Peoples Housing's
Community Arts Program 1993-1995
III. PEOPLES HOUSING CONDUCTS A COMMUNITY ARTS SURVEY
During the Summer of 1993 Peoples Housing conducted a community arts survey in the streets of Rogers Park as part of a community organizing and listening process for the establishment of CAP. The survey was funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council's Build-By-Design program.
Seven residents of the north Rogers Park area were hired for four weeks to create and administer the survey. A special effort was made to include young people, and four of the surveyors were teens. One team member was Latino and administered the survey in Spanish.
The survey team went through a training period which included an overview of Rogers Park and Peoples Housing, an introduction to community organizing techniques and an introduction to the Community Capacity Mapping approach to looking at communities. Dr. John Kretzmann of Northwestern University's Asset Based Community Development Institute gave an overview of the Community Mapping approach to community development and also gave the team a short course on survey taking. I gave an explanation of how CAP fit into the overall work of Peoples Housing.
The team members helped design the questionnaire, which was to be administered rapidly in the field. The survey had four basic objectives:
MARKETING RESULTS - We expected that the results of the survey would help reveal what kinds of events and classes people wanted at the Howard Theater, which would be the centerpiece of Peoples Housing's community arts program.
COMMUNITY TALENTS - We wanted the survey to start to uncover the variety of skills that our neighbors have. This was a crucial element of the survey. I intended to recruit our neighbors as instructors, performers and advocates for the arts program. I was building an open door policy where local artists, bands, rap groups, impresarios and youth program leaders were aggressively encouraged to use the Howard Theater. I intended to support and coach all community users to help them put on shows, classes and special events.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT - By hiring, training, and sending community members into the neighborhood to interact with other neighbors, we were seeking to develop a core group of people who would be able to work with Peoples Housing on other arts and non-arts community projects. Survey respondents were given the opportunity to indicate interest in participating in the community arts program, and we intended to (and did) contact those respondents to invite them to participate in leadership roles in creating events for the Howard Theater. Two members of the survey team became quite familiar with Peoples Housing's operations and were very effective and positive community ambassadors. They were hired by our community organizer for short term projects after the survey was completed.
COMMUNITY MARKETING - Members of the survey team showed people a rendering of the proposed Cultural Center, gave out information on Peoples Housing's rental and co-operative housing programs and distributed flyers for the first Howard Theater Family Arts Festival (September, 1993). These personal contacts helped get the word out about Peoples Housing and our various programs in an extremely positive manner. This was a very important point. Up till then, Peoples Housing's work was not widely known outside of the Howard Street area. Given the fact that we had virtually no program funds or advertising dollars, this word of mouth campaign was the announcement of intent by us about the arts program and the rebirth of the theater to the community.
The team covered all major business streets in Rogers Park, as well as several beaches, parks, and one elementary school. In addition, surveys were filled out by many people who attended Peoples Housing's first Howard Theater Family Arts Festival.
A total of 1,059 people completed the survey. This represents 1.8% of the total Rogers Park population (60,378). People were asked to respond to a series of questions, primarily by checking off a range of responses. Each question also allowed for open ended responses.
