Community Engagement

The D.C. Office of Planning (OP) has awarded a $75,000 “ArtPlace Arts and Culture Temporium” grant to Partners for Livable Communities (Partners) to develop and manage temporiums in underutilized spaces in the Deanwood neighborhood, one of the District’s earliest African American communities.

Under this grant, Partners will develop and manage DeanwoodxDesign, a project that showcases the rich arts, cultural, historical, and green space assets of Deanwood and Ward 7 through a community-wide, intergenerational, and collaborative effort. This project engages artists and a diverse network of Deanwood institutions and stakeholders to cultivate community pride, showcase and create great art, and invigorate the creative economy.

In early 2011, the Jamaica Youth Initiative—a working group of governmental, nonprofit and private institutions in a bustling neighborhood in Southern Queens—convened to discuss an important matter affecting their community: disengaged and idle youth. At the end of every school day, thousands of youth crowd the streets of downtown Jamaica, where after school activities are in demand. Partners for Livable Communities (Partners) views this demand as a rare opportunity to focus positive attention on the assets available to and within this youth population. With support from the Hearst Foundation, Partners  is currently collaborating the Youth Initiative, the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, and the Cultural Development Corporation to develop a framework of goals and recommendations that will expand arts-based after school opportunities. Ultimately, the goal is to provide programming that will enrich the lives of these youth, provide them with meaningful experiences, and assist them in obtaining employment.

Partners for Livable Communities’ 2011 publication, Culture Connects All, was featured in the winter 2012 issue of Preserving Your Memory, a magazine supported by the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation. Sam Gaines’ article, Making the Connection, outlines the publication’s key objectives, and its recommendations to arts and cultural organizations pursuing arts programs to reach out to diverse audiences. Funded by MetLife Foundation, Culture Connects All was published in 2011 to showcase cultural institutions using innovative strategies or programs to engage two of America’s fastest- growing populations: older adults and immigrants.

Rarely does the subject of water inspire poetic phrases or passionate dedications. While we may occasionally recognize its importance, this appreciation is usually offset by the size of the water bill at the end of the month. Regardless, I’m going to ask an odd question: have you ever celebrated water? If I got a single “yes” I would be very surprised, for the simple reason that there are few formalized occasions for the public to appreciate water. This year, a multitude of civic and non-profit organizations have teamed up to give individuals the opportunity to celebrate their “love for water” in the annual Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder Contest.

2012 marks the 40^th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act. Although it was originally enacted in 1948, the Act was significantly reorganized and expanded in 1972 to regulate discharges of water pollutants and monitoring water quality standards in the United States. The Annual Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder Contest is honoring this anniversary and renaming itself the “Sense of Water Contest” for 2012.

Founders Award for Civic Leadership 
 

James O. Gibson is honored for his leading advocacy in urban revitalization, community development, and race relations. His demonstrated commitment to social equity for more than three decades on issues ranging from civil rights to economic opportunity has provided critical progress for our country’s social fabric.