No Complaints on This Side of the Neighborhood
Voices From The Neighborhood I had six kids with me, two probation officers, and a mission—to clean up a vacant lot in the neighborhood. Before we even got to the site, I passed out brooms, rakes, and shovels back at the office. The kids didn’t even ask what the shovels were for, which should’ve been […]
The Big Neighborhood Night
The boss looked ready to climb the walls, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her. Our working dynamic was very yin and yang. The more crazy she got, the more I suppressed my emotions. I kept my face neutral, but inside, the nerves were creeping in. If this flopped, it was on us.” I did a […]
The Neighborhood Plan
Voices From The Neighborhood First, we requested that our community meeting be the final one of the year across all sites. The state agreed. Then, we mapped out our outreach strategy. Instead of making thousands of generic flyers, we printed 1,500 special golden-colored ones—the Golden Tickets. We listed everyone who had ever attended one of […]
Neighborhood Community Meeting
Voices From The Neighborhood There was a commotion outside my office door. Being the ever-curious, nosey busybody that I am, I had to see what was going on. Standing there, wrapped in no less than three hugs, was Patricia, our state-appointed liaison. She was loved by many in our community. Despite overseeing 15 sites across […]
Community Clean-up
It was early in the morning, the air crisp and cool, as we prepared for another community clean-up. The turnout was usually good—about 10% of the population in the community was on probation, so we had a nice crowd, mostly men. I was walking around checking on people as they gathered when my attention was […]
J’ayLa
Voices From The Neighborhood I pushed open the office door, stepping into the familiar hum of ringing phones and hushed conversations. As a community organizer and program assistant for a state-funded initiative, my days were a whirlwind of meetings, phone calls, and problem-solving. Our program brought together city and state officials, business owners, residents, police […]
Freddie & Ty’Rik
Voices From The Neighborhood The day was cloudy and gloomy, like most days in our city. Nothing ever seemed different—just the usual monotony—but that morning felt like something might finally break through. I walked into the office hoping for a light day. Thirty seconds after I sat down, my boss burst in, already buzzing with […]
Johnny
Voices From The Neighborhood When I first saw him, he was getting out of a car. He had a bulky jacket. His jacket, jeans, and sneakers, were all black. He wore sunglasses that covered ¾ of his face. He seemed more like a shadow than a kid. His clothes and sunglasses made him look like […]
Voices From The Neighborhood
This story is part of an ongoing series called Voices from the Neighborhood. When Stability is Not Enough For ten years, I worked for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state worker, surrounded by lawyers, examiners, and investigators, buried in paperwork and procedures. It was stable, it was predictable—but it wasn’t fulfilling. One morning, I woke […]
