Above: CCFI Team with a beautiful bunch of kohlbari greens from the Lawrence Community Garden for the food share distribution At the Kheprw Institute, we believe the people who live and reside in grassroots underserved communities must be at the forefront of identifying and implementing solutions to address the challenges they face. Why? Because these are the people most impacted …
It’s Not About Gentrification
Now that the question of gentrification is not a subject only talked about behind closed doors, it’s time to dig deeper into the root causes of gentrification. While we continue to debate whether economic development will lead to physical and cultural displacement, the issue of gentrification is merely a symptom of much deeper structural/cultural challenges. There are a litany of …
Early Childhood Education: Strategies for Combatting the Ills of Urban Education
by Kahlil Mwaafrika Often referred to as “daycare,” Early Childhood Education has the potential to close the achievement and developmental gap between inner city children and affluence. To avoid overstatement, there is a plethora of documented research, specifically the High Scope Perry Preschool Project and the Heckman Study , that validate the assertion. For us laymen, I have composed a …
Police Reform Revisited?
“A reform that begins with the officer on the beat is not reform at all. It’s avoidance. It’s a continuance of the American preference for considering the actions of bad individuals, as opposed to the function and intention of systems.” – Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Myth of Police Reform. On July 14th, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett announced his plan to bring …
July 2017 CCFI Food Shares and Recipes
Tomorrow is the monthly Community Controlled Food Initiative (CCFI) food pick up and Good Food Feast. We will be gathering at Kheprw Institute, on July 8th from 3-5pm, as we do every Second Saturday of the month – sharing food and building our community program. Usually, you don’t find out what is in your bag of goodies until you arrive, but we are …
From Indy Community Innovation Lab Emerges “New Music”
What is the Community Innovation Lab and why is KI involved? The lab will bring divergent voices across sectors together periodically over the next 18 months to dig deeper around a specific community issue. The lab is a collaborative effort between EmcArts – a nonprofit art consulting organization based in New York – and local conveners: Spirit & Place, Groundwork …
Gentrification by Flood: Welcome to “New” New Orleans
When I was a little girl, we moved to northern Indiana from New Mexico. New Mexico didn’t have hurricanes. Indiana, on the other hand, had a lot of tornado… threats. The nightly news would track the storm. When it escalated to Tornado Warning, I’d haul all my stuffed animals to the basement. Had to save them. I had quite an imagination. …
Losers and Winners of IPS School Closings
In April, 2017 IPS announced the possible closing of 3 High Schools. An open community meeting to discuss the issue, not sponsored by IPS, will be held on June 5th at 6 pm at the Purpose of Life Ministries at 3705 W Kessler Blvd North Drive, at the corner of 38th and Kessler. This meeting is sponsored by Concerned Clergy, …
Get Ready for eSTEAM!
Summer in the near northwest side community is marked by the scents of charcoal and fresh cut grass, screams and laughs from children freshly out of school, and beads of sweat from the intense heat. These simple staples of summer passed me by on my daily route to and from the Kheprw Institute’s eSTEAM camp last summer, where eager children …
From the Closing of Double 8 to Marsh: Food Access Apocalypse in Central Indiana
The recent closing of 10+ Marsh grocery stores across Indianapolis has me reflecting on the challenge of food access in Central Indiana. I remember as if it were yesterday when all the Double 8 stores closed in our communities. “Oh man!” said Paulette Fair as she tried to get into the closed store. “I need carrots and collard greens and …