[Cancelled — may be offered in Fall 2019]
Problem or Issue. Leaders within the Avondale community have concerns that recent trends in development will create economic and social change in the community that will force out long-time residents. These leaders would like to see economic development provide growth while providing an opportunity for those who have called Avondale home to remain a part of a vibrant community. Several physical and social barriers make it difficult to establish a cohesive strategy to make this happen: the Kennedy expressway physically divides the community, five Aldermanic offices serve the community, and three police districts serve the community.
Objective. Avondale is growing in both interest and development, steeped in a rich blue-collar history. The Avondale Neighborhood Association (ANA) is a young organization aiming to establish a community plan that respects Avondale’s past while looking to a mindful future. Given this context, ANA is excited about the opportunity to collaborate with an IPRO team to help advance its goals. There are a variety of possible projects that can benefit from the creative efforts of an IPRO team. Some of these possibilities will be further refined by a Fall 2018 IPRO by the time the semester begins. The range of possible tasks and investigations that could begin in spring 2019 and extend over multiple semesters include:
Approach. Addressing the stated problem will require a combination of stakeholder engagement with critical listening and data acquisition/processing/analysis. Along the way, students will oscillate between facilitating discussions with community stakeholders and parsing community data, all the while working on neighborhood-level communication strategies to bring move voices into the discussion.