Good Neighbors

Neighborhood House seems always to be bustling with activity, as it serves the families in the Southbridge section of Wilmington, Del., where the community center has been a fixture for more than 75 years.

Whether the service is child care for working parents, school preparation for their toddlers, after-school activities for older children, help accessing resources for individuals with disabilities or a housing construction and rehabilitation program that is helping to revitalize the entire community, Neighborhood House provides it.

And, in a number of cases, the community center gets help with its successful projects from partnerships with the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy (CHEP). In turn, CHEP students and faculty gain hands-on experience working with programs at the center.

“We’re delighted to have these partnerships with the University of Delaware,” says Arthur Boswell, executive director of Neighborhood House and an alumnus of the College himself, with a 1988 master of arts degree in urban affairs and public policy. “They have enabled us to upgrade the quality of our services, so they’ve been very good for us—and, I hope, good for the University.”

CHEP’s dean, Timothy Barnekov, agrees that the relationship with the community center benefits both parties.

“Not only are we pleased to work with a very important community-based organization, but our partnership with Neighborhood House helps to educate our faculty and staff about the concerns and needs of urban neighborhoods,” Barnekov says.

“In addition, it provides an opportunity for our students—both graduate and undergraduate—to work with families and children in the community surrounding Neighborhood House. Our faculty bring their experience back to the University, where it enriches both their teaching and scholarship, and our students gain important practical experience that enhances their education.”

The schools, departments and centers within CHEP have partnerships with numerous community agencies, schools and governmental programs throughout Delaware, but Neighborhood House is a particularly active site. Collaborations there encompass a wide variety of types of projects, and they involve clients across the lifespan.

Following are some examples.

Early Head Start for young children

The youngest Neighborhood House clients to benefit from a CHEP partnership are the children from birth to age 3 who are enrolled in New Directions Early Head Start at the community center.
Early Head Start is a federally funded program that, in northern Delaware, is administered by CHEP’s Center for Disabilities Studies. It contracts with community child-care providers to work with young children who are either from low-income families or have special needs, and it provides technical assistance and financial support for those providers.

Neighborhood House is one of five child-care centers that, in addition to two family day-care providers, participate in New Directions Early Head Start. The program provides training to child-care workers and support for them to earn the credentials that Early Head Start requires, either an associate’s degree or a Child Development Associate certificate.

Heidi Beck, project leader for New Directions Early Head Start, says Neighborhood House already was providing day care for children when it joined the program. With Early Head Start’s assistance, the community center has expanded its services, adding a third classroom and enrolling infants. It now cares for 24 youngsters from birth to age 3 in full-day child care that helps prepare them for success in school.

In addition to receiving staff training, technical assistance and financial support to purchase some new equipment, Beck says Neighborhood House now has access to other Early Head Start resources. These include the services of a nurse consultant, a nutritionist and mental health services available through A.I. du Pont Hospital for Children.

Early Head Start also assists families of young children beyond providing quality day care, offering such support as home visits, referrals to social services and parenting education. A New Directions staff member works at the community center, coordinating these support services.

“Neighborhood House has experience in providing child care and expertise working in the community. We have expertise in family support and infants and toddlers,” Beck says. “We try to blend those two for the benefit of both. You can’t provide family support alone. It needs to be integrated into an overall program.”

Boswell says the high standards, particularly in staff education and staff-to-child ratios, of Early Head Start have improved the care his agency offers to all children.

“They set demanding standards, but they provide a lot of oversight to help us meet them,” he says. “This has really helped us to be state-of-the-art in the quality of our child-care services.”

Housing creation and rehabilitation

In a far-reaching project to improve the lives of community residents, Neighborhood House operates a program that focuses on developing new affordable housing and renovating older homes. The program operates in the center’s immediate neighborhood and also has expanded to Middletown, Del., in southern New Castle County.

At both locations, graduate students from CHEP’s School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy have been lending a hand.

Gina Worthey, CHEP ’04M, worked in the community center last summer, researching the housing in south Wilmington and compiling a resource guide assessing the local housing and neighborhood development options. This school year, master’s degree student Meghan George has spent her graduate assistantship working on a similar project, developing an affordable-housing strategic plan for Neighborhood House to implement in Middletown.

“It’s a very practical research project, and it’s very important to us,” Boswell says. “It’s going to help us chart our course in southern New Castle County.”

George, who is interested in a career in the fields of housing or municipal planning and who previously completed an internship with an affordable housing project in California, says her work at Neighborhood House has been excellent, real-world experience. In Middletown, for example, she says that, despite the town’s small size, it faces a number of complex problems. The town and its surrounding area are experiencing rapid residential growth, which is driving up the price of housing. At the same time, the town is seeking to revitalize its commercial district.

“We want to make sure that whatever Neighborhood House decides to do, it fits in with what the town is trying to do,” George says. “Being able to work on a project like this has given me great experience very quickly. I’ve learned a lot about working with government agencies and with community leaders and residents. I feel that this assistantship has prepared me very well.”

Project tells tales after school

As the school day comes to an end each weekday afternoon, children begin spilling from the sidewalks into the big brick building that accommodates Neighborhood House. They take part in a variety of activities, including tutoring, computer practice and sports, but one group is engaged in a special project with the help of some undergraduates and a faculty member from CHEP’s School of Education.

On one recent afternoon, middle school student Tamika walks into Neighborhood House and runs upstairs to a small room filled with computers, where she shrugs off her jacket and begins work. She has written a story about her new kitten, Todd, and she’s ready to read it into a microphone to be recorded.

Tamika says she’s especially excited about the next part of the project, when she will take digital photos and video and combine the images with her spoken words to create a story that her friends can view on the computer screen. She’s getting help with the storytelling project from Heather Pleasants, assistant professor of education, and the UD students Pleasants brings with her twice a week to Neighborhood House.

“This class is part of my students’ multicultural education requirement,” Pleasants says. “Most of them are not from an urban neighborhood like this, so it’s a new experience for them, but they connect with the kids as they do the storytelling project, and both groups learn from each other.”

One of Pleasants’ students, Lindsey Shirey, CHEP ’07, agrees that the project has been a worthwhile experience. As an elementary education major, she says most of her previous practicums have focused on academic tutoring or classroom instruction. The one at Neighborhood House, she says, “is more about forming personal relationships with the kids.”

“It’s been interesting for me to work in this neighborhood, and I especially like seeing the kids get so excited about the project,” Shirey says. “I’m learning at the same time they’re learning.”

Pleasants began the project as a pilot, using her personal camera equipment. She has since received a grant from the MBNA Foundation, which has allowed her to purchase additional equipment. She and a research assistant, Jason Garvey, CHEP ’06, are gathering data about the project to analyze and assess its results.

“The project is a unique approach, and I’ve been very much impressed with how well it’s working,” Boswell says. “The kids are really involved in it.”

Help for families with disabilities

Vanessa Harper says individuals with disabilities and their families sometimes feel that the most difficult aspect of their situation is figuring out which governmental and community agencies offer appropriate services and how to comply with each set of requirements and paperwork.

Harper, project director for family services in CHEP’s Center for Disabilities Studies, is helping to make the problems more manageable. Earlier this year, her program conducted intensive training for staff members at Neighborhood House and five other community centers to enable them to assist individuals and families with disabilities.

“There are two disability specialists now at Neighborhood House,” Harper says. “They had been working with families and helping them get the services they needed, but it’s hard to know exactly what is available and appropriate. Now, with this training, they really have become specialists.”

In addition, she says, the group continues to meet monthly, even though the formal training is completed. Members share their experiences and what they’ve learned, and they brainstorm about possible solutions for difficult cases.

Harper will be returning to Neighborhood House, she says, to initiate another program. She plans to recruit adults who will mentor youngsters in grades 6 through 12. In turn, those teens and preteens will mentor younger children.

About Neighborhood House

Neighborhood House Inc., founded in 1927, is a United Way agency and a national mission of the United Methodist Church. More information is available on its web site, [www.neighborhoodhse.org].

—Ann Manser, AS ’73, CHEP ’73