Community Development in Action: Nobel Neighbors

The MACD program seeks to serve individuals who demonstrate creativity, initiative, and vision as they attain decision-making positions in organizing, health, economic development, housing, support services, philanthropy, banking, government, education, and other areas essential to the revitalization of urban communities.

Working side-by-side with volunteers and staff members from Nobel Neighbors, an organization working to improve the Humboldt Park community, students enrolled in North Park's Master of Arts in Community Development program got to witness community development in action last year. Two MACD courses, Human Resource Development and Mobilization and Budget and Finance, were held in conjunction with Nobel Neighbors to give students a first-hand look at how a real-life community development organization operates.

Students used what they learned in the course on human resource development and mobilization, taught by David Frenchak, Ph.D., adjunct faculty and president of the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE), to work closely with Nobel Neighbors' staff and volunteers to map the capacities of Humboldt Park residents. Starting in January, students and residents developed mapping instruments and went out in pairs to conduct interviews within the community.

Spearheading the project was Dean Morris, executive director of Nobel Neighbors, who is also a second-year student of North Park's MACD program. "What made this project unique was that it wasn't just students from a university coming into the community," says Morris. "It was a partnering among the residents, people on staff with the park district, community relations staff from Nobel School as well as community residents it's a community-driven project."

Between January and April, residents completed nearly 150 surveys. The information gathered in the surveys will be used to connect abilities and capacities within the neighborhood to actual needs and job opportunities that will serve the community economically. By finding someone within the community that can fulfill other residents' needs, money is generated within the community, rather than going to someone from outside the community.

Students also got to use what they learned about proposal writing and building relationships with foundations during their course on budget and finance. Students helped prepare a grant proposal for the Woods Charitable Fund that would enable Nobel Neighbors to hire and develop more staff members and to purchase hardware and software needed to support the mapping project.

"Working in the community was excellent hands-on experience," says Mattie Toolsie, an MACD student involved in the Nobel Neighbors project. "Talking to the residents and seeing their passion to change their community was really incredible. It makes you see how what you're doing could really change lives and how important it is that people who are going into community development have this experience.