The problem co-construction models of community development suggest that latent neighborhood assets be mobilized through shared efforts to identify and address prioritized deficits in human capital. Such models offer little practical assistance in hard scrabble, multi-ethnic communities where few know their next-door neighbor's name much less share with them a common language and problem-solving customs. Several previous attempts by well meaning groups to bring people together to address community issues had failed due to linguistic and cultural barriers. Working initially through interpreters, key informants were identified among the Asian and Hispanic neighbors. Eventually these informants were able to systematically poll non-English speaking neighbors and learned that their number one concern was over the lack of tornado shelters, followed closely by fear of violence in the schools. Both problems would require securing resources from city authorities who generally gave slight attention to the neighborhood. The only local persons in meaningful contact with the city leaders were school personnel, a few clergy people in some of the area churches, and several long-term Caucasian residents who were homeowners and retired form reasonably well paying jobs in airplane factories. Scant communication flowed between the local leaders and their Asian and Hispanic neighbors. This paper tells how our zero-budget grassroots organization facilitated the resource linkages to educate the neighbors about risk management and fear reduction.
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I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.