John Ball Area Neighborhood Case Study

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The John Ball Area neighborhood is a business and residentially thriving neighborhood located in the West Side of Grand Rapids. Members in this community take great pride in the neighborhood and continue to strengthen the area as a whole. When assessing the community’s needs, it was apparent that the John Ball neighborhood has a high concentration of college students, but a significant lack of involvement from these temporary residents. College students in this area show a potential resource for permanent residents, but their lack of community involvement is a current need that is perceived by the John Ball Area neighborhood. We chose to focus on increasing temporary residential involvement for our implementation project because we, along …show more content…
College involvement could allow for different assessments of the neighborhood to be announced at meetings and neighborhood gatherings. The opinion of temporary residents is becoming more prevalent as the community consists of more rental homes. Involved students could also create an impact in decreasing the neighborhood’s crime rate. Currently, the highest rate of crime is property crime and is shown to be affecting most rental areas (Profile Data: John Ball Park, 2010). College students are often less likely to engage in property improvement or upkeep, and more likely to leave houses or garages unlocked. Similarly, the neighborhood representative mentioned that many of the crimes were related to naive students leaving valuables in unlocked cars (M. Bueche, personal communication, September 23, 2015).(What if we talked about need volunteering instead of crime rate?) If more students were aware of these issues, crime rates could potentially decrease. Increased involvement of residents is generally helpful for a community. If more people show involvement in their neighborhood, there will be more potential for needs being met and improvements being implemented. Involvement will allow for the John Ball Area to have a greater sense of community and helpful resources for further …show more content…
College students volunteering for these organizations will create positive growth from the involvement and increased resources. From the help of college students, businesses and organizations will possibly see an increase in customers and opportunities for them to focus on other parts of their operation. Volunteers will make it easier for owners to spend more time focusing on other resources needed for their establishment. Business and organizational owners could also potentially use volunteers to reach out to other residents in the community in order to development greater community involvement and an increased economical state in the neighborhood. The implementation for college students to develop more community involvement in the John Ball Park neighborhood will allow for more resources to be developed in the community and for each resident to have a voice in the changes happening around