Jonathan Hagberg

International Human Services

Dr. Grossman
10/22/13
Starting Grassroots Organizations 101
Anywhere there are people there are stories, there is history. From the mountains of
Nicaragua, to college campuses, to the neighborhoods that litter our city there are people and
stories. These stories come in many forms and can move us in many ways. They can lead us to
want to take action. But how can we start that action in a meaningful and impactful way? A
group of Providence College students have heard these stories and set out to answer just that with
Common Grounds Caf.
Before there is action, there must be the story and that story starts with the neighborhood
that borders those in the green campus of Providence College. The story of Smith Hill is one of
diaspora and rebuilding. The first real expansion of the neighborhood came as thousands of Irish
immigrants fled the homeland during the Great Potato Famine of the late 19th century. The
immigrants of this period formed St. Patricks Parish which encompasses Smith Hill to this day.
The next wave of immigration came from Jews as they fled prosecution across Eastern Europe
around the turn of the century. While not a strong presence in the neighborhood anymore, just
behind the sign that says Historic Smith Hill on the corner of Douglas and Orms is the
Orthodox temple that just barely maintains an active congregation in the neighborhood. At their
heels came the Armenians fleeing a genocide still unrecognized as such by the U.S. and barely in
the public consciousness. With a few aging members left in the community their mark is also
noticed in the Armenian Heritage Monument on Chalkstone and Douglas as well as Henry
Kazerian Elementary School on Camden. While many of these people have since moved on their
marks are lying just below the surface (Morton)

These people came to America to make new lives here. Smith Hill was an attractive
neighborhood as it was a thriving community of workforce housing. Nearby factories like Brown
and Sharpe employed many of the neighborhood residents while shop owners tended to the needs
of its inhabitants. It was a lively and diverse neighborhood. While smith Hill can still be
described as such, the laying down of the interstate and the move of many of the factories in the
middle of the 20th century left Smith Hill in a precarious position (Morton).
Those that could afford to follow the factories into the suburbs did so; those that could
not remained. Immigrants fleeing new conflicts around the world flooded into smith Hill with
hopes of that same economic prosperity. These groups included African Americans heading north
to escape the prejudice of the South. After the Vietnam War left much of Southeast Asia in the
hands of tyrants and despots refugees fled their lives for a new home in the U.S. Most recently,
Latin Americans fleeing U.S. instigated economic violence have sought refuge in the U.S. and
many have filled the triple deckers of Smith Hill. These are the communities that are most alive
and thriving in Smith Hill. Many of which the parents still hold firm memories of the strife that
filled their homeland while children are often ignorant of the realities but that pain is still passed
down (Morton).
Smith Hill is a community that has brought pain from around the world and has thrived
and suffered together in a condensed space for more than a century. Many students from
neighboring Providence College look out into the neighborhood and only see the danger to them.
How scary Chad Brown St. must be. Most never see the story that lies just below the surface.
They do not see the members that are aware of this history and work to heal that pain.

There are many in and around that neighborhood who to improve the community and
make it flourish. From particular active community members to grassroots organizations
involved in the neighborhood such as the Smith Hill Community Development Corporation.
The Smith Hill Community Development Corporation (SHCDC) operates like many
other Community Development Corporations (CDC). They are typically a 501c3 non-profit
focused as its name states on community development. Theyre most common avenue of
approach is providing affordable housing, specifically federally mandated affordable housing.
They provide families that make under a certain threshold with rental units that take up a
reasonable percentage of their income (Overview: Community development corporations).
Affordable housing is offered to families that meet certain income requirements. For
example a 3 person family looking to rent a 2 bedroom unit from the SHCDC must make
between $18,000 and $40,000 (rentals). If a family falls within this range, they qualify for
affordable housing subsidies which places their rent payments on a sliding scale that is typically
30% of their total income (Affordable housing). The hope being that with less money going to
some landlord, the family will be able to support themselves in a fruitful way and not be living
under the constant fear of eviction. Community Development Corporations work under the
assumption that a flourishing community starts with flourishing families.
While affordable housing is the chief operation towards community development, CDCs
often perform a variety of roles in order to better serve their particular community. These roles
include such things as providing space for community support and discussion, community
improvement program outside the home, as well as economic incubation (Kingsley).
The Smith Hill CDC engages in all of these activities as well as the traditional housing
role. Since its incorporation in 1993 in its first renovated house on 47 Goddard St, the Smith Hill

CDC has grown to offer over 80 housing units in Smith Hill. Its largest project, Visions II, back
in 2004 targeted more than 20 buildings in strategic locations throughout the neighborhood for
renovation. Bringing them up to current code and sometimes even gutting a house completely
before the renovations took place. This was a costly tactic but attempting to rebuild a house
completely would be impossible. Since most of the houses were built at the turn of the 20th
century, they do not comply with current zoning laws. Since the SHCDC is a non-profit, they
absorb that cost so they can maintain adequate housing for the working families of Smith Hill
(Smith)
When renovating a house for Visions or any of their other housing projects they keep the
needs of their residents in mind. They completely remove asbestos insulation and lead paint the
latter being especially important for the wellbeing of children in the house. If a resident is in a
wheelchair or has another mobility disability, the SHCDC makes pains to build ramps and
generally make the house handicap friendly (Smith).
Despite their success in housing the SHCDC still faces a number of challenges in
developing the community. One of their more prominent issues in maintaining healthy and
sustainable relationships is that their tenants on average only rent from the CDC for 6-18 months
at a time. They have a high turnover rate for tenants. There are a number of factors that
contribute to this such as a familys wage going above or below the required income levels, a
change in employment, needing a larger home, or many others. Such a high turnover rate does
not lead to active and engaged community members as there is no long term investment or
commitment into the community.
Issues like these necessitates that the SHCDC gets involved with other activities. They
have a number of partner programs as well as their own programs. Some of their partner

programs include Rec Night which is a safe space open every Monday for gang affiliated youth
in the neighborhood. There is a basketball court, free pizza, and a rec room with games and
activities. Their time is largely unstructured and the youth are left to do as they please. To the
astonishment of some, Rec Night has been a successful program for some years now. This is in
large part due to the staff from the Institute of Non-Violence. The Rec Night staff consists largely
of former gang members from Smith Hill and Keith Morton of Providence College. All of the
staff gives the youth that pass through those doors the respect that they warrant. When the youth
pass through the doors and are respected by adults they know in the community they return that
respect creating a healthy and fun environment for 4 hours a week.
Another program that the CDC directly oversees is a stewardship program. They hired
two teens from the neighborhood and myself, a PC student, starting this most recent Summer to
go around and clean up the neighborhood. This involved planting trees, removing weeds from
the sidewalk, and removing garbage among other tasks to make the neighborhood look nicer.
This program operated under the assumption that people wanted the neighborhood to look nice;
they just did not know where to start. We provided that start.
The SHCDC is the official owner of Common Grounds Caf, run by students from
Providence College with funding from the Feinstein Institute and the School of Business. The
caf will be an exciting learning opportunity for PC students and the SHCDC hopes that it will
prove the economic viability of Smith Hill. Common Grounds still has a long way to go before it
proves anything.
Common Grounds Caf came about with the initial collaboration of two self-made
student groups, Make Trade Equal (MTE), and the Entrepreneurship Society. Make Trade Equal
is a group dedicated to learning about and acting upon trade injustices between the U.S. and

other Latin American countries, using the coffee trade in Nicaragua as a case study. Upon
returning form their 2nd trip to Nicaragua Make Trade Equal started developing the plans for an
on campus fair trade coffee shop.
I was a member Make Trade Equal. 7 other students and I travelled on a delegation with
Witness for Peace (WFP) to Nicaragua. I did not realize at the time, but attending a delegation
with WFP was entering into a long tradition of activists. A tradition that spanned decades and
fostered relationships across borders for years.
Witness for Peace was founded in 1983 by a group of motivated church members and
academics versed in Latin American relations. Their mission was to strategically place interested
and caring Americans with Nicaraguans living with the effects of the U.S. backed Contra war.
This lead to a number of Americans living with Nicaraguans for extended periods of time
sending pictures and letters back home depicting the atrocities of the Contra war. In addition to
these dedicated members WFP created short-term delegations made up of professionals, school
teachers, academics, and most of all, church congregation members to visit Nicaragua for two
weeks (Williams 421). Testimonies of Nicaraguans by letter and in person were the chief tool in
keeping U.S. citizens informed about the war WFP organized these motivated Americans to
lobby Congress to end funding of Contras forces in Nicaragua (Williams 421).
After the end of the contra war WFP still kept up its activities in Nicaragua and even
expanded its operations throughout Latin America during the 90s and into the new millennium.
Now the focus was ending abuses by the IMF, World Bank, and trade regulations from the U.S.
like the North American Free Trade Agreement which led to severe economic violence (Williams
422).

Make Trade Equals trip with Witness for Peace was part of WFPs ongoing strategy of
advocacy and solidarity with Latin American countries. Action planning upon returning to the
states involved sharing the stories gathered from the friends made in Nicaragua and writing and
lobbying representatives in Congress against detrimental trade practices with Latin America.
Make Trade Equal desired something more. Something more direct, something that brought us
closer to the friends we had made abroad. Thus the caf was conceived as a student run coop, on
campus that would source its coffee directly from the coops and farmers that we worked with
and developed relationships with. Though this was the ideal, when put into action, the road
becomes far more difficult.
Upon returning to campus, Make Trade Equal approached the newly formed
Entrepreneurship society with this idea. Through the Entrepreneurship societys connections the
two groups were able to meet with the Dean of the business school who encouraged and lead to
more connections. A natural spot for the caf was the space that had already been fitted as a caf
on 233 Douglas Ave, our current location. The space was owned by the SHCDC. Due to the
relationship that had been built up between them and the Feinstein Institute at Providence
College, the students of the two student run groups (who had since created a new collaboration
of members made up from each group) were able to go ahead with the administration of a new
caf. With the support of the economic incubator group facilitated by PC and the SHCDC the
student group got started right away. Although getting this go ahead was the simple part.
This newly formed caf group took 4 members form Make Trade Equal and 4 members
from the Entrepreneurship Society. This immediately led to a clash of ideologies. The students
from MTE were all Global Studies majors and shared a mindset forged in a unique curriculum
and a dedication to their cause from Nicaragua. While themselves not always in agreement, they

consistently pushed for as democratic an organizational system as possible. While the

Entrepreneurship society that consisted of 3 business majors and one Global Studies major who
had not been on the trip were grounded in the hierarchical structure of American business. It was
a constant dialogue between establishing and committing to the mission and running a
sustainable business which continues to this day.
Being full time college students, these 8 students were well aware that a caf could not be
run on the backs of these 8 alone. Recruitment was immediately begun at the end of the spring
semester. The first open call to students had a fantastic turnout of over 25 energetic new
members. The first meeting lead to a fantastic brainstorming session and high spirits for all. A
second meeting followed with as to be expected, less attendance. Since the first meeting was
much more of an information session, some people heard about it and fell to the wayside.
As we went along with our first three meetings with this large group, the original 8
students realized that while many great ideas were coming about, little work was getting done.
The prospect of complete lateralization of power as some members of Make Trade Equal
including myself had hoped was unlikely. The original 8 students who were devoting the most
time to the project decided to solidify themselves as the main administrative body naming
themselves the organizational board. There was no voting, but it felt justified since they were the
founders of the project and were willing to commit the most time to the project. Two co directors
were also chosen; Collin Anderson from MTE and Julia DePalma from the Entrepreneurship
Society. No official power over the organizational board was given to these members but they
were to be the point people who other students, administration, and the SHCDC should
contact.

With this Organizational Board in place they set about organizing the rest of the student
group into committees as to better focus their work. This did not come about without some
extended discussion within the Organizational Board. Much deliberation about who should chair
these committees, how they would be chosen, and how much power within the organization they
should wield. Some pushed for them to only be representatives of the committees who reported
to the Organizational Board, others wanted to have each Organizational Board member to be a
chair of a committee, some wanted to disband the Organizational Board and have the elected
heads of each committee. Even the name of this chair was disputed. No consensus was reached
but committees were created anyway but without chairs yet.
As finals approached and the end of the semester became more apparent other questions
arose. How would we continue to work on the project? Would be people still be as committed?
Would the project simply stagnate and wait until the start of next semester to be reinvigorated?
The logistics of staying here and continuing the project seemed bleak especially with the current
stagnation of the Organizational Board.
Luckily Feinstein faculty member Kaytee Stewart who had accompanied MTE to
Nicaragua saved the day. She told the group that the SHCDC was looking to hire two
Community Work Study Students. two students who qualified for this kind of Federal aid could
be paid by the government to work up to 35 hours a week at an off campus nonprofit. SHCDC
agreed to let the work study students spend a majority of their time working on the caf if they
could dedicate a few hours to office work and the new Stewardship program they were starting. I
was selected from the Organizational Board. I quickly secured and apartment for the Summer
and applied to work for the SHCDC.

With reinvigorated spirit Common Grounds Caf headed into an uncharted yet hopeful
chapter of its development. On June 1st I moved into my apartment and began working in the
caf itself under the advising of the SHCDC. Many challenges both personal and external laid
ahead of me.
One of my earliest challenges was accepting my role of power and authority within the
organization. I idealized a lateralized power structure and consistently pushed for as democratic a
structure as possible. I lost a lot of valuable time in the early weeks of the caf waiting on
responses and approval for decisions in the caf. While in order to maintain the groups sense of
ownership I had to make sure they were involved in important decisions for the caf I could not
wait to hear back from the entire group about how long our straws should be. One of the chief
things I had to learn in this position of power was what decisions I had to make so that they
would be done, what decisions I should get advice from the students, and what decisions should
be left open to the entire groups consensus.
This task would be made easier once we had solidified the committee system and
returned to campus but it was a difficult one to manage without knowing the commitment of
people while they were out at their own summer jobs and far from campus.
The groups own separation leads to a host of its own issues. It is difficult to ascertain
someones commitment and convey importance and responsibility of a task when face to face
contact is lost. Aside from a few members who were very dedicated to the task, many members
of the group were lost to the wayside. This lead to me taking up many of the tasks and
responsibilities that I had wanted to assign to the other members of the group so that they could
feel a part of the organization.

Since over the summer it was difficult to get people to take on the responsibilities I
needed I often shouldered the responsibilities of the caf in its initial stages. This lead to a
reversal of my previous struggle in accepting my authority. I often took control of things that
before I thought should be brought to the groups deliberation in addition to day to day tasks.
This may have led to a more efficient mobilization period but excluded some members who
might still be interested.
At the end of the summer myself and the people who had gotten to be consistent and
reliable developed a system of organization that worked to get our tasks done. I coordinated
responsibilities that could be done remotely by my small group and called them into the city as I
needed them. They were also able to report back to me and let me know tasks that I had to
complete in order to get the Caf to open.
As the Fall semester neared more people got in contact with me about being a part of the
caf. This disrupted the flow that the group and I had developed. People who had been involved
in the Spring wanted to start back up despite months of inactivity and I didnt want to step on the
toes of those who had shown initiative and worked hard with me on this project. I also know
once the semester started that we wouldnt be able to keep up the pace the few of us were at with
5 classes. The only way we thought to solve this was to revert back to the old committee system.
The experiences of the summer guided us towards a streamlined version of the committee
system. The issue of selecting committee heads was solved because those that stepped up over
the summer were natural fits to take on leadership roles during the semester. Many of the
members of the organizational board had overextended their reach for the semester and had to
back down, leaving me as the only board member left. This allowed me to streamline their role

into myself and working as an operations manager. The new committee heads would work as
representatives of their respective committees as well as act as the main executive body.
This was only a taste of the organizational struggles that we faced in making this a
successful grassroots organization. There are still many more ahead of us such as how do we
unify the group into a cohesive role and not let them become segmented into their own
committees? How will we incorporate the Smith Hill community outside the SHCDC as more
than customers? Can we stay true to our mission once we open? What will happen when the
student group graduates? We will face them as we come to them because we have already shown
that we are prepared to tackle many of the challenges that will come our way as a small student
run organization.

Works cited
"Affordable Housing." SHCDC. Smith Hill Community Development Corporation. Web. 17 Oct
2013. <http://www.smithhillcdc.org/affordable-housing/>.
Morton, Keith. "Smith Hill a Study in Community." Providence College. Smith Hill Annex,
Providence. 2013. Lecture.
"Overview: Community development corporations. "Community-Wealth.org. Democracy
Collabrative, n.d. Web. 17 Oct 2013. <http://community
-wealth.org/strategies/panel/cdcs/index.html>.
"Rentals." SHCDC. Smith Hill Community Development Corporation. Web. 17 Oct 2013.
<http://www.smithhillcdc.org/rentals-2/>.
Smith, John, dir. Smith Hill. Independent, 2013. Film. 18 Sep 2013.
Williams, Virginia S. "Grassroots Movementes and Witness for Peace: Challenging U.S. Policies
in Latin America in the Post-Cold War Era." PEACE & CHANGE. 29.3&4 (2004): 419
-429. Print.