3014 Meadowbridge Rd: A Community-Engaged Opportunity-Based Re-investment Action Plan

Abstract

This plan is an asset-based community response for 7th Street Memorial Baptist Church CDC as a way to revitalize and uplift the Six Points neighborhood of Highland Park. This plan was designed to provide a template for community engagement that would reintroduce a legacy of service to the community while partnering with other community assets to reinvest into the community. The primary action that makes this a prime engagement opportunity is the restoration of 7th Street Memorial Baptist Church location at 3014 Meadowbridge Rd. Treating the building as an asset for the community and not only the church has enabled the future partnerships to be opportunity based. These partnerships will address: Education, Health and Housing needs of the community. With an abundance of empty buildings along the storefront of this historic neighborhood, this plan will make use of the most important assets in the neighborhood: the people. Utilizing best practices from all over the United States, this plan contains recommendations that bring together community assets to form partnerships that will address some of the barriers that led to this neighborhood’s current state of disinvestment. These recommendations address future partnerships that address long term employment, improved community engagement, improved higher education faculties among its student population and improved food access from and on a community level.