteers helped kick off another great school year for ESLARP in East St. Louis. Classes in Library Information Sciences, Recreation Sport and Tourism, Landscape Architecture, and Fine and Applied Arts worked in several different neighborhoods September 26-27. The weather was on our side and helped make sure volunteers completed their goals for the weekend. See the following posts to read more about specific projects worked on by students, faculty, and community members.

Students were welcomed to East St. Louis by some of ESLARP's Community Partners

Christina Fisher of Village Theatre and Community Concepts

Rev. Bradley Watkins of Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House

Martha Watts of Eagle's Nest

Ramping it up

This weekend, a small group of volunteers constructed a ramp for an ice cream and coffee shop by the Village Theater. This shop will operate as a source of funding for the theater's youth programs. ESLARP was able to obtain donations from three central Illinois Home Depot stores, with the bulk of the donations coming from the Collinsville Home Depot, whose store manager was very excited to be able to contribute to a local project! The weekend ran smoothly despite the 95 degree weather, and we were able to complete the ramp by Sunday afternoon. Thanks to the volunteers who made it happen--Mike Andrejasich, Paul Herring, Noah Lenstra, Andy Harmon and Abby Harmon.

Flat, not boring

Winnipeg definitely proved to be not boring. Elizabeth Andrejasich, Abby Harmon, and I, along with a fellow UIUC graduate student, Chuck Allen, made the 15 hour drive up north to the midwest of Canada to attend the annual Planners Network Conference July 18-20. We met up with ESLARP community liaison, Billie Turner, and ESLARP community partner, Martha Watts of Eagle's Nest, early Friday morning just in time for walking tours of Winnipeg focused around issues like homelessness, gentrification, arts, and sprawl. It was clear that Winnipegians were not afraid to address these challenging issues in their communities as the tours were led by many local activists organizing around these issues.

The entrance of Art City, a local community art center for kids and adults
that was on both the gentrification and arts tour.

Saturday morning Elizabeth, Abby, Billie, Martha, and I conducted a workshop on the use of storytelling within planning. Billie and Martha shared stories about East St. Louis and Eagle's Nest, and through video-taped interviews we were also able to share stories of other community partners from East St. Louis. See our workshop agenda and resources list here. Attendees shared their own stories and the ways in which some of them have been able to incorporate storytelling into their research or organizations. The conference ended with a big bash at a local community center, with locally produced food (delicious tacos with fresh produce!) and musicians. Although it was an action packed two days, we met some amazing educators, practitioners, and activists trying to address social justice issues in their own communities. Who knows, maybe we'll see a Planners Network Conference in Champaign or East St. Louis in a few years...

The poster for the big bash Saturday night.

Winnipeg, here we come!

This July, three ESLARP graduate students, one community laison, and one community partner will be attending the Planners Network Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This conference is a gathering of planning practitioners, community organizers, activists, students, and faculty to discuss strategies that address social and enviornmental justice.

The ESLARP students and community members will be conducting a workshop titled:
"Storytelling: Critical Reflection and Creative Performance". We will also be bringing other longtime community partners and their stories with us to Winnipeg via video-taped interviews.