Since the turn of the millennium, Walla Walla, Washington, has been riding the rising waves of national and international acclaim brought on by the success of its wine industry, historic preservation efforts, downtown revitalization and quality of living. Distinctions include Sunset magazine’s 2005 Wine Destination of the Year and 2002 Best Main Street awards, and Money magazine’s 2006 Best Place To Retire. But off the main street of this beautiful, burgeoning town, within neighborhoods once beleaguered by crime, vandalism, and civic neglect, a cadre of committed residents is in the process of strengthening Walla Walla at its core.

Leading the vanguard are individuals trained through the RDI-delivered Sherwood Trust Community Leadership Program (STCLP), whose efforts are yielding remarkable transformations within Walla Walla’s underserved neighborhoods. “Our primary goal is to convince neighborhoods they need to take responsibility from the ground up,” stresses Sherwood Trust president Jock Edwards. Edwards’ earlier participation in the Ford Institute Leadership Program in Milton-Freewater led to the trust’s request to offer an urban adaptation of that training to members of Commitment to Community (C2C)—a Sherwood Trust-funded grassroots initiative—as well as others within Walla Walla’s underserved neighborhoods who possess the vision and will to promote change.

Shaping Community through Art
“I was the gang member, the one doing the graffiti when I was younger, because there was no positive role model,” notes Federico Diaz, graduate of the STCLP’s second class and a member of C2C. Federico, a former Marine awarded a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq, returned to his hometown determined to be for his own young son and others the role model he lacked. “I didn’t know what I’d encounter in the leadership classes,” he admits. “I thought, ‘it will be all older folks.’ But I found younger ones do have ideas to bring to the table. The program helped my work with other entities and age groups.”

A children’s art wall rising up from the grass of Washington Park—Federico’s concept and the one chosen out of several options for the STCLP’s initial project—has sown the seeds for multigenerational, multicultural, and interagency collaborations on four public murals at highway overpasses once marred by graffiti and strewn with garbage. C2C partnered with the Washington State Department of Transportation to adopt four state highway retaining walls and beautify them with depictions of the Walla Walla Farmer’s Market and annual Hot Air Balloon Stampede, as well as jungle and aquatic scenes.

Fellow STCLP graduate and C2C member Teri Barila, along with her eighteen-year-old daughter, worked diligently with Federico throughout the summer of 2007, sketching designs and then returning to fill in as needed. “It was the most fun,” Teri says. “This mural project is a win-win situation for everybody,” observes Federico, whose energy is once again funneled toward Washington Park, where he is coordinating a park renovation project that includes a water fountain, benches, better lighting, and the installation of a $52,000 play structure that received $26,000 in matched funding by the city. “We’re collecting volunteers to put up the play structure. They’re thrilled to have something happening,” says Teri.

The Pen Neighborhood Writes a New Script
“So many live on the edge, or just under the edge,” observes C2C consultant Doug Barram, a retired minister working with former leadership training classmates Louis Gonzales, Federico, Teri, and other neighbors to help transform the Pen neighborhood—a dusty, crime-riddled area near the Washington State Penitentiary, just north of town and checkered with deteriorating homes—into a vibrant refuge and resource. “This area had so many police service calls,” notes Teri. “We initiated involvement here. We asked a neighbor who works at the Housing Authority if he wanted to let us in.” This led to the “seeding” of three Pen residents in the Sherwood Trust Community Leadership Program, and a collective vision that has grown and gained consensus among the largely Hispanic neighborhood. In the summer of 2008, Sherwood Trust provided $400,000 in funding for the purchase of eleven properties along Carrie Street, one of the two main streets defining the Pen neighborhood. C2C also began facilitating the development of a two-story community center, housing a library, childcare facility, and large meeting space, with a landscaped common area and playground, as well as high-density affordable town homes. Doug, who has been walking these streets with Federico for several years, building trust and solidarity, stresses the importance of relationships to urban renewal. “There is a tension between projects and relationships. Projects have to feed relationships.”

From Needles and Gangs to Hoops and Swings
Toward the town’s southern entrance, in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, what Teri refers to as the “two-pronged strategy of relationship building and project building” has resulted in a neighborhood’s revival and the extreme makeover of its park, which had been virtually abandoned by local residents, including longtime resident Kari Savelesky. “There used to be drug needles all over, and gang activity. People wouldn’t go there,” says Kari. Now, children laugh and play on the new playground equipment as parents mingle together and greet others on the lush lawn that slopes down to a fish-filled pond, attesting to the success of Jefferson Park’s reclamation. “The citizen–police relationship is completely transformed. Vandalism is down 90 percent in this area from the time our neighborhood team got together,” says Kari.

A graduate of the fourth STCLP class, Kari points to her leadership training as the catalyst that transformed her sense of helplessness and anger to community activism. Now she is at the fore of a civic renaissance that continues to push outward beyond Kari’s immediate neighborhood. “If not for that class I would not have attempted this project,” she notes. “We weren’t educated, we didn’t know where to begin. Our neighborhood didn’t care, had given up.” With the encouragement and support of Teri, Doug, and a growing band of impassioned residents—one who would become her closest friend—Kari mounted a fundraising campaign that garnered $165,000 within a period of nine months during 2008. The Sherwood Trust surprised the neighborhood at its second annual community Christmas dinner with a grant of $100,000. Fundraising efforts continue for the installation of a basketball court, a serenity garden, and a healthy life trail with ten fitness stations specifically designed for seniors.

“One of the things that scares people is raising money. People think car washes and bake sales. But Teri is teaching me how to write grants,” says Kari. “When people see how passionate we are, how much we believe in our neighborhood, they are excited.” Beyond the park project, Kari’s C2C group has facilitated major neighborhood cleanups, taking a truck loaned out by the Blue Mountain Council around to residents who could not otherwise afford to haul away their trash. “It’s nothing like it was,” stresses Kari. The neighborhood recently observed Neighborhood Watch’s National Night Out by hosting a party in the park—with face painting, a dunk tank, and free hotdogs and a stand donated by Banner Bank. Kari’s enthusiasm shows no signs of abating as success builds on success. “When we’re down to 75 or 95 percent of this project we’ll find another project here in Walla Walla, and we’ll take it on. The possibilities have been shown to us. Now they’re not only possibilities, but realities.”