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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-01627 Back UpWAKE UP MIAMI WAKE UP MIAMI is a community empowerment campaign. its objective is two -fold: 1) To empower residents who live in the District 5 community to reclaim their neighborhoods 2) To change the negative public perception of inner city communities by creating a renewed interest in rebuilding impoverished neighborhoods to attract new homeowners, businesses and stakeholders to the community. WAKE UP MIAMI calls for everyone to get involved by: empowering yourself, your family and your community. As. Miami grows by leaps and bounds, WAKE UP RAW' s purpose is to prepare our residents for this unprecedented growth, because our future depends on it. WAKE UP MIAMI will encompass a targeted outreach campaign in four neighborhoods within District 5: Overtown, Liberty City, Wynwood and Little Haiti. It will include a series of community workshops that is geared towards empowering residents and potential stakeholders in the community. Outreach/ Community Engagement: A multi -layered outreach and marketing approach will focus on personal encounters from a grassroots level. The outreach plan consists of an aggressive door to door survey in Overtown, Liberty City, Wynwood and Little Haiti to collect data on how residents feel about their community. The surveys consist of key questions designed to gather information on residents' concerns prior to implementing the forum. The preliminary surveys will help to ensure that each workshop appropriately addresses residents concerns. The outreach plan also includes reaching out to local churches, neighborhood and homeowner associations, businesses and community -based organizations. Information on WAKE UP MIAMI will be distributed to these organizations. In addition, the City's parks and Neighborhood Enhancement Team offices, which serve as a one -stop -shop resource center for services offered within the community, will provide an additional neighborhood outreach avenue. Throughout the WAKE UP MIAMI campaign: banners ,door knockers, buttons, window signs and t-shirts with the WAKE UP MIAMI message will be distributed throughout District 5. Reclaim and Rebuild Community Workshops: An integral part of the campaign will include a series of community building and empowerment workshops. These workshops will take place in Overtown, Liberty City, Little Haiti and Wynwood. The workshops are designed to engage residents, businesses, stakeholders and representatives from the City of Miami in a meaningful dialogue about the future of their community. The spirit of the forums will be inspirational and informative, revolving around a genuine concern for each resident, each neighborhood and the opportunity to become active participants in the inevitable growth and progress facing District 5.Residents participating in the day -long workshop will define needs, issues and potential solutions to use in development of future programs, services and allocation of resources tor the community. Each workshop will feature a keynote speaker who will use the power of the spoken word to help instill a renewed sense of community pride to residents' .The inaugural Overtown event featured legendary motivational speaker, Les Brown, who grew up in Miami's Liberty City and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School. Les Brown has joined the WAKE UP MIAMI campaign by facilitating on -going monthly workshops to empower and train residents and business owners. WAKE UP MIAMI is supported by the Dade Community Foundation, the Knight Foundation and the City of Miami Community Redevelopment Corporation. For more information about WAKE UP MIAMI, call (305) 250- 5390 Overtown Residents Say "Give Us Hope" Wake up Miami Survey Results Reveal Top than 300 residents came to weigh in on a plan to improve Overtown, one of Miami's poorest and most crime -ridden neighborhoods. According to a recent survey of the Overtown resi- Among the suggestions, according to Vicki Augustus - dents, the most pressing issue in the community is drug- Fibelia, a member of Spence -Jones's staff, was more related crime. Closely following are inadequate educa- police officers on the streets, and quicker responses to tion, homelessness, the lack of professional services their needs as well as thorough investigation of the inside the neighborhood and unemployment. crimes. They also suggested that landlords should better The study was conducted by 20 trained Overtown resi- maintain their buildings, beautify the area and be held dents hired to administer questions to 522 residents. The accountable to tenants. As for the education, community survey is a part of Wake up Miami, a campaign that aims members asked for better training programs, mandatory to prepare neighborhoods for future growth in Miami. tutoring and mentoring programs, and a higher level of According to District 5 Commissioner Michelle accountability from school administrators. They also Spence -Jones, whose office led the study, the first phase suggested that children be exposed to life outside of of this community empowerment program is to get resi- Overtown. dents to face the issues that have negative influence an In addition, people feel that second chances for ex - their district. convicts, job -seekers' assistance and more programs that "The results of this survey give strong indications generate hope would lower the unemployment rate. that we must identify key initiatives to create viable "This is extremely powerful data," said Dr. Marvin communities," said Spence -Jones. Dunn, associate professor of community psychology at The next phase consists of 12 monthly workshops that Florida International University. "It is very unusual to would allow residents to address the main problems and have this many face-to-face interviews in such a small play an integral part in improving their community by geographic area. It should give the commissioner some offering solutions. confidence in saying that she has her hands on the pulse The first workshop for Overtown residents was held of the Overtown conununity." on August 5 at the Booker T. Washington High School, Dr. Dunn, together with support from Miami Dade and featured the motivational speaker Les Brown. More Community College and Social Compact, supervised the By Ivana J. Robinson BTT Contributing Writer Concerns survey. The findings also pushed two new initiatives in Overtown: One provides two women's shelters, funded by the City of Miami and Habitat for Humanity, which offer guidance in banking, financing, health and fitness. The other project, "Urban Life Expo," to be launched in November 2006, will provide job -training, and at the same time try to lure businesses that have left back to the Overtown area. "We are working with the school district, community leaders and the city on this," said Augustus-Fibelia. "We also want to provide leadership training to the resi- dents. Other surveys will be conducted in Liberty City, Little Haiti and Wynwood. "Although the goals are the same — conduct the sur- vey, gather data and find solutions the approach will be different in other communities. Currently, we are in the process of determining those differences," said Augustus-Fibelia. Wake Up Miami is supported by the Dade Community Foundation, the Knight Foundation and the City of Miami Redevelopment Corporation. ,1 BBT Visit BiscayneBoulevard.com to comment on this story. Or send an email to editorial@biscayneboule- vard.com.