Higher Ground / Warren Gardens Residents Association / Neighborhood Improvement Team

This group operates in cooperation with:
WARREN GARDENS SITE:
Teen Empowerment Program
130 Warren Street
Roxbury, MA 02119
617-652-8014
craig @ teenempowerment . org

There's no info (Sept 2011) on the web about "Higher Ground", except newspaper articles (no contact info). Perhaps contact the folks at Teen Empowerment.

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/boston/mattapan/articles/2011/09/22/higher_ground_aims_to_life_up_city_one_block_at_a_time/

Effort aims to improve city, 1 block at a time
By James Vaznis
Globe Staff / September 22, 2011

When they met with the highly regarded social justice entrepreneur Hubie Jones a year or so ago, a group of residents from the Warren Gardens Housing Cooperative in Roxbury were simply looking for a way to get a tutor for their computer center so residents could learn how to send e-mail and navigate the Internet.

But, in talking with Jones, they realized that an even better opportunity might be in their grasp: a chance to take part in a bold experiment being orchestrated by Jones, who was launching an organization that aims to help some of the most downtrodden areas of Boston to overcome violence, poverty, and inadequate health care, a few blocks at a time.

The mission of Higher Ground fit in perfectly with a longtime effort of the residents to build a stronger sense of community at their four-decade-old housing cooperative and to obliterate drug abuse and violence.

“We want a better quality of life here, a safer feel, and more neighborliness,’’ said Jean Morgan, chairwoman of Warren Gardens’ residents association. “Higher Ground is helping us to work together and resolve issues.’’

Higher Ground, which incorporated last year with little fanfare and is now beginning its public outreach effort, is part of a growing movement of organizations nationwide that aims to better connect children, adults, and the elderly to social services, jobs, health care, and education.

Higher Ground is modeling its effort after the successful Harlem Children’s Zone, which saturated an approximately 100-block radius with these kinds of services.

But there are key differences between the two organizations. While Harlem Children’s Zone created its services from scratch because few existed in the area, Higher Ground will be working with an array of existing organizations to better coordinate efforts and to let residents know about them.

“Boston has a tremendous opportunity to build the best urban center that really addresses the needs of its poorest and working-class citizens, but we need to collaborate in a smart and effective way,’’ Jones said. “Boston is rich in resources, but is impact poor.’’

The reason?

“We have a fragmented delivery service,’’ said Jones, a founding board member of City Year and dean emeritus at Boston University’s School of Social Work.

Jerry Sargent - president of Citizens Bank Massachusetts, who will be presenting Higher Ground with a $25,000 grant tomorrow - said the organization has come up with “a fresh approach that is innovative, collaborative, and efficient.’’

Warren Gardens - an approximately 220-unit housing cooperative situated on a hill bordered by Walnut Avenue and Regent, Warren, and Rockland streets - encompasses just a small area of the city that Higher Ground eventually wants to target. The area would roughly run along Blue Hill Avenue from Roxbury through Dorchester to Mattapan.

The swath has one of the greatest concentrations of children in the city and high rates of poverty, violence, drug abuse, and health problems.

The organization will attempt to connect residents to a primary care physician and dentist to avoid trips to the emergency room; enroll pregnant woman and young mothers in adult education programs and help them find high-quality early child-care centers; and line up jobs for teenagers, as well as after-school and summer programs for students, among other services.

This summer, Higher Ground began testing some efforts to help find summer jobs for teenagers at Warren Gardens, a collection of two- and three-story clapboard buildings lined with white picket fences and patches of lawn.

Some teenagers working for the Center for Teen Empowerment in the South End organized a meeting with police that drew 65 youths from around Warren Gardens to discuss violence and other concerns. The group joined with another organization to hold a peace rally.

The effort appeared to be going well until one night last month, when bullets sprayed across a parking lot and playground at the cooperative and killed a young man and wounded another.

Yesterday, a memorial of candles, a Red Sox hat, and a basketball marked the spot, while residents talked about rehabilitating the playground and converting a wooded area plagued by crime and drug abuse into a park.

They are adamant about making their neighborhood a better place to live.

“We want to make sure no trouble comes in and out of here,’’ said Unique Edmonds, 19.

“This community really works together.’’

James Vaznis can be reached at jvaznis@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globevaznis.