Engaging Chicago's Diverse Communities in the Chicago
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Engaging Chicago’s Diverse Communities in the Chicago Climate Action Plan COMMUNITY #8: AUSTIN Research Report Submitted by: Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo), a Division of Science at The Field Museum To: City of Chicago City of Chicago Rahm Emanuel, Mayor 1 PROJECT OVERVIEW 25 COMMUNICATION AND DISSEMINATION 4 COMMUNITY OVERVIEW 27 CREATIVE MODELS FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 7 STAKEHOLDERS, PARTNERSHIPS, AND RELATIONSHIP-BUILDING 30 CONCLUSION 10 AWARENESS OF CLIMATE 31 COMMUNITY ASSET MAP CHANGE AND INTEREST IN CONTENTS ADDRESSING IT 33 REGIONAL ASSET MAP 13 COMMUNITY CONCERNS: OF 35 OUR TEAM SPRINGBOARDS FOR CLIMATE ACTION BIBLIOGRAPHY 19 ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS PRACTICES, VALUES, AND TRADITIONS TABLE This research was commissioned by the Visit our Web site to download the Community and Regional Asset Maps, City of Chicago Department of Environment. and reports about other communities: http://fieldmuseum.org/explore/department/ecco/ Research was conducted by: engaging-chicago-communities-climate-action Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo), a Division of Science at The Field Museum with our partners: Sponsored by City of Chicago Austin Coming Together Bethel New Life South Austin Coalition Community Council July 2012 PROJECT OVERVIEW Engaging Chicago Communities in the Chicago Climate Action Plan - Community #8: Austin is the eighth community study commissioned by the City of Chicago Department of Environment (DOE) to identify strategies for effectively engaging diverse communities throughout the city in the implementation of the Chicago Climate Action Plan (CCAP). The plan lays out ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% of 1990 levels by 2050, with an interim goal of a 25% reduction of 1990 levels by 2020. Seven qualitative research studies have been completed to date: South Chicago, NKO/Bronzeville, Chicago’s Polish community, the Mexican community in Pilsen, the South Asian community in West Ridge, the African- American community in Roseland, and Forest Glen. The Austin Community Area, Area 25 on the Chicago Community Areas Map, was selected for the eighth study because it represents a distinct set of features that we had not previously looked at in combination—a mixed middle class and lower income African-American population, a large percentage of whom live in single family homes (owner-occupied and rented), and dealing with the foreclosure crisis and high rates of crime (but certainly not the highest in the city). These features make it a valuable place to consider how a community facing multiple immediate challenges might still address the challenge of climate change. Ethnographic research activities were designed and conducted collaboratively by a team including anthropologists from The Field Museum’s division of Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo) and our community partners: Austin Coming Together (ACT), Bethel New Life, and South Austin Coalition community Council (SACCC). ACT is a new organization looking to build the capacity of local organizations through partnership and is very interested in our research findings as they bear on this approach to community development. Workshops and focus groups are key to community engagement in Bethel is a longtime periodic partner of ECCo, having collaborated in the the research process. Top: An organizer with South Austin Community past on research and projects that creatively address questions of community Council Coalition (SACCC) works on mastering a story collecting activity self-presentation and sustainability. Finally, SACCC has already partnered with another community partner representative from the Southwest Side. with ECCo through the Energy Action Network, for which ECCo has been Lower: Local childcare providers participate in a focus group to discuss an advisor. (EAN brings together select CEDA service locations to increase individual and shared concerns regarding early childhood education and their ability to help homeowners save on their utility bills through energy their experiences as small business owners. Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo) • The Field Museum • Research Report 1 PROJECT overview conservation.) Our shared interests and existing relationships made it possible to work with and through these partners’ networks to complete a significant part of the research. Less formally, residents’ groups, school representatives, churches, businesses, and individual stakeholders collaborated on the research, both through links to our partners and independently. Research was conducted over a three and a half month period, from early June to the end of September 2011. We engaged roughly 700 adults (including community leaders, residents, aldermen, site users, and business people) and nearly 40 young people. RESEARCH AREA LEGEND Austin Community Area Austin Research Area Getting to know the residents was key to understanding what it’s like to live in Austin and the ways that residents connect with the place where they live. Top: A resident historian helped the research team to understand some of the ways in which the landscape, infrastructure, and demographics of Austin have changed over time and the reasons for some of these changes. Bottom: An ethnographer doing participant observation at Columbus Park spends time talking with a local fisherman who is taking advantage of the Given the size of Austin, internal demographic divisions, and the rapid nature of the research, the study does not cover the full geographic extent of the outdoor experiences that the park has to offer. official Chicago Community Area. The somewhat wealthier northwest portion of Austin [a tail extending off of the larger rectangle] was mostly outside the scope of our partners’ activities and we did no fieldwork there. 2 Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo) • The Field Museum • Research Report PROJECT overview Data collection methods included the following: • Participant observation at 12 meetings and on nearly 40 other mostly CENSUS VS. RESEARCH SAMPLE informal occasions in locations including municipal buildings, schools, churches, grocery stores restaurants and non-profit facilities; Census vs. Research Sample • 9 focus groups with participants drawn from community organizations, an Demographic % in Census 2010 % in research sample alliance of child care providers, and residents affiliated with our partners Characteristic (focus groups also included both a methods training and a discussion of Male 49 37 preliminary findings with our partners); Female 51 63 • More than 70 individual interviews with community leaders and other Owner-Occupied* 31 36**** stakeholders, most affiliated with organizations in the networks of our Renter-Occupied * 61 16**** community partners. Interviews outside these networks included 11 Age median age: 37 67 (over age 40) rapid-format interviews mostly administered to residents and users of Bachelor’s /Graduate/ 10*** 37 public spaces. Professional Degree** Foreign-Born 3*** 4 Additionally, given geographic challenges and time constraints, in conjunction with our primary interest in community organizations’ capacity to take on *Among residents over age 18 the CCAP, we conducted fewer one-on-one interviews focused on individual **Among residents over age 25 environmentally friendly practices than we did for the previous rapid studies (see ***From the 2005-2009 US Census Bureau American Community Survey for PUMA5 03507, Illinois Environmentally Friendly Practices for a discussion of the use and limits of this data). **** Owner-occupied and renter-occupied in the research sample do not add up to 100% because of low response rates and some community leaders’ residency outside the study area. This report reveals many linkages among community priorities and the priorities of the CCAP. Each section concludes with recommendations for translating Key demographics for the Austin community and for our research participants findings into engagement activities that will help communities take ownership are displayed above. The large percentage of our sample above the median age of climate action. Communities that feel invested in the CCAP will not only reported in the census was expected, given our focus on community leaders, who implement its strategies, but also mobilize residents to devise their own creative tend to be older, and our focus on adults over children, for whom we did create a solutions for achieving a sustainable region. few participation opportunities that required significant investments of time to get parental consent. Similarly, our bias towards home owners reflects our interest in community leaders and those connected to community organizations. Nonetheless, we reached the people we needed to in order to assess the organizational capacity of Austin to take on climate action in the near future. 2 Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo) • The Field Museum • Research Report Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo) • The Field Museum • Research Report 3 COMMUNITYOVERVIEW Austin was founded in 1895 as a residential community and quickly filled with Euro-American immigrant families looking to own homes and work their way up the social ladder. Middle class aspirations continued among the large numbers of African American residents who started making Austin their home in the 1960s and 70s. Over the course of the 20th century, Austin grew into an industrial powerhouse then fell into economic decline starting in the late 1970. It has become a community