Rochester Neighborhood Resource Center

Programs: Neighborhood associations (nas): established as a nonprofit in 2001, rneighbors works to bring neighbors together to assist neighborhoods with tools and resources to keep their organizations strong and healthy. Each of our programs and partnerships work towards getting neighbors out of their houses to interact and develop relationships. There are currently 20 registered nas in rochester. Newest members of registered groups include 19th avenue sw, downtown, and valhalla park condominiums. Our much utilized website, rneighbors. Org received a facelift in 2016. In 2015 there were 8,500 page views, while page views in 2016 equaled 40,500. Rneighbors continued working with the planning department as new guidelines(ordinance 60. 605 subd. 1,2,3) the city council passed about required neighborhood meetings is propelling us to reach out to na leaders and update our na map, taking the number of registered neighborhood associations from 45 to 20. These are active groups in rochester. Rneighbors continued to facilitate the mayor's council of neighborhoods that consist of representatives from 15 different associations. The mission of this group is to strengthen connections between neighborhood leaders and give neighborhoods a collective voice. On october 13, 2016, rneighbors partnered with augsburg college and rochester public library to bring jay walljasper, a speaker, award winning writer, veteran communications specialist and leading authority on community issues. His talk "25 ways to improve your neighborhood" was attended by 60 people and they learned about inclusiveness, walkability, hope, stewardship, safety and great public spaces. All important aspects of a liveable neighborhood and community. As an organization, rneighbors continued to raise the profiles of neighborhood organizations in 2016 by honoring outstanding neighbors at the oaktoberfest neighbor awards, providing meeting signs for several neighborhoods, and working to provide resources for rochester neighborhoods through all of our partnerships and collaborations such as the rochesterfest parade, national night out and through our website rneighbors. Org. 2016 was another positive year as restoration work continued on the indian heights park grant. This three year grant is for the amount of 81,300(51,300 lessard sams and 30,000 from community partners). The indian heights park zumbro river urban corridor grant was written by one of our neighborhood associations, friends of indian heights, with rneighbors serving as the fiscal agent. Over the course of this three year grant, nine community partners will work together on restoration work in this rare park that holds ten threatened or endangered native species of plants. The volunteer hours in 2016 equaled 772, not included in htis figure is many hours the conservation corps has worked inthe park which totaled 1,040 hours. Three rneighbors board members and one rneighbors staff attended the 41st annual neighborhoods, u. S. A. Confrence in memphis. Workshops provided participants with tools and resources needed to inspire and educate neighborhood leaders in their efforts to revitalize and engage their community. Because attendees came back so energized with ideas to put into use, the rneighbors board built into their 2017 budget for grants that will provide some funding for two neighborhood leaders to attend the 2017 nusa conference. One idea that was brought back from the 2016 nusa conference is movie in a box. Working off of a model from department of neighborhood services in the city of arvada, colorado, rneighbors has purchased equipment to create a resource that can be checked out by neighborhoods to have their own movie night. This "box" includes a large projector screen,projector, dvd player, speakers, and cords that are easy to assemble and will bring neighbors together for an evening of fun. Each year on the first friday in october we celebrate rochester neighborhoods and the people and trees that live in them with oaktoberfest. German food is served, interactive games thatget guests talking, and neighbor awards are given out that highlight the excellent things going on in rochester neighborhoods. Since we began this event 19 different neighborhood leaders have been recognized for their work to strengthen their neighborhoods. Proceeds support rneighbors, the rochester neighborhood resource center, allowing our organization to continue supporting community building projects such as boulevard tree planting, street and crosswalk mural paintings, new neighborhood associations creating, as well as additional collaborative efforts that allow neighbors to build positive relationships.

rneighborwoods: rneighborwoods empowers and educates the community to grow a sustainalbe urban forest, benefiting the health, social and economic aspects of rochester neighborhoods. Through the teamwork of rneighborwoods since 2004, we have utilized 6,206 volunteers to plant 7,030 boulevard trees. Serving as a partner in the grant process the city of rochester was awarded the improving community forests through citizen engagement grant: to enable community to increase their capacity to manage their community forest by creating or expanding their volunteer base community forestry activities. This 3-year mn dnr grant (using lccmr funds) is 45,000, providing 200 trees a year (600 total) and u of m trainings (structural pruning, care and maintenance). The spring neighborhood tree grant was awarded to the valhalla park condominium neighbors and 25 trees were planted by 40 volunteers. The spring community tree planting was saturday, april 23, in the bandel drive nw neighborhood, where 230 volunteers planted 250 trees. Kutzky park neighborhood received the fall neighborhood tree grant and 25 volunteers planted 25 trees. The fall community tree planting took place on saturday, october 15, in the fox trails park neighborhood on heartland drive nw and 150 volunteers helped plant 250 trees.

a litter bit better (lbb) (est. 2007): rneighbors serves as the fiscal agent to lbb and partners with the city of rochester and many others agencies and organizations in this program. This city-wide litter cleanup program is completed during one week in april. Lbb enjoys participation across many sectors in the community including schools, service and faith groups, scout troops, businesses, and of course, rochester neighborhoods. In 2016, 9. 67 tons of litter was picked up by 3,650 volunteers. This was the tenth year of this successful program and over 122 tons of litter has been collected by over 29,000 volunteers through this program over the years. Volunteers consisted of a wide range of folks including scouts,faith-based & service organizations, businesses, schools, and neighbors. Volunteers picked up at over 239 collection sites in rochester covering close to 5,300 acres of land. The most common type of litter reported was plastic bottles, plastic bags, fast food packaging, and cigarette butts.

rcolorful corners (est. 2007): now in its tenth year, rcolorful corners empowers rochester neighborhood residents to work together to create colorful street murals, transforming public space into neighborhood assets. In 2016, the northrop and slatterly neighborhood street murals were repainted with the help of over 165 volunteer hours, partners and lots of street paint. This year we we expanded this program through a grant opportunity in the placemaking prototyping festival. Rneighbors was one of 16 prototyping proposals chosen to participate and were awarded a grant to paint "creative crosswalks" across 1st avenue downtown to help bring art to barren space and emphasize safe crosswalk space for one of the most heavily used pedestian areas in downtown rochester. Over 100 volunteers stopped by to help in this fun public art project. In addition to painting these crosswalks we are creating a video guide for neighborhood leaders to make their own creative crosswalks that include the proper procedures for working with the city and the public works department. In 2017 three neighborhoods will adding creative crosswalks to their intersections. Neighborhood project grants: this is the third year rneighbors has offered neighborhood project grants. These grants reimburse up to 1,000 in costs for neighborhoods to complete projects that enhance a neighborhood's livability and involvement, benefit the entire neighborhood and promote a strong sense of community. In 2016 we distributed 6,000 benefiting seven different neighborhoods. Over 440 hours of volunteer time went into these neighborhood improvement projects, a value of 10,150. 80 to our neighborhoods.