College/Community Partnership
Fitchburg State and the City of Fitchburg:
Partners in progress
The longstanding town-gown effort to revitalize the North Street neighborhood, which links the college and the downtown area, has gained national recognition.
The Circle of Excellence Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) recognized the success the college had in garnering community support for the plan to create a pedestrian link between the campus and Main Street's commercial district. CASE is a national organization representing professionals in the fields of development, alumni affairs and public relations. The Circle of Excellence Program recognizes programs and projects that can serve as models for other institutions.
North Street had been the site of abandoned buildings and a rising crime rate. Its problems threatened to harm the college's reputation as a safe campus and damage the city's statewide image. The housing deterioration along the street posed a threat to the quality of life within the Ward 5B Neighborhood.
The college convened a blue-ribbon panel of business, civic and political leaders, who, in concert with the city's Ward 5B Neighborhood Association, developed a plan to create an attractive pedestrian boulevard linking the college with the city.
The capstone of the effort was a pledge by the college to site a new, $12-million recreational facility in the neighborhood, reversing a history of college growth away from the center of the city.
With that pledge in hand, the city began a community policing effort and secured nearly $2 million in state grants to remove a rundown factory building, establish home ownership and housing renewal efforts, and fund street and infrastructure repairs.
The coalition also supported efforts by the Montachusett Area Regional Transit Authority to acquire $2.75 million in federal and state funds for an intermodal transportation center, now in operation on Main Street.
The city of Fitchburg has built playgrounds in the area with funding from the college, and will soon begin construction on new fire department headquarters on North Street. The city and college are also cooperating on a project now underway to widen and landscape the street, and are working together to encourage home buying and rehabilitation in the area.
Since rehabilitating a neighborhood requires much more than construction and demolition, the North Street project received a major boost when the college's Grant Center was awarded a $400,000 federal grant that will launch a Citizen's Leadership Institute for area residents.
The new grant represents the second phase of the college's partnership with the city, a move from restoration of the neighborhood's physical structures to addressing the health and education needs of the residents. "This effort is aimed at improving lives, not just real estate," he said. "It's about opening up opportunities for a new generation."
The grant, awarded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Outreach Partnership Program, will provide training in employment, leadership, and technology, as well as work with the community on health issues, literacy efforts and small business assistance. It is the result of a long-term effort to identify the needs of the community and ways in which the college can help meet those needs.
A number of community organizations helped with the grant proposal and will work with the college to administer the project: The Fitchburg Safe and Healthy Neighborhood Association, The Twin Cities Community Development Corp., the LUK Crisis Center, and the Ward 5B Neighborhood Association.
Overall, the effort will receive a total of $1.2 million, including the HUD grant, a state Housing and Community Development grant, Community Development Block Grant funds, a United Way grant, and an additional college contribution of $560,000 over three years.
The college is well positioned to launch the grant effort, since a number of related initiatives are already underway. Faculty members from several departments assist the community with health issues, computerized information and referral service, for example, and a neighborhood literacy and mentoring corps is up and running.
A high level of commitment
More than a neighborhood rescue plan, the college-city initiative is a partnership for an entire city's economic development. Fitchburg is in transition from mill town to commercial and marketing center. The extent of the investment illustrates that point:
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College Investment:
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Recreation Center
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$12,000,000
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Park
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$160,000
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Houses and Demolition
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$250,000
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HUD Grant
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$400,000
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$12,810,000
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MART
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Inter-modal Center
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$3,000,000
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Platform
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$500,000
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$3,500,000
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City
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Fire Station
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$9,000,000
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Two Factory Demolitons
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$1,000,000
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Community Police
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$100,000
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Neighborhood Stabilization
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$600,000
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Infrastructure
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Phase 1
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$1,200,000
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Phase 2
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$1,000,000
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$12,900,000
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Total Investment
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$29,210,000
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