Home Blog Page 165

With deep roots, community partnerships bloom at Troy Farm

0

By Sheena Tesch
Community GroundWorks

As you drive down Troy Drive, you may have noticed the collection of community gardens and the children’s garden, but tucked behind the tree line is a 5-acre diversified vegetable farm. Troy Farm, along with Troy Community Gardens and Troy Kids’ Garden, is a project of the Northside nonprofit, Community GroundWorks. Farmers at Troy have been growing organic vegetables on this Northside location since 2001.

For many years, youth from Vera Court Neighborhood Center, Northport/Packers Learning Center and Kennedy Heights Community Center have visited the Kids’ Garden each week to help plant, grow and harvest fruits and vegetables in the garden and prepare delicious snacks in our outdoor kitchen. They have also enjoyed caring for our resident chickens, creating beautiful garden art and nature walks in the tallgrass prairie.

This year, the Troy Farm team expanded on those relationships by providing farm fresh produce to the community through discounted farm memberships and donated produce. The centers use that food in snack programs, cooking classes and to stock their food pantries. Patrina White, executive director of Kennedy Heights Neighborhood Center, said, “We are appreciative of Troy Farm. The kids are always excited to see what’s on the program to pick and prepare.”

Troy Farm also partnered with Haywood Simmons’ Northside intervention and prevention program, Coach’s Club, to provide fresh produce for youth at the Warner Park Community Recreation Center. Simmons also rented two plots in the Troy Community Gardens with the hope of generating interest in growing among Northside youth. 

There are waiting lists for Troy Community Garden plots and Troy Farm Membership for the 2020 season. Email Sheena Tesch, sheena@communitygroundworks.org, for Troy Farm membership details, and Debra Willis, troy53704@gmail.com, to be added to the waiting list for Troy Community Garden plots. 

The River Food Pantry introduces new hires to the community

0

By Rebecca Carpenter
The River Food Pantry

The River Food Pantry is excited to welcome Helen Osborn-Senatus and Sarah Miller to the team.

Serving as program coordinator, Helen focuses on supporting The River’s current programs and community partnerships. After earning her bachelor’s degree as a Badger, she moved to Florida to serve with City Year, an educational nonprofit. This experience inspired Helen to earn her Master of Social Work at Florida State University. Helen was a social worker in Florida’s child welfare system for several years. After missing too many winters, Helen decided to return to Madison in 2018. She has experience in several nonprofit settings and is excited to serve the Northside and the greater Dane County citizenry. Outside work, Helen enjoys baking, finding any excuse to be outside and going on new adventures with her family.

Sarah serves as The River’s volunteer coordinator. With a bachelor’s degree in Community and Nonprofit Leadership from UW-Madison, Sarah has worked with over 100 volunteers from various organizations. She is committed to helping communities lead healthier lives and looks forward to connecting with anyone and everyone who wants to support The River’s mission. When she’s not at The River, you’ll find Sarah cheering Wisconsin sports teams and spending time with her fiancé and their dog, Luna.

Learn more about The River’s team at riverfoodpantry.org.

Northside Farmers Market ends summer season, moves inside Oct. 27

0

By Fiona Stoner
Northside Farmers Market

It’s been a great summer for the Northside Farmers Market at our outdoor location in the parking lot of Northside TownCenter. And soon we will be moving to our winter location, the Warner Park Community Recreation Center (WPCRC).

The end of the outdoor season can be unpredictable. Will comfortable weather continue or will we be shivering as the first snow begins to fly? The market dates are planned well in advance and there is no way to know if we could have stayed outdoors a little longer or not. Moving inside in October reduces unpredictability while still taking advantage of the ample produce still available. 

Our final outdoor market is Sunday, Oct. 20. This coincides pleasantly with my birthday this year. I expect a gluten-free pie from Mr. Dye’s Pies and some of my favorite GF treats from Tummy Yummies will be part of my celebration. I hope to see you all each week in October to help celebrate the arrival of my AARP card, as well as help me compile a list of the available senior discounts I can start accessing. Remember, when it’s a chilly Sunday morning in October, if Fiona can sit under a pop-up tent in a parking lot for five hours, then you can come visit the market for at least 30 minutes.

We have musicians lined up: Oct. 6 will feature Ren, Oct. 13 Kirk Stone will perform, and Leafy Greens will be at the final outdoor market Oct. 20.

The market will move indoors to the WPCRC from Sunday, Oct. 27‒Dec. 15. There will be no market Dec. 1, as it is Thanksgiving weekend and typically a low-attendance day. The hours for the indoor market will be 10 am‒1 pm. The WPCRC is located at 1625 Northport Drive. Come join us there.

Look for announcements via Facebook or our website regarding vendors who will be at the indoor market. Sign up for our newsletter (northsidefarmersmarket.org) and find us on Facebook: (facebook.com/madNFM/) to join our page and receive updates as the indoor season begins.

Lakeview Library: 40 Years of Community Connection

0

By Dan Tortorice
April/May 1999

Have you seen those rankings of “Best Places to Live” or “Most Liveable Cities?” Madison typically finishes near the top of these lists in which experts compare various factors that improve quality of life for everyone. One of the items these people look for is the quality of community libraries.

That local library, hopefully a walk or bike ride or short drive from home, connects us to the world of knowledge. Knowledge can be practical, scientific, philosophic. Its faces are infinite. The public library connects us to this world from the first day we can print our own name on the card application to that time of life when we may need a volunteer to bring us books because we are elderly and homebound. 

This summer Northsiders will be celebrating the 40th birthday of our Lakeview Branch Library. There are some neighborhood residents who remember the days before we had a branch library and what the outreach of library service meant to them and their families. Marie Fox remembers the early 1950’s, when many Northside residents were Air Force pilots called back for the Korean War. Many young wives and their children used the weekly visit of the Bookmobile as a social occasion. “It was our weekly gathering spot and it meant a lot to us with our husbands gone all the time flying somewhere.”

Grace Shaw remembers the morning of the Bookmobile visit as “the highlight of the week.” Grace was a full-time mother and says the Bookmobile “saved my sanity — I don’t know what we would have done without it.” Shaw has helped to pay back the library by serving for many years as a member of the “Friends of the Lakeview Library.”

John Toussaint, another longtime volunteer, proudly remembers visiting the new library with his young son on the first day of operation. The library was located then on Northport Drive in what is now the Jung’s building. He remembers librarian Alice Locke asking his son Greg if he could print his name on a card application. Although only four, Greg proudly completed the task and began the flood of a long stream of books through the Toussaint children’s household. The Toussaint family has supported Lakeview throughout the years and has been very pleased with the staff’s performance at Sherman Plaza.

Barb Karlin, President of the Friend’s group, began her association with Lakeview as a patron in the mid-1960’s. She then worked at the library for a year and a half before returning to graduate school and becoming a mother. Besides her many contributions to the Friends, she has a particular “claim to fame” in that she recruited Barb Dimmick as a volunteer. Dimmick now heads the Dane County Library System. 

Over the years the Friends have funded a number of special programs for children and adults at Lakeview. Children have benefitted from an enriching array of performances. The Friends underwrote some sesquicentennial events, and some members assist the elderly by participating in the citywide program to deliver books to homebound people.

Fortieth birthday celebrations will take place June 9-12. The Friends plan to put on a program for seniors, focusing on Northside history on Wednesday, June 9, a children’s program on Friday, June 11, and a family event on Saturday, June 12. Watch your June “Northside News” for more information.

Northside Named 1999 National “Neighborhood of the Year”

0

We are very proud to announce that the Northside Planning Council and Madison’s North side neighborhoods have been awarded the prestigious national “Neighborhood of the Year” award for 1999. Awards were announced at the national Neighborhoods U.S.A (NUSA) conference held May 26-29 at Monona Terrace. NUSA’s “Neighborhood of the Year” awards are the only national award given on an ongoing basis to neighborhood organizations for their self-help initiatives. 

The Northside Planning Council and Northside Community were honored in the “Multi-Neighborhood-Project-Partnership” category, for our collective work on the Warner Park Community Recreation Center and other significant community achievements. Awards are made through a competitive review process judged by a panel of distinguished neighborhood activists from around the country, which included both written documentation and a presentation at the NUSA conference by award finalists. 

As readers of the North side News are aware, the North side has experienced significant success in building a better and strong North side community in recent years. Probably the most visible sign of the North side’s revitalization through collaborative community efforts is the development of Madison’s first public multi-purpose community-recreation facility. When Warner Park Community Recreation Center opens its doors later this summer, it will culminate a six-year grassroots efforts, and also a significant partnership between Northside neighborhoods and our local city government. 

The Northside Planning Council and its 17 member Northside neighborhood associations led the six year grassroots community effort that eventually gained City approval of Warner Park Center, engaged Northside residents and organizations in helping plan the Center, and raised over $810,000 with the support of Northside neighborhoods, businesses, and individuals to help the City build the facility. We also secured City commitment not only for funds to build the Center, but to fund and manage its operations, in partnership with Madison School Community Recreation (MSCR).

The fundraising campaign in particular was a powerful demonstration of neighborhood and community support. A handful of larger corporate and foundation donors were joined by over 900 smaller donors, local businesses, and neighborhood groups in contributing the $810,000+ total. Donors made three-year pledges, “bought” bricks, held bake sales and garden tours, soldcookies and frisbees — including middle schoolers who collected almost $700 in pennies. 

There were many other obstacles along the way in developing Warner Park Center — from a City government reluctant to take on new projects due to ever-tighter budgets, to naysayers who believed a community center that served people of all ages and backgrounds would never work. The Northside community overcame these and many obstacles by knowing our community, by involving as many people and organizations as possible in advocacy and fundraising efforts, and most importantly, by refusing to give up despite many setbacks.

Other significant achievements highlighted in the award presentation included:

  • New Neighborhood Associations — the organization of 10 new North side neighborhood organizations, bringing the Northside total to 17 (the highest concentration of any comparable geographic area in Madison);
  • The creation of the Northside News, the bimonthly community newspaper you are reading, which is written almost entirely by dozens of community members. The Northside News is distributed free to 10,000 households and businesses by bulk mail, and is supported entirely by local business advertising from over 200 local businesses;
  • Troy Community Gardens — the successful grassroots effort to permanently preserve Madison’s largest community garden site and 35 acres of surrounding open space that was threatened by development residents deemed undesirable. The Northside Planning Council continues to facilitate the community-based planning effort that will draw on the resources of community organizations and UW-Madison departments to develop new kind of “community resource park” on the property that will include an innovative mix of community gardens, prairie restoration, mixed-income housing, educational programs, and an urban farm. The Troy Gardens project wil receive an “Orchid” award from Madison’s Capital Community Citizens on June 4, and the project is already being cited as a model for community-based planning and development. The Troy Gardens story has been captured for use as a case study and teaching tool in a video documentary produced by Northside resident and independent film producer Dorrie Brooks that is currently being distributed nationally.

The above-listed projects are among those where the Northside Planning Council has played a significant leadership role. Other significant Northside accomplishments in recent years brought about by Northside organizations and local government working together include construction of three new Northside neighborhood centers (in addition to Warner Park Center), a new community police station, a number of new local businesses and renovations to others, reduced crime, and improved local schools.

A Little of the Story Behind the Success

With its wealth of affordable housing and attractive natural environment, the Northside was among the first areas of Madison to experience both the benefits, and the challenges, of Madison’s growth in the past two decades from a Midwestern university town to an increasingly diverse urban center. As one of the most economically and culturally diverse areas of Madison, nearly half of the Northside’s population is over 55 or under 17.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s, both Northsiders and Madison public officials were recognizing the need for new ways to engage Northside residents and neighborhoods in responding to the changing face of their community. The Northside Planning Council (NPC) was formed in 1993 to help achieve that goal.

In their presentation to NUSA judges, NPC leadership stressed some key themes they feel have been important in the Northside’s recent history. One key theme is a strong belief in the positive power created when a community works together to build on our strengths, rather than focus on our problems. NPC, committed Northside activists, and other successful North side organizations have realized we are blessed with a diverse population, a variety of housing options, good schools, Madison’s highest concentration of neighborhood organizations, and great natural beauty in our parks and open spaces. We are working to build on those assets.

Another key theme, and task, has been the creation of a stronger sense of community, and community identity, among the diverse North side neighborhoods and population groups, as exemplified in the Northside News and Warner Park Center. Current NPC co-chair Paul Van Rooy speaks for many long-time North side residents when he says: “As recently as five or ten years ago, most people didn’t even think of the Northside as a distinct community, but now we not only see ourselves as a community, but as a community that is working together to build a better future for all of its residents.”

A third theme of the Northside’s community-building efforts is a belief that ultimately we cannot strengthen our community by focusing on only so-called “troubled” neighborhoods or “at-risk” residents. In Warner Park Center, Troy Gardens, and other efforts, we have worked to engage and link all residents and neighborhoods together, not isolate them from each other.

Finally, NPC strongly believes in both the need, and value, of residents and neighborhoods actively participating in local decision-making and in taking leadership to improve their own community.

These four themes have been a common thread running through the combined efforts of Northside neighborhood organizations, schools, business and community groups, and supportive local government officials over the past six years.

We’ve accomplished a great deal, but we still have more to do as a community to make sure our high quality of life is maintained and improved even more for future generations. We need to work together to determine what we want our community to look like 5 years from now, or 25 years from now. The Northside Planning Council is inviting Northside organizations and residents to participate with us in developing a comprehensive community vision statement and an action plan to take our community into the next century — an effort we are calling “Northside 2000”.

We hope that Northsiders share our pride in being named a national “Neighborhood of the Year”, and we thank all of you who have helped make the Northside such a wonderful place to live and work. Working together, we’ve built a wonderful community building in Warner Park Center, now we are going to build an even more wonderful community for all of our neighborhoods and residents.

Madison can also take pride in the fact that the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood Association and neighborhood received a second-place award in the Single Neighborhood category, for their “Pedestrian Safety Zone” project. A NUSA official we spoke to indicated that it is very rare for two neighborhoods from the same city to be selected as finalists or to win awards the same year. NPC extends our congratulations to our sister neighborhood organization.