Plans in works for Audubon Kid Zone in the East End

Erin Schmitt…9:52 PM, Jan 20, 2015

Community development in Henderson is taking another strategic step forward.

Plans are in motion to create Audubon Kid Zone East End Hub — which will address neighborhood children’s needs from prenatal to career.

Representatives from various community entities have been meeting at Shoney’s Restaurant on Tuesdays for three years to discuss priorities in the East End. A group of them spoke at the Henderson County Board of Education meeting Tuesday night to announce their newest, and what they consider greatest, project.

“It is the idea of building and knowing every child in that neighborhood that’s under-rescourced,” said Community One Director Lori Reed.

She added that it’s also about building and knowing institutions that serve children and being able to identify gaps. The Audubon Kid Zone intends to build collaborations where the gaps are so children are better served.

The project is in program design mode, but Reed said they have received a six-figure contribution from a private donor to get started. The city of Henderson has also pledged support with money and human resources for the building project and beyond, said Henderson City Commissioner Robbie Mills.

“It’s a good idea to build parks, it’s a good idea to put curbs and gutters in and to help people improve their housing, but when you start helping children with their future, that’s where we’re doing big work,” Mills said.

The next step in community development is strategically linking what is being done with affordable housing with what educators are doing in schools, Reed said. The Audubon Kid Zone East End Hub would serve students from South Heights, Jefferson and possibly East Heights.

“We feel like we’ve done a lot of good work, but we still aren’t getting the levels of success from our kids from conception to career,” said South Heights Principal Rob Carroll. “We realize you can’t just do it as a school.”

The group plans to come back before the board when it has more concrete plans, said Buzzy Newman, assistant manager for the city of Henderson. The group will also consider expanding into other neighborhoods.

Background

In late 2011, a group of leaders in Henderson began the journey of determining the needs and opportunities in what was considered a declining neighborhood called the “East End”. While exact boundaries are debated, it was generally defined by the group as 2^nd Street to Madison to Green Street to Atkinson.

Engage

The group was started by One Life Church with the idea of focusing on development and improving the quality of life in a specific geographic area, but soon included people from various organizations and backgrounds and was given the name “Engage”. The group is not a legal entity and prefers to say that “Engage” is a verb not a noun. For 3 years the Engage team has met almost every week on Tuesday mornings at Shoneys in Henderson to discuss and move ideas forward in the East End development.

Studies

One of the dominating values of Engage has been to listen to the neighborhood residents and to work towards collaborative solutions. In that context, there have been multiple listening sessions connected to the Engage journey….

1. USI managed and summarized door-to-door surveys in October and November of 2011.
2. Community Wide visioning sessions were facilitated by Sue Ellspermann from USI at South Heights Elementary in December of 2011 and in February of 2012 identifying and working towards 6 priorities in East End.
3. Based on results from East End research and needs, the Sustainable Evansville Area Coalition(SEAC) included the East End in their federally funded comprehensive plan called “A Regional Plan for Sustainable Development”.
4. Additional Neighborhood discussions happened at Bennett Memorial on Letcher Street in October of 2013 and results were presented to the Henderson Chamber of Commerce in December of 2013 by Bernardin Lochmueller with an overview of an East End revitalization plan.

Priorities

While ideas from the neighborhood and residents have evolved from the assimilation of the various discussions and include a variety of issues, many of the conclusions are connected to kids.

Some examples include:

-Drug free East End

-Mentoring programs for kids and adults needing career and family support

-Closer relationships between law enforcement and neighbors and children

-Support for South Heights with facilities and resources

-WIFI through out the neighborhood

-Enhancement of the Arts in East End

-Safe and productive environments for kids after school

Kids Zone

A significant contributor to the discussion in East End has been the Principal of South Heights Elementary-Rob Carroll. Rob has created a culture at South Heights that seems to overcome many of the socioeconomic issues that his kids face as part of a 90% free lunch demographic, but he also knows that these kids need every resource possible to succeed in Middle School, High School and beyond.

Inspired by the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City, Rob and the Engage team have discussed what the idea looks like in the East End of Henderson. In October of 2013, a team of 15 from Engage Henderson went and visited the HCZ headquarters and kid’s facilities in New York.

To summarize the essence of Harlem Children’s Zone(HCZ.org) here is an excerpt from their business plan called “Whatever it Takes”….

 “The Harlem Children’s Zone has created a new paradigm for fighting poverty, intended to overcome the limits of traditional approaches. Our model focuses primarily and intensively on the social, health, and educational development of children. To help support that development, we also provide wrap-around programs that improve the children’s family and neighborhood environments.

The theory of change underlying the HCZ model requires the coordinated application of its five core principles. To create change it is necessary to: 

• Serve an entire neighborhood comprehensively and at scale. Engaging an entire neighborhood helps to achieve three goals: it reaches children in numbers significant enough to affect the culture of a community; it transforms the physical and social environments that impact the children’s development; and it creates programs at a scale large enough to meet the local need.

• Create a pipeline of support. Develop excellent, accessible programs and schools and link them to one another so that they provide uninterrupted support for children’s healthy growth, starting with pre-natal programs for parents and finishing when young people graduate from college. Surround the pipeline with additional programs that support families and the larger community. 

• Build community among residents, institutions, and stakeholders, who help to create the environment necessary for children’s healthy development. 

• Evaluate program outcomes and create a feedback loop that cycles data back to management for use in improving and refining program offerings.

• Cultivate a culture of success rooted in passion, accountability, leadership, and teamwork.

Harlem Children’s Zone began with a focus on 24 blocks representing 3000 kids and now represents 100 blocks and 10,000 kids. Programs include Baby College for new moms, mentoring programs, libraries, health programs, reading programs, fitness, after schools programs, career and college prep and the list goes on. But the most important element is tracking and measurement. Kids are tracked to not get lost in the system and results are measured for effectiveness at every level.

What’s Next

Using similar values and metrics to the Harlem Children’s Zone, it has been the desire of South Heights, City Leaders, Community leaders and the Engage team to create an entity focused on East End kids. There are about 1800 kids under the age of 18 in the East End area. And while there are a lot of differences between East End and Harlem, the common ground is the need to create a pipeline of services to support their success.

The idea would be to create a new organization dedicated to a Kids Zone in Henderson’s East End. The organization would include representation from business and education leaders including some primary funding partners. The ideal would be to immediately purchase or build a facility in the East End on the Letcher street corridor where the Kids Zone idea could have a presence in the neighborhood and the kids could “own it”. It would start with some full time staff with the capacity to work directly with Rob Carroll and South Heights to expand successful programs that are currently limited by the facilities and resources of schools.

The idea of East End Kids Zone is collaborative support for an under resourced neighborhood. Working with the local schools, neighbors and existing non-profits…East End Kids Zone would be an entity committed to the success of kids from birth to college and ultimately committed to stopping the cycle of poverty in an important area of the Henderson Community.

Stay tuned. We are anticipating major developments yet in 2014.

As we bring the Kyndle Series to a close for 2014, it was with a big night in November. With 250 educators from over 40 schools from both Indiana and Kentucky and greetings from Dr. David Smith, Superintendent of Evansville-Vanderburgh County Schools and Margana Stanley, Henderson County Schools. Special thanks to speaker Dr. Todd Whittaker from Indiana State University.

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A great day of Leadership insight and inspiration from local and regional non-profit CEO’s and others with leadership experience. Kyndle is the 4 county Chamber organization representing Henderson and surrounding counties. The idea is keep the leadership conversation going after the Global Leadership Summit in Western Kentucky with specific sessions for business, non-profit, educators and students. 

A great day of Leadership insight and inspiration from local and regional CEO’s and others with leadership experience. Kyndle is the 4 county Chamber organization representing Henderson and surrounding counties. The idea is keep the leadership conversation going after the Global Leadership Summit in Western Kentucky with specific sessions for business, non-profit, educators and students. For more information, click here,

Very excited to have Jefferson Elementary at One Life Church-Henderson today for “Leader in Me” training. This is their second year to use this curriculum that recognizes and inspires kids to new levels of leadership.

This year’s Global Leadership Summit is scheduled for August 14 & 15th and One Life Henderson is one of 300 host sites. We highly encourage you to attend. Register here.

Being able to participate in the Global Leadership Summit every year is one of the highlights of my year. It’s one of the best conferences I’ve ever been able to attend. It more than fills my cup for the next run as a leader. (And I get to sleep in my own bed in the night between day one and day two. That’s an added bonus!)

But, what’s the benefit of you attending? Allow me to share what I think makes being a part of the upcoming Global Leadership Summit a no-brainer.

1.     You will be surrounded by others who desire to grow as a leader.

John Maxwell defines leadership as “influence—nothing more, nothing less.” It’s not often that one has an opportunity to be among a group of individuals that both are influential and desire to grow in their ability to become more influential. This will be my fifth consecutive year of attending the GLS. Each year I’m amazed at the opportunity to be in the same room with high caliber individuals and learn from their successes and failures. Whether they are church leaders, small business owners, CEOs, or leaders of teams, the opportunity to know them and learn from them is there.

2.     It’s an opportunity to sharpen yourself as you continue to lead the charge.

There’s a general consensus that people of influence, leaders, have it all together and know the next right decision to make for the team(s) that they are leading. The fact of the matter is…we do not. But, the opportunity provided by the Summit to absorb effective leadership teachings from world-renown leaders has benefitted me more than I could imagine. Whether it’s learning from from Patrick Lencioni on dysfunctional teams, Bill Hybels commenting on team health, or grabbing worthy advice from Dr. Henry Cloud, the “gold nuggets” to grab and use seem endless. It prepares you for what’s on the horizon for you as a leader.

3.     You will leave with a desire to take action and blaze a new trail.

The use of these “nuggets” has positively impacted my ability to be influential in the areas of my life that I’ve been given responsibility to lead (work, church, and at home). It’s one thing to leave a conference and check off that you attended; it’s another thing to put into practice what you’ve learned. Being a part of the GLS prepared me to make an impact through the planting of the One Life Network. It also benefitted me as a business leader and allowed me to invest in a business for the purpose of not only making it profitable, but also healthy. And finally, it helped me in my leadership at home, as both a husband and a father, as I took what I learned and applied it to my home life. The GLS helps you take action and leave a lasting and positive mark on those you have been called to lead.

“But I’m not a leader.  This conference isn’t for me.”

Think again. If you’re breathing, you have the opportunity to be a person of influence. As a matter of fact, if you are breathing, you are influencing others, be that in a good way or bad. You are a leader. And I can think of no better way to prepare you for what’s next for you as leader than to suggest that you sign up for the Global Leadership Summit 2013.

Post by Heath Farmer. Heath serves as the Campus Pastor for One Life Church- Henderson. Follow Heath on Twitter.

This year’s Global Leadership Summit is scheduled for August 14 & 15th. One Life Henderson will be serving as a premier host site again this year. We highly encourage you to attend. Register here.

When you think of how the Evansville and Henderson region will look in 2040, what do you see?  Are we a family friendly region?  Are we known for our extensive transit system?  Are we known for our reasonable cost of living and exceptional parks facilities?  Or maybe we are known for our abundance of available jobs or numerous well-regarded institutes of higher education?

What steps can we take now to reach this preferred future for upcoming generations to enjoy?

These steps will be outlined in the Regional Plan of Sustainable Development – a plan that directly reflects the voice of residents living within the Evansville region of Henderson, Vanderburgh and Warrick counties.

The entire 4 volume plan can be followed at this link on the SEAC website.

The specifics of Henderson and resources connecting to Engage Henderson and the partners involved in East End can be seen by clicking the link below….

The Millennial Plan for 2040 Volume 4 4-3-14