By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
ROCKFORD — Denny Rich has seen how a small group of neighbors can spread good ideas across the city.
Rich, the president of the Keith Creek Neighborhood Association, said meeting with neighbors can be an important first step to improving the city. It’s a belief he shares with other volunteer members of Transform Rockford’s Great Neighborhoods program, which works to help residents uncover and build upon their neighborhood’s strengths.
“You’ve got to start somewhere, and you can’t start at the top,” Rich said. “It’s a collaborative of meeting your neighbors and then the neighbors near your. It brings, hopefully, all of Rockford together and not just feeling like you’re by yourself.”
Great Neighborhoods, an independently operated organization born from Transform Rockford in 2017, connects residents in Boone and Winnebago counties to help them create lasting change where they live. Sometimes it’s a simple as naming a neighborhood, which can create a sense of pride and identity, or mapping out a list of existing assets, said Cira Richardson, the organization’s program director.
“Our goal is to bring neighborhoods together whether they have an established neighborhood association or just a group of people who are willing to do the work” Richardson said. “We bring them together, we help them understand who they are and what they have to offer.”
Richardson was hired as the first full-time staffer for Great Neighborhoods in May 2020, only to have her outreach efforts stifled by the coronavirus pandemic. Now is a critical time for Richardson and the organization because neighborhood groups often slow down their work as the weather turns colder. She hopes to maintain momentum through winter.
“If you want to make changes in your neighborhood it’s within your reach, it’s possible,” she said. “You don’t have to do it alone.”
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Great Neighborhoods brings together neighborhood groups from across the two counties for quarterly summits to share ideas. It’s where Rich said he’s picked up advice for his own neighborhood. But the organization doesn’t try to steer groups to any end goal, Richardson said.
“This is a nonprofit program that the only agenda is whatever the neighborhood agenda is. It really shifts that paradigm because people are just used to either never having a voice, never having control or just sitting there having things done to them and not with them,” Richardson said. “We don’t go in and tell neighborhoods what to do. It is all about co-creation and we support the neighborhood goals. It’s very much empowerment of neighborhood residents to take control of what they want done.”
While the organization aims to connect people across the city, Richardson said you don’t need to be affiliated with any group to get involved.
“If you’re just one person and you want to make a change in your neighborhood, there are people here to help you,” Richardson said. “If it’s only one person, we’ll help the one person make that change in their neighborhood.”
Get involved | Great Neighborhoods
If you’re interested in the Great Neighborhoods program, contact Cira Richardson at 815-977-5840 or email cira@transformrockford.org.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas.