• Residents gather to paint a crosswalk with an artist created, resident inspired design.
  • Stakeholders and partners gather to advise Action Tank.
project leader
Ioanna P
location
Main Street
(Northside, Camp Washington, Price Hill, Madisonville, Over-the-Rhine )
latest update rss
Matching Your Donations and Going to the Neighborhoods

the project

Action Tank will partner with Wave Pool Gallery and PolicyLink on an equitable community planning to research and develop a Toolkit for neighborhoods to advance community goals as neighborhoods manage outside investment that threatens to disrupt and displace residents.

We will facilitate artist-led research with residents in places like Northside, Price Hill, Madisonville, and Camp Washington, particularly those involved in recent negotiations with developers on behalf of their neighborhood.  

Simultaneously, Action Tank will work with national legal experts at PolicyLink to develop an expert-researched, artist-designed Toolkit outlining national best practices and tailored for Cincinnati neighborhoods and community groups. 

Finally, we will host a launch event for residents, developers, policymakers, artists, and media to introduce the Toolkit, encouraging city-wide stakeholders to use it.

the steps

September -  October: Action Tank will kick off work with PolicyLink to review national Community Benefits Agreement best practices. Action Tank and WavePool will engage artists to design creative community engagement. 

November - January: Continue best practices research, begin Toolkit design, and publicize engagement activities through community councils, Invest in Neighborhoods, Community Development Corporations, social media, and targeted email and phone calls.

November-February: Host engagement event(s) across the community to gather input from residents and summarize feedback for toolkit contents, release, and design.

March - June: Use feedback to inform final development of Toolkit in partnership with artist designer. Bring residents advisors together to review/test draft toolkit.

July- August: Host Toolkit launch event for audience consisting of community leaders, developers, policymakers, administration officials, artists and creative placemakers, media, and otherwise engaged Cincinnati residents. Distribute hard copies of Toolkit and widely publicize materials online. Propose Neighborhood Summit session.

why we're doing it

A community benefits agreement is a contract between a developer and neighborhood or community stakeholders that requires the developer to provide specific amenities and/or mitigations to the local community or neighborhood. In exchange, the community stakeholders agree to support (or at least not oppose) the project.  

Many of Cincinnati’s neighborhoods are experiencing a rapid increase in new development, and their neighborhood leadership and residents are grappling with how to engage with developers in a way that allows for beneficial development but also protects the neighborhood’s interests by avoiding displacement, encouraging local hires, and building up businesses that will best serve residents over the long term. Over-the-Rhine, the West End, Walnut Hills, Madisonville, and Uptown are all experiencing development activity and have all endeavored to use CBAs within the last five years with varying outcomes.

budget

$3,000 raised through ioby will pay an artist to design the Community Benefits Agreement Toolkit

$1,000 raised through ioby will go towards a brandmark design and website hosting



PROJECT FUNDING NEEDED = $4,000
ioby Platform Fee $35
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $125
TOTAL TO RAISE = $4,160

Thanks to a generous contribution from ArtsWave and the Stephen H. Wilder Foundation, $10,000 will go toward community outreach, research time, PolicyLink legal experts, launch and distribution costs.

 

updates

Matching Your Donations and Going to the Neighborhoods

Posted 12/20/2019 - 10:52pm

Signage in Camp Washington

 

We are thrilled to be part of the Artists Lead! matching grant program. All of the donations you've made were matched and new donations will continue to be matched too. 

We've identified an artist who will be designing the toolkit. Stay tuned!

And we've started to gather with people in neighborhoods of Cincinnati that are experiencing rapid change. We started with people in Camp Washington and Northside. We heard a lot about the importance of language and taking the time to explain how community benefits agreement could work in the developments people are seeing—and the ones they are seeking. 

Now that we've met with people in two neighborhoods, we'll regroup and talk about what we've learned, and also how we might use these lessons from residents in future meetings.

We're also happy to hear from you with questions and suggestions. 

We're excited to wrap up the year and move forward with more of our neighbors in 2020. 

Photo: CityBeat

THANK YOU!

Posted 10/23/2019 - 2:49pm

Wow! We just learned about all of the contributions so far, and we wanted to thank everyone who has pitched in so early on this campaign!  Thank you for believing in our project.  We can't wait to share this work with you.

 

-Ioanna 

photos

This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration

donors

  • MC Rietz
  • Anonymous
  • Rebecca R.
  • Anonymous
  • cash donation at Northside focus group
  • Laura Katz
  • Anna Parnigoni
  • Jeanne Golliher
  • D J
  • Jamie Hand
  • Ellen Vera
  • Sarah
  • Katherine Klaeren
  • Sarah
  • Jennie Toner-Algin
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Mary Rivers
  • nina W. Tarr
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • NC
  • Aaron
  • Nate
  • Danny
  • Ioanna Paraskevopoulos