CIVIC ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMMING/PUBLIC POLICY PROGRAMMING

N.O.W. (Nego­ti­at­ing Our Way) Advo­cacy Program

South­east Raleigh cit­i­zens often need assis­tance in find­ing and access­ing ser­vices and pro­grams that will meet their per­sonal needs dur­ing the course of their daily lives for a vari­ety of rea­sons such as:

• con­duct­ing a search for afford­able housing
• find­ing a health care provider
• mak­ing  pay­ment arrange­ments with a util­ity company
• iden­ti­fy­ing resources for a vic­tim flee­ing abuse

While the N.O.W. pro­gram does not offer imme­di­ate cri­sis inter­ven­tion ser­vices a N.O.W. advo­cate can assist South­east Raleigh res­i­dents in deter­min­ing the resources (in the Tri­an­gle area and in the State) that will best address their issue, prob­lem or ques­tion.   In some cases, the N.O.W. advo­cate will par­tic­i­pate in the process by talk­ing to the ser­vice provider, orga­ni­za­tion or agency and pro­vide inter­ven­tion ser­vices for the South­east Raleigh res­i­dent as needed.  While basic advo­cacy assis­tance is pro­vided, the South­east Raleigh res­i­dent is learn­ing or enhanc­ing his/her abil­ity to demon­strate the self-advocacy skills needed to nego­ti­ate effec­tively on his/her own behalf in the future.

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South­east Raleigh Relationship-Based Con­sump­tion Program

This pro­gram will bring to the sur­face all the hid­den tal­ents and skills within the south­east Raleigh com­mu­nity as it relates to effec­tive barter/trade and com­mu­nity con­sump­tion.  Res­i­dents will be taught how to par­tic­i­pate in a rela­tion­ship based pro­gram, how to keep track of the deposits and with­drawals to their vir­tual bank, and how to barter/trade to uti­lize the tal­ents of the com­mu­nity and pro­vide their indi­vid­ual ser­vice to others.

Imag­ine this: You are a South­east Raleigh res­i­dent.  You are unem­ployed or under­em­ployed.  Your daugh­ter is get­ting mar­ried next week; and although your resources are lim­ited, you desire to give her a beau­ti­ful wed­ding.  You are a seam­stress, so you will make her dress, but what about the wed­ding cake?  Wait a minute…Mrs. Samuels down the block has been mak­ing wed­ding cakes for years, and you hear she has a church func­tion com­ing up for which she may need a dress.  After talk­ing with Mrs. Samuels, she agrees to make your daughter’s wed­ding cake, and you agree to make her dress for the upcom­ing church func­tion.  No money exchanges hands, yet both of you get what you need.”

This exam­ple in its sim­plest form is a process called “relationship-based con­sump­tion.”   These hid­den tal­ents are so rich and deep that the com­mu­nity can work together to sus­tain itself and to pro­vide for all its residents.

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“South­east Raleigh Voices” Prob­lem Solv­ing Col­lab­o­ra­tive Initiative

South­east Raleigh Voices will col­lab­o­rate to address the issues of ex-offenders re-entering our com­mu­nity, crime reduc­tion, the fea­si­bil­ity of neigh­bor­hood schools, how to pro­duc­tively deal with insti­tu­tional and sys­temic racism within the com­mu­nity, and  busi­ness devel­op­ment that will cre­ate employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties.   Oper­at­ing in an action ori­ented prob­lem solv­ing strat­egy to con­front the issues res­i­dents will recruit and develop allies across the com­mu­nity, eval­u­ate and elim­i­nate bar­ri­ers in order to cre­ate suc­cess in all the focus areas.

• Assist­ing South­east Raleigh res­i­dents re-entering our com­mu­nity after spend­ing time in cor­rec­tional facilities
• Reduc­ing crime within our community
• Cre­at­ing dia­logue sur­round­ing neigh­bor­hood schools
• Pro­duc­tively deal­ing with sub­tle insti­tu­tional and sys­temic racism within the community
• Attract­ing new busi­nesses and cre­at­ing jobs in the community

The syn­ergy and cre­ative energy which emerges when a group of com­mit­ted peo­ple seek to find solu­tions to com­mu­nity prob­lems can be incred­i­bly pow­er­ful.  Invi­ta­tions to par­tic­i­pate are extended to all South­east Raleigh CACs, and any res­i­dent of a South­east Raleigh com­mu­nity, non for profit enti­ties through­out South­east Raleigh, city, county, and state gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives, as well as cor­po­ra­tions and small busi­ness enti­ties who con­duct busi­ness in South­east Raleigh.

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“Using Our Voice” Pub­lic Pol­icy & Com­mu­nity Engage­ment Initiative

This ini­tia­tive will teach the res­i­dents of south­east Raleigh com­mu­nity to rec­og­nize the power to their voice, thoughts and inten­tions to bring to fruition a more just, pros­per­ous, safe, and eco­nom­i­cally viable com­mu­nity by peace­fully influ­enc­ing pub­lic pol­icy and engag­ing their city, state, and fed­eral gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives and legislators.

Gail Sheeny, author, jour­nal­ist, lec­turer, has said, “if we don’t change, we don’t grow, if we don’t grow, we aren’t really liv­ing.”  Change can occur by scru­ti­niz­ing and work­ing through the venue of pub­lic pol­icy.  Pub­lic pol­icy can be gen­er­ally defined as “the course of action or inac­tion taken by gov­ern­men­tal enti­ties (the deci­sion of gov­ern­ment) with regard to a par­tic­u­lar issue or set of issues.

South­east Raleigh res­i­dents will learn how to iden­tify the sys­tems within their com­mu­nity which need to change, what that change should look like and how to pro­pose an alter­na­tive sys­tem to replace the one that is fail­ing.  Com­mu­nity mem­bers will learn how to develop whit papers (an author­i­ta­tive report or guide that often addresses issues and how to solve them) to be pre­sented to city, county, and state gov­ern­ment lead­ers and other orga­ni­za­tions, as well as develop pub­lic speak­ing skills.  Res­i­dents of the South­east Raleigh com­mu­nity will enhance their under­stand­ing of hold­ing each other and them­selves account­able as it relates to vot­ing in local, state, and national elec­tions for the good of the com­mu­nity as a whole.   Com­mu­nity orga­niz­ing skills will also be devel­oped through this initiative.

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