ENGAGEMENT APPROACH
A YEAR OF ENGAGEMENT
A UNIFIED VOICE
This year-long process brought together residents, workers, stakeholders, elected officials, and City agencies to highlight the community’s priorities and shared vision for the future of Hunts Point.
A PERSONAL HISTORY OF HUNTS POINT
INTERVIEW WITH HAYDEE MORALES
Executive Director of Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education
Ms. Morales has decades of experience in community-based programming and management. For over thirteen years, Ms. Morales served as Vice President of Education and Training at Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC). In this role, she expanded the education department from 18 to 60 professionals and grew the number of young people and families served from 10,000 to over 25,000.
ENGAGEMENT PROCESS
The Hunts Point Forward engagement process aimed to create a shared vision among residents, workers, local stakeholders, elected officials, and City agencies that addresses both short- and long-term challenges. The project team worked with community members as partners to develop the vision and recommendations, rather than simply having them providing feedback on a plan.
COMMUNITY LEADER INVOLVEMENT
THE WORKING GROUP AND SUBGROUPS
The Working Group was the core guiding voice for Hunts Point Forward. It included local community leaders and residents who have been involved in Hunts Point for decades. They ensured that a broad range of participants took part in the planning process, facilitated open and transparent conversations with the community, and ensured that the resulting recommendations formed a cohesive strategy that will provide real solutions to area challenges.
The Sub-Groups expanded on the Working Group to explore specific issue areas within Hunts Point, including:
• Healthy People/Healthy Communities: focused on public health and social resilience
• Jobs and Financial Security: focused on employment, workforce, and economic resilience
• Moving People and Goods Around: focused on access, mobility, and resiliency
The Sub-Groups helped develop short- and long-term solutions to key issues that surfaced. The Sub-Groups allowed for more targeted, in-depth, and regular engagement of these important constituencies.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
On March 11, 2021, the Hunts Point Forward process officially kicked off with a virtual meeting attended by 140 community members. The meeting’s goal was to create awareness about the process, understand what community members love about Hunts Point, and start discussions about what they would like to see change in the neighborhood.
SURVEYS
Due to constraints in engaging the public in person, the project team used a short, comprehensive survey in both English and Spanish to gather community members’ concerns and priorities for the future.
VIRTUAL KICKOFF
On March 11, 2021, the Hunts Point Forward process officially kicked off with a virtual meeting attended by 140 community members. The meeting’s goal was to create awareness about the process, understand what community members love about Hunts Point, and start discussions about what they would like to see change in the neighborhood.
FOCUS GROUPS, WORKSHOPS, AND INTERVIEWS
To reach parts of the community that have been historically excluded from planning processes, the project team and community partners organized small meetings and interviews with youth, seniors, immigrants, parents, small business owners, and others. The goal of these sessions was to better understand what challenges these groups see facing Hunts Point and what they want to see in the future.
OPEN HOUSES
By the fall of 2021, challenges and solutions began to emerge. To ensure that the community shaped the emerging recommendations, the project team held two public open houses with two HPLCC members: the Hunts Point Alliance for Children (HPAC) and the Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation (GHPEDC). The HPAC event focused on reaching residents and the GHPEDC event focused on reaching representatives of industrial businesses and workers.
14th Annual Hunts Point Community Partnership Back to School Fair
Community member speaking with EDC staff about the plan
14th Annual Hunts Point Community Partnership Back to School Fair
14th Annual Hunts Point Community Partnership Back to School Fair
Getting feedback on the Plan’s recommendations
14th Annual Hunts Point Community Partnership Back to School Fair
Getting feedback on the Plan’s recommendations
14th Annual Hunts Point Community Partnership Back to School Fair
Getting feedback on the Plan’s recommendations
14th Annual Hunts Point Community Partnership Back to School Fair
Community members speaking with EDC staff about the plan
14th Annual Hunts Point Community Partnership Back to School Fair
Community members joining the workshop
14th Annual Hunts Point Community Partnership Back to School Fair
Community members speaking with Pratt staff about the plan
14th Annual Hunts Point Community Partnership Back to School Fair
Community members speaking with EDC staff about the plan
14th Annual Hunts Point Community Partnership Back to School Fair
The Plan’s draft recommendations
Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation Fall Lunch
Council Member Salamanca and District Manager Acevedo discussing the recommendations
Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation Fall Lunch
Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation Fall Lunch
Community members speak with EDC staff about the plan
Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation Fall Lunch
Community members speak with EDC staff about the plan
Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation Fall Lunch
A community member speaks with SBS staff about the plan
Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation Fall Lunch
A community member speaks with EDC staff about the plan
Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation Fall Lunch
Community members speaking with the Department of City Planning about the Metro-North Study
Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation Fall Lunch
Community members speaking about the plan
Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation Fall Lunch
Community members speaking about the plan
Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation Fall Lunch
Community members speaking about the plan
2021 TIMELINE OF HUNTS POINT FORWARD OUTREACH EVENTS
THE PROJECT TEAM
The Hunts Point and Longwood Community Coalition and its membership helped to define the planning process and engage community members.
As the leader on the City side, NYCEDC convened the various City agencies and hired a team of partners with deep roots in Hunts Point, including the Pratt Center for Community Development, Barretto Bay Strategies, Somos Arte, and the Hunts Point & Longwood Community Coalition.
The Pratt Center led the consultant team and leveraged its nearly 60 years of community-based planning and advocacy experience, including partnering with communities in the South Bronx on the South Bronx Greenway and Bronx River Greenway Master Plans.
Barretto Bay Strategies used its many longstanding relationships in Hunts Point to aid in outreach, engagement, and stakeholder identification.
Somos Arte created the final website, ensuring it reflected the community’s voice.
“I think the most successful thing we've accomplished in the plan so far is engagement. We've been able to put all our minds together and understand that we're all in this together. There is no separate planning, there's joint planning, and when we come out of this, it will have been a collaborative joint effort that gets us to a different place.”
—Paloma Hernandez, Urban Health Plan