Allapattah Community Fellows
FUNDER: Health Foundation of South Florida, City of Miami
PARTNER/CLIENT: Allapattah Collaborative, CDC, Miami Homes for All and Public Land for Public Good Miami
LOCATION: Allapattah, Florida
DATE: Dec. 2020 to July, 2021
WEBSITE: allapattahcdc.org
PROJECT BRIEF
Formed in 2019, The Allapattah Collaborative, CDC, sought a way to engage the community around the ongoing redevelopment of the neighborhood, particularly concerning the 18-acres of public land known as the GSA lot.
CHALLENGE
Allapattah, a working class community the City of Miami has named Little Santo Domingo, is undergoing massive changes, as developers eye its strategic location for redevelopment. The neighborhood has not historically had, and needs, a grassroots movement of people actively engaged in Allapattah’s future.
SOLUTION
The Allapattah Collaborative implemented a new youth leadership program called the Allapattah Community Fellows, an initiative for young adults who spend months meeting with local leaders and learning about their neighborhood, the challenges it faces, and exploring solutions. The fellows also choose a community project to design and implement, together.
As part of their fellowship, the first cohort canvassed the neighborhood to collect surveys from residents on what they would like to see on the GSA lot’s 18 acres. Those surveys will be presented to the City of Miami for consideration in the redevelopment process.
For their community project, the fellows chose to address the future of the Allapattah Library, which the city had targeted for closure so that a developer could build housing on the site. The fellows developed an online petition, held a press conference and spoke in front of the City Commission to preserve their beloved resource across from their alma mater, Jackson Senior High. Within days of launching their petition, city commissioners reversed course and decided to keep the library on site.
The Allapattah Community Fellows will launch its next cohort in the fall of 2021, and the program is expected to expand to other neighborhoods.
OUR ROLE
Urban Impact Lab conceived of the fellowship program, created a curriculum for it and incubated the initiative, in coordination with the Allapattah Collaborative’s staff. The firm also provided strategic communications consulting to get the word out about the Fellows’ efforts, resulting in widespread media coverage of the library issue.
Now that it has been field tested, the fellowship program is ready for adoption in other neighborhoods.
IMPACT
The Allapattah Community Fellows:
Helped develop a cadre of young leaders engaged in the future of the neighborhood;
Expanded the ability of the Allapattah Collaborative to reach more people in the neighborhood, engage them in the GSA lot development and grow their presence, through canvassing and surveys;
Successfully advocated to keep the library in its original location, experiencing first-hand how activism can make a difference.
Received coverage in two dozen stories, in outlets like The Miami Herald, Univision 23, NBC6 and WPLG10, bringing more attention to the issue and giving the fellows the practice of speaking out for their community.
“Urban Impact Lab helped my small staff increase its capacity and impact exponentially. We came to their team with a goal - to engage our community more deeply in redevelopment of the neighborhood. Their strategic approach and expertise were invaluable, and the results extended far beyond what we had imagined.” - Mileyka Burgos-Flores, founder and executive director, Allapattah Collaborative, CDC
Interested in replicating the Community Fellows program in your neighborhood? Contact us!