Week 8: Class Reading Blog - Dan

Ch. 9 – “Building Support for the Proposed Change” - Reading Blog

This chapter from “Social Work Macro Practice” focuses on how to establish support for macro-level change. It touches on how to formulate an idea for community-level change, and how best to gather concerned individuals in order to make this idea into a reality. Making changes and initiating programs that affect larger groups involves serious support and participation, and the skills and ideas put forth in the chapter are thorough in teaching students how to create significant changes.

            A macro-level change that is in the works in the Jeff VanderLou right now is the proposed Northside Development Project. Reviewing this chapter, I found myself comparing the strategies outlined here with the steps that Paul McKee and McEagle Properties have implemented. There are a few similarities with the text’s ideas about building support and McKee’s approach to doing so whilst planning for the development, but unfortunately, these are far outnumbered by the differences. The reading heavily stresses how necessary it is for community residents to be part of the decision-making process. To some, such as myself, this seems to be common sense, but it was an idea McKee initially overlooked. He began buying properties around the JVL neighborhood, as well as neighboring sections of North city, without publicly stating any of his plans. It wasn’t until he had already bought up a large amount of local properties that his identity, and later, his motives, were revealed to the public.

            Following this disclosure, McKee held a community meeting, where residents were understandably upset regarding his company’s purchases and overall lack of transparency. Did his company reasonably believe that they were going to continue this project without bringing it up to North St. Louis residents? At what point would they have made their plans public? Would they ever have allowed community members to have a say? The reading mentions the importance of support systems in making changes, and there are certainly some majorly influential individuals and groups on the side of the development, mainly being parties that stand to profit; contractors, businesses that may move in, other developers, etc. But it seems that the community support at that meaning, which took place in 2009, was predictably lacking. This lack of support continues to the present day as McKee still fights to obtain funding for his enormous project, which he has invested vast amounts of his own funds into. It seems to me that one thing that can be common sense to some can easily be overlooked and/or disregarded by others, especially when there are huge sums of money at play.