Imagine the need of validation through the eyes, posture and expressions of a little brown-skinned girl, barely 4 years old. Her eyes fixed on you, mirroring herself in your skin. Standing in front of you with her head tilted to the left of her little body asking, “Do you think I’m pretty?”
Her mother, embarrassed, looking down, never acknowledging you.
“Stop staring,” the mother says abruptly, as she grabs her child and turns her around.
Yet the eyes of the little girl follow you.
“Stop staring,” her mother repeats. Even after being scolded a second time, she bends her neck to see if you’re still there.
This scenario happened to me as I sat at Dairy Queen enjoying a treat with a friend. The mother finally gave up on telling her daughter to stop staring at me. The little girl turned completely around in her seat to wave goodbye as I left, continuing to wave until I was gone.
Those eyes searching for validation kept haunting me. How could I help children be comfortable in their own skin? How could I have been more supportive or said something more encouraging that would have kept us connected?
Within my community of family and friends, children as young as kindergarten-age internalize their differences, fueling uneasy tensions of identity.
In 2013, I began a degree program in early childhood development at Ozarks Technical Community College. Not long thereafter, I began hosting Peoples Meet and Greet Projects and Promotions events at the Midtown Library to bring culturally responsive hospitality and celebration to a community space.
Springfield-Greene County Library District Associate Director Jim Schmidt was my biggest supporter during this time, allowing me to host a hospitality table at Midtown celebrating preschoolers, youth and grandparents on the first Saturday in February, which is Black History Month. I learned so much by interacting with the community at these events.
My best practices were built at these events. When planning my events, I made sure to observe and utilize Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, which identifies five environmental systems with which an individual interacts with others. The theory explains how the inherent qualities of a child and his or her environment interact to influence how he or she will grow and develop.
In July 2016, I heard about the City of Springfield’s launch of the Zone Blitz, an effort to improve the quality of life for Springfield’s Zone 1 residents. I was intrigued.
“Zone blitz” is traditionally a football term, which I knew nothing about. I called my brother, a former football player for Kansas University, to get some insight.
In American football, a zone blitz is a defensive tactic that sends additional players to rush the opposing team’s quarterback, while also unexpectedly redirecting a pass, rushing the player into pass coverage instead.
According to former City Manager Greg Burris, Springfield’s Zone Blitz began with an initial look at crime statistics and other significant data pulled from northwest Springfield in the fall of 2014.
In addition to identifying “red zones” where there were higher incidents of violent crime, fires, chronic diseases, the heat maps also revealed “orange,” “yellow” and “green” zones, which gave the community a simple, yet compelling, visual to understand the City’s overall health. In addition to being the oldest part of the city, Zone 1 is home to many of its historic structures and bore witness to many of its historical events. It is an area steeped in blue-collar pride, but is also an area with growing crime and unemployment rates.
The troubling growth of a decaying stock of rental properties, and the unfortunate side effects, was taking a toll on the quality of life in Zone 1. At times, the challenges of addressing chronic nuisance properties (caused by some tenants and some landlords) and the underlying reasons for their existence, seemed like an insurmountable challenge. Two other concerns topped the list in the City’s whirlwind tour of nine neighborhoods called the “Community Listen” in the spring of 2015. Those concerns were increasing crime and aging roads and infrastructure.
With the Zone Blitz, a collective concentrated effort to reduce crime and poverty had blossomed into a grassroots movement of community assistance from the public and private sectors.
The January after the launch of the Zone Blitz, the City’s Public Information and Civic Engagement department launched SGF Neighborhood News, a quarterly newspaper for Springfield’s registered neighborhoods. The purpose of SGF Neighborhood News and its companion website, SGFNeighborhoodNews.com, is to empower, engage and uplift residents of Springfield neighborhoods by communicating news and information and connecting residents, neighborhoods, businesses, faith organizations and public- and private-service agencies.
With the help of SGF Neighborhood News, I was able to fully visualize the target audience for my community outreach efforts. My world had come full circle! My heart’s desire was to bring reading projects combining history, hospitality and celebration to young children.
In cooperation with the Springfield-Greene County Library District, NAACP Springfield Chapter, Be a Jewel and Springfield Public Schools, The People’s Meet and Greet began its Dreams and Goals: Drive-through History Reads program this summer at John B. Hughes and Forest Park apartment complexes in conjunction with the library’s Book Mobile visits.
Programs will take place 5-6:30 p.m. Tuesdays July 10 and July 24 at John B. Hughes Apartments, 2100 N. Clifton, and 4:30-6 p.m. Tuesdays July 17 and July 31 at Forest Park Apartments, 1503 W. Loren St.
Christine Peoples served on the MLK 50 Committee and is a licensed and ordained outreach minister. She can be reached at 417-353-3189 or ministerpeoples50@gmail.com