Milenko Matanovic, a Seattle architect specializing in neighborhood revitalization, gestured to brightly colored drawings as the neighbors of Edith and Carrie street nodded their approval. It was the last day of a series of meetings organized by the Walla Walla grassroots organization Commitment to Community. The goal of the meetings was to plan a community center for the residents of the Edith-Carrie neighborhood.
Commitment to Community (C2C) was founded in March 2004 after Blue Mountain Action Council (BMAC) and the Donald and Virginia Sherwood Trust co-sponsored a community forum. The forum was designed to set in motion a community-wide effort to address problems endangering neighborhood stability. Housing and family issues were seen as the top challenges while strengthening neighborhoods, developing youth centers and focusing on deterioration were seen as the top three solutions. Commitment to Community formed as an organization to work on those solutions by revitalizing neighborhoods.
“Community to Community is a grassroots organization, working to help neighborhoods revitalize the way they live, it’s helping them help themselves in a way. We know that police officers can’t attend every situation, they can’t solve every problem but the neighborhood residents can. Given the right resources they can solve their own problems,” said C2C employee Federico Diaz.
C2C now has two full-time staff members, a part-time consultant and a shared staff member with the Walla Walla County Community Network. It is largely funded by the Sherwood Trust, the same trust that funded the Sherwood gymnasium at Whitman.
At the moment C2C is focusing on three neighborhoods hard-hit by crime and with eroding economic stability. The current neighborhoods are Jefferson Park, Washington Park and Edith-Carrie.
The meetings with Matanovic were part of an effort to revitalize the Edith-Carrie neighborhood by building them a new community center. Edith-Carrie is located east of 13th Avenue near the Washington State Penitentiary. C2C characterizes it as a “stereotypical neighborhood of low-income, high crime, disenfranchised and isolated residents,” according to their business plan.
The project goals were posted on the wall. The first goal is to develop designs that will improve the neighborhood. The designs were posted next to the goals, representing the desires of the neighbors. Drawn in different colored markers were pictures of an open green space with barbeques, intricately designed street lamps, walkways and a bus stop shelter.
The drawings were the culmination of a weekend’s worth of intensive meetings as well as a prior dinner meeting between Matanovic and the community. The second goal is build selected elements this spring when Matanovic returns.
“Next time he comes in May we’re actually going to start the project, start cutting the wood and laying down the concrete and all that,” said Diaz.
The last goals are to involve the community in all phases and create momentum. This is where the constant efforts of C2C staff members are needed. Diaz calls himself and fellow staff member Louis Gonazles “streetwalkers” as they are constantly walking the streets of the communities they work in. They go door to door, finding out what kinds of changes community members want to see in their community and then asking them to come to meetings to realize those changes.
“We’ve found out all that the [Edith-Carrie] neighborhood wants to see in [their new community center]. Now we’re seeing how we can get that all in there and make it happen,” said Diaz.
