Toni ZakarijaBickerdike GroupWRD 530

Community Partner Packet: Bickerdike

Bickerdike is a highly organized non-profit organization. It has been providing

high quality affordable housing for lower-income families for the past 43 years. They

assist those in the Humbolt Park, Logan Square, Hermosa, Avondale, and West Town

neighborhoods. They are an established fixture in the community. Other than providing

housing for families, Bickerdike has put forth a large amount of its energy into forming a

sense of a comprehensive, active community within the buildings and for families. The

providing of a sense of community allows Bickerdike to fight the ongoing gentrification

in the neighborhoods. Fostering a community from providing housing throughout the

many stages of one’s existence within a community; after-school programs for kids and

teens, carpentering apprenticeships for adults, and activities for children are a few

examples. Bickerdike’s sense of community involvement makes it a great candidate for

telling its story through digital narratives.

Bickerdike believes that the use of digital narratives can help further their cause

and give a face and story to their long established community non-profit work. The

Bickerdike Organization details how using digital stories will positively affect their

cause, “We would also use digital storytelling to document and promote positive

community initiatives such as our community gardens or our public safety campaigns.

These video could feature interviews with community residents and leaders as well as

pictures and recordings from special events and everyday happenings”. This is a great

opportunity for Bickerdike, since the one thing I had noticed while looking through their

website was that they were missing features that allowed individuals to look through the

specific instances where Bickerdike helped individuals. Basically the website needs more

of a personal touch. This is not necessarily a short-falling, but providing personal

accounts would make the organization seem more accessible to the community. The

website and organization does a very good job at showing individuals their legitimacy

and organization(which is a very important thing to show). Digital stories are a great way

to keep the legitimacy of the organization in tact on the website while still presenting a

personal account/touch to Bickerdike in a very polished, professional manner.

Bickerdike is revamping its website in early 2011 in order to include more visual

aspects; digital narratives are right up Bickerdike’s ally. The move towards videos and

pictures coincides with Bickerdike’s creation, The Humbolt Park Portal, a project through

the Humbolt Park Smart Communities Program. They are planning to make a

“community based website that aims to build a sense of community and connection

among residents throughout Greater Humboldt Park by creating a digital space full of

locally relevant information. The content of the Humboldt Park Portal comes directly

from the people who live and work in the community, reporting on the issues and

happenings that matter to them most. Bickerdike would like to use digital storytelling to

enhance the stories on the portal, teaching residents of Humboldt Park how to create and

edit their own stories which they can then share on the site”. I think that adding the digital

narratives will provide Bickerdike with a “face”. The organization itself is so structured

and organized; its success and long standing ties with the community makes Bickerdike

seem a little bit imposing. The digital narratives will really provide Bickerdike with

friendly faces and ideals associated with it, but won’t take away any of its

legitimacy(since the digital narratives have a polished and organized form).

After reading background information about our community partner, we have

found that our two participating individuals, Luis and Enrique, are very well-versed in

technology, since both of their jobs are involved with community outreach in the context

of social media. (In fact, they may be teaching us a few things about the programs we are

using). So, the technical parts of the project, such as the actual editing of the digital

narrative, are expected to go smoothly. As WRD students, we can help our community

partners develop a cohesive and effective story. So far, Luis and Enrique have presented

great effective stories. With our experience of making a digital story for class our group

can help Luis and Enrique with some tips and difficult areas one may run into when

trying to tell their story.

The Non-Profit Sector:

Before taking this class I did not know too much about jobs in the non-profit

sector. I always had the idea that jobs in non-profit sectors meant jobs without much

organization. I had never thought that organization and technology were a large part of

the non-profit job/volunteering sector. Since taking WRD 530 and working with

Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation, I have seen that the non-profit sectors are

equally as organized and legitimate as a job in the private sector. In fact, most non-profit

groups are looking to expand their legitimacy by beefing up their

technology/technological abilities to keep up with other private sector businesses. After

looking up different opportunities through idealist.org, I realized that jobs and internships

are just as regulated and organized as any other job. The forums, listings(for jobs &

internships), and other opportunities are organized and plentiful. The reason for my

previous lack of interest in the non-profit sector was due to my idea that the non-profit

job sector was one big unorganized mass(particularly when it came to technology). I am

an organized individual and was hesitant going into a field that I thought was

unorganized. By being exposed to the world of non-profit organizations I have come to

realize that the field is highly organized and up-to-date with technology and social media.

Also, I had not previously known how to enter the non-profit sector(such as where to

search for non-profit jobs). Learning that the non-profit sector is more highly organized

and legitimized than I had previously believed, I am very interested in searching for a job

or other opportunity to work in the non-profit sector. This is quite exciting for me as I am

very interested in non-profit work but was always wary about how unorganized I thought

it was. Working with Bickerdike and researching non-profits has provided me with a

larger and larger desire to tailor my studies towards something that includes the non-

profit sector.