History
The formation of Price Hill Will began in 2000. A planning process around ecological approaches to community building (led by Imago, a grassroots environmental education organization in Price Hill) was happening around that time in a section of the neighborhood. The scope of planning expanded in two major ways when signs of neighborhood instability become more and more apparent in the surrounding community; 1) the initial target area broadened and 2) the vehicles for community building diversified to include things like arts, beautification, housing and faith-based institutions.
Up until 2004, Price Hill Will was a program of Imago. In this year, it was decided that it was time for PHW to become an independent organization, focusing solely on comprehensive community development (physical development and community engagement). This allowed Imago to focus energy once again on its core environmental education mission.
Asset-Based Approach
The first step in bringing together all of the stakeholders who had interest in community revitalization was to identify common goals. Over 2000 participants asked one another a series of questions aimed to find out what they considered community strengths. Further, they were asked what their vision of Price Hill’s future included.
This method of research and analysis is called Appreciative Inquiry (AI). It is an approach used to discover "how an organization can be most effective and constructively capable." Its underlying philosophy is that organizational systems – in this case communities – move in the direction of what they most deeply and persistently ask questions about. So by asking, “What’s working and how can we build off of that?” the focus was placed on bringing existing community resources to bear.
Organizational Structure
Specific themes emerged from the AI process and became committees called Community Action Teams (CATs). The CATs serve as the foundation of community engagement programming. Each, with its coalition of resident volunteers and community stakeholders, specializes in a particular focus area. Their effectiveness is directly linked to the fact that they are using their personal history and memories, day-to-day experiences, professional expertise, hopes for the future and even their hobbies when coming up with constructive ways to make Price Hill a better community. To date, there are 5 CATs: Arts, Beautification, Churches, Education and Housing.
Price Hill Will provides staff support for each of the CATs. In addition, a full-time staff manages physical revitalization and economic development programming.