Helping hands in the Neighborhood

As the Hill House got a link of monetary and material assistance from WKU Alive Center, here is the good news for the community!!! Everyone can utilize these sources to get helped with food, clothing and tax assistance.

Here are some addresses for your access:

Food Banks
American Red Cross
430 Center Street 42101
781-7377
Monday and Wednesdays 1:00-3:00pm / Every other month

First Baptist Church
621 East 12th Avenue 42101
842-0331
Monday & Wednesday 10:00-12:00pm/ Once every 6 months

Clothing Assistance
Helping Hands
1901 Russellville Road 42101
745-7222
Monday-Saturday 9-5 / Must be referred through an agency on signed letterhead

St. Vincent de Paul
1901 Russellville Road 42101
781-0432
Tuesday, Thursday & Friday 10:30-2:30
Once per 6 months / Two articles

More and more places to get a hold of when you need help so check it out: http://www.wku.edu/alive/assistance.html

Happy comming Christmas season!

Bob Basham won the Operation Pride for the Hill House

Operation P.R.I.D.E. is a non-profit organization dedicated to making Bowling Green - Warren County an attractive community by providing the framework for individuals, businesses, civic organizations, neighborhood groups, churches, and schools to work together for a proud, progressive, and professional image of our community (based on the official website of the bowling green operation pride http://www.bgky.org/operationpride/).

On November 17th, 2009 Operation P.R.I.D.E. Executive Director Ray Lackey, announced the monthly awards for improvements made to residential and non-
residential property. Bob Basham and Jennifer Lee Basham won the residential award for their property at 741 East 11th Avenue known as the Hill House.



Bob was really concerned about illicit things including drugs and domestic violence disturbances at the house between the year 2000 and 2005. Here is the image of the old house before



It came to his mind that it's the time to do something so he decided to renovate the house and donate it for the Community Engagement Project. He did a great work to build up a new physical image for the Hill House.



Since the beginning of this project, Hill House with the contributions and great work of current tenants in cooperation with the WKU Alive Center and Bob Basham has achieved two recognition as Operation Pride and Neighborhood Builder Award.

Community Engagement House was recognized in the community work honored

At the 10th annual Neighborhood Builders Award Banquet on this Monday, Nov 30 along with many homeowners associations, neighborhood watch groups and other residents attending at the Bowling Green Parks and Recreation building’s community room, the Community Engagement house was recognized by the city. It was great moment for us when we heard Karen Foley, coordinator of the city’s Neighborhood Action Program voiced our house to come up with a Groundbreaker Award.



I and Greg were also lucky to get the extra prize "pineapple" symbol of hospitality for being the youngest member sitting in the table:-).

It is the honor for WKU Community Engagement House and Terry Flynn, the house’s cooperation with neighbors on East 10th and East 11th avenues. Thanks to Leah Ashwill, community engagement coordinator for the Western Kentucky University ALIVE Center for Community Partnerships, who took the resident’s idea for renovating our house and making it a home for four WKU graduate students to live in and use this place as a home base for our community development project.

Thang Le, Phuong Vu, and Greg Capillo, we all received a small gift handed out by the Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker with a symbol of those who are the first pioneers carrying out this project.




We feel very honored and hopefully our commitments to enhance the community are enlightened up and become successful with positive liaison with neighbors and others residents like Terry Flynn.

This event is also posted on the Bowling Green Daily News paper on Dec 1st. Here is the link so check it out: http://bgdailynews.com/articles/2009/12/01/news/news6.txt

Talking with our neighbor- Mrs. Alene Denning

This time, I had an apportunity to come to visit a neighbor who has been living in the neighborhood area for 38 years. The reason our team project of community development decided to start talking with neighbors in this region by stopping by Mrs. Alene's house first since she has lived here for so long and we consider her as a good source of experiencing the neighborhood.

Alene was retired four years ago but her life keeps moving on very busily with most of stuffs. We past by her house twice and the third time luckily we met her to make an appointment for the official visit to her house. It was on Monday Nov, 23rd, I came to visit her and had a pretty long talk for 45 minutes.

First, I introduced her about the job we are doing to develop the community and we just moved in this neighborhood since this Oct 12th. Being a very new neighbor in this area, I asked her about the history of this neighborhood during her time living here and have witnessed so many things happen. She said this area before used to have some breaks-in and drug dealers but now the neighborhood is changing in a better way with safety and good security for everyone. She also stated that during her time in this neighborhood, fortunately she has not gone through any of this bad thing occur.

There are two specific things that she suggested when I asked her about the current problems in this zone. First thing is the traffic in the neighborhood. Her house is on the crossroad between the Keston St. and 11th St. On the one-way street at this intersection, people still drive in on the wrong side causing accidents in this area. The second thing is there are lots of property in the neighborhood that have left vacant for long time without being kept up with. I also realize that when I walked around with Terry and Thang handed out the flyers for the neighborhood gathering. I saw lots of vacant houses or apartments, left without being taken good care of, with dirty yards badly affecting the neighborhood living environment. So Mrs. Alene suggested that property owners should keep up with and take care of their belongings in the residential area.

Besides these two main problems, everything is going on fine in this area. Regarding the neighborhood watch, she said she heard of it and saw this sign in the neighborhood, however, it is never active.

One thing that I am really conncerned is the neigborhood gathering. It seems that people in this region don't know much about their neighbors. And it is true when I asked her about this issue. She said in general, people living in this region don't want to be bothered by others and some people really don't care. Looking back years before, American neighbors used to be more friendly and get together for dinner together. But now it is changing in the oposite way, people are close and don't want to share since they feel skeptical about others living surrounding them. I asked her why? She mentioned this city is growing quickly and there are so many subdivisions and people just keep moving in and out making the neighborhood changing constantly.


She also stated that it is very challenging to bring back the neighborhood together like before. "Now it's just the way it is!", she said. Ending up our conversation, ALene is willing to join the neighborhood activities when she is available.

As a community development projector, I hope that people in the neighborhood will have some activities to break ice and get together to share and build up a better living environment for everyone in this region!

Thanksgiving atmosphere in the neighborhood

Greetings to everyone!
Thanksgiving is just around the corner. This moment, every household and each individual are excited to prepare a great time of family gathering for a happy thanksgiving dinner:-)! This week, we are planning to go around the neighborhood to see how they prepare and celebrate thanksgiving and coming Christmas. Beside wealthy families, there are still people who are in special needs. Our project members focus on these people to listen to their concerns and try to help them have warm feelings on the Thanksgiving day. In the long run, we are trying to put our great efforts to bring people in the neighborhood together, those who have more substances will share for the poor to build up a healthy and wealthy community environment.

If you have any ideas or activities that you want to contribute, please let us hear your voice! We look forward to receiving all your valuable contributions to develop our neighborhood!

Have a happy Thanksgiving and a joyful coming Christmas!

Welcome to the Community Engagement House!

The President of Western Kentucky University has said in the Spirit of WKU Engagement magazine: “As a public university, we understand that we have a responsibility to provide both a high quality education that will prepare students for their careers, as well as opportunities for students to develop into socially responsible citizens who understand the value of contributing to society on a regional, national, and international level.” Based on this motto, the WKU Alive Center has built up a Community Revitalization Project for graduate students who live in the Community Engagement House.

The purpose of this project is to give these students a great opportunity to approach the neighborhood area for the enhancement of their living environment and assessment of the provided assets in this region. More importantly, while working for this community development project, graduate students will utilize their academic study in their occupation and generate two-way application between school work and practical job.

To maintain regular contacts among the neighborhood, this blog was shaped as a means of communication. We will post events and update news coming up in this blog so that all neighbors know what is going on in the neighborhood. Frequent access to this house blog and valuable contributions are always welcome!

Once again, on behalf of students working for this project, I would like to welcome all of you to the Community Engagement House and hope to receive your great supports in the future.

TEAM MEMBERS

Details
Name: Thang Duy Le
Date of birth: 07/05/1981
Nationality: Vietnam
Job Title: Graduate Assistant
Address: WKU Alive Center for Community Partnerships
1909 College Heights Blvd. #21095 Bowling Green, KY 42101
Tel: 270 320 4432
Email: thang0507@gmail.comBlog: http://baggioberto.blogspot.com/

I’m a graduate student of WKU, studying in Master of Business Administration, and a president of Vietnam Student Association of WKU. Since begin of October 2009, I have worked for ALIVE CENTER on the community revitalization project as a Graduate Assistant. And I’m considered one of founders of this project. I graduated from Mathematic Applied Faculty of Hanoi University of Technology by 2004 in Vietnam. Being interested in social activities, I involved in many social projects including Green City campaign, poor home building project, volunteering teaching in countryside during the university. After graduation, I have over 4 years of work experience in computer industry in charge of project manager. At my work place, I was responsible for Vice president of Youth Union and received rewards for my contribution to young generation. Because of my working characteristics, I get used to travel in remote areas and volunteered to help minority communities out such as improving their living environment and building up small power machines.
I possess long-time working experience in position of project manager; I’m equipped with necessary skills to develop and direct projects well. Along with practical skills, I have been pursuing MBA course which brings me academic knowledge helpful to find out new methods to apply in developing community.


DetailsName: Phuong Thi Lan Vu
Date of birth: 08/20/1984
Nationality: Vietnam
Job Title: Graduate Assistant
Address: WKU Alive Center for Community Partnerships
1909 College Heights Blvd. #21095 Bowling Green, KY 42101
Tel: 270 320 2192
Email: phuong.vu208@gmail.com
Educational
Background
I graduated from Foreign Trade University in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2006 with a Bachelor of Business English. Now I am studying in the Communication Department. I will have graduated by next December 2010 with a Master of Arts in Communication.
ExperienceDuring my time in America, I have actively participated in many activities on campus, especially volunteer events. Due to my extensive involvement in volunteer activity, I received a certificate of recognition granted by Mr. Terek Elshayeb, the director of International Student and Scholar Service (ISSS). Moreover, I had such a remarkable opportunity to organize a high-profile community event for Clinton foundation about HIV/AIDs prevention when I was an intern at the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, an American non-profit organization. I was also selected to serve as an interpreter for General Dan Cherry’s reconciliation book tour featuring American and Vietnamese pilots who battled each other during the Vietnamese War. This was once in a lifetime experience for me to witness a unique and great union in the history. Coming back from this trip, I have received a great honor of being recognized as “a wonderful representative of WKU” by the President of Western Kentucky University.

Responsibilities
Now I am working for the community revitalization project under a GA position at WKU Alive Center and living in a community engagement house on 714B East 11th Street. My main responsibilities are to assess the neighborhood activities and to apply this job to my academic study and vice versa.

Greg Capillo
Undergraduate Program Assistant
WKU ALive Center For Community Partnerships
Community Engagement House
741 A E. 11th Street Bowling Green, KY 42101
phone: 859 327 7348
fax: 270 782-0922
Background:

I am a senior at WKU, graduating this spring with degrees in Philosophy and Mass Communication. I have been involved in various forms of activism for three years, working with WKU Americans for Informed Democracy, Students Against Monotony, and helping to found the Bowling Green and Friends chapter of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. I reject the notion that people need to wait for experts to solve the problems in their lives; rather, if we get together and we get organized, I believe we can do just about anything we put our minds to. I am excited to be in the house and to spend my time helping foster an environment of social change for the residents of our neighborhood, whatever it is they want to do. The important thing for me is getting people out of the house, with their neighbors, and involved in their community.

Responsibilities:
In addition to joining Thang and Phuong in our mapping efforts, I also want to make progress on organizing around fair housing in Bowling Green in partnership with groups like Habitat for Humanity and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.

Neighborhood Picnic

The neighborhood gathering was organized on occasion of Halloween by 10/31. There were about 50 citizens coming to this event and certain activities well happened. Specifically, the residents raised their comments about neighborhood area issues such as speed bump, traffic light, and living environment, etc. There was the representative of Bowling Green City, Bruce Willsion and two firemen. After small talk, everyone enjoyed eating hot dogs, talking with each other, and children played around with given toys at the beginning of the event. This is a good occasion for the citizens to get familiar with each other, break the gap among those who never seen before.





As for us who work for community revitalization project, this event is a good kick-off for us to know these citizens as well as to capture an overview of the residential area and existing problems.







At the end of this event, every one left with the flowers as small gifts to remember this event. Hopefully, we can hold another such event in the future to create more opportunities for the residents to exchange their ideas frequently.





/Note: Thanks for Terry's efforts to have this interesting picnic done/