Story of a new Help Center
at the new Pittsburgh Park District
| The following chapter is from version 1 of Pittsburgh's Parks, Recreation & Pools -- a postion paper. |  |
Overhauling the "Park Permit Process" can extend the useage of Pittsburgh's public spaces.
More coordination and cooperation can be provided to citizens among agencies, school districts and governmental entities. Putting together a Help Center would greatly increase efficiency and effectivenss for all. The Help Center is a place for citizens to go for one-stop shopping for all recreation matters.
Present Problem
Problems arise when the public trust evaporates. When the public places are closed and poorly managed, the time is right to evaluation all the situations.
Pittsburgh has a fine network of public facilities. Over the years, many investments have occured for the public good. Parks and playgrounds have been built with money collected from taxes. The common expectation is that everyone can get access to these shared spaces.
For example, a family can host a reunion at a park pavilion by getting a permit and following all the rules, regulations and conditions of use.
Issues surface on many fronts. The first to address comes when the money is not available in the city budget. Without the dedicated funds for the facilities, recreation sites become difficult to maintain, program and open.
Other issues are fairness, special interests, volunteerism, establishing priorities, union jobs, quality opportunities, privitazation of the public places and privitization of the services.
A quagmire of hurdles, contact points, and road blocks confuse citizens.
Currently, to obtain a permit citizens find a difficult maze of offices. The bigness can confuse the well intended. The City of Pittsburgh has different, distinct destinations for:
- block party permit
- special event permit
- park pavilion and field permit
- B.I.G. League program permit
- ice rink reservations
- tennis court reservations
- rec center permit
- Great Race sign-ups
- rec center license
- swim pool permits
Allegheny County has destinations for:- park permits
Pittsburgh Public Schools has destinations for- school gym permits occur on a school-by-school basis.
Consider the different desinations for community rooms just at libraries:- Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh branches
- Carnegie Library facilies not within the CLP system
- County Libary System
The Help Center assembles service providers under the same roof. The Help Center assists in effort to "connect the dots."
Place, Process and Programs
Some seeds for the Help Center came from the Community Learning Outreach Hub. On the internet, the Help Center resides at CLOH.Org. CLOH.Org is a public good networking endeavor with a multitude of partnering opportunities.
The Community Learning Outreach Hub represents a new process, some new programs and a new place with administrative ties to many other places.
As the Help Center becomes real, it destiny will shift. The seedling at CLOH.Org can take root with Pittsburgh Public Schools, and/or Citiparks and/or Allegheny County Department of Parks and Recreation. To flourish and bear fruit on a sustained basis, the HELP CENTER will grow to be part of its own governmental entity, the Pittsburgh Park District.
Early Seasons
Programs can include casual or night-school drop-in classes. Some activities are fluid roundtable presentations latched to internet capabilities. Other activities are for grooming world-class performers.
The Help Center hopes to stir citizen engagement and become a working knowledge base with service ties to other places and agencies.
The physical location of the Help Center, slated for an opening in September, 2004, is the ground floor of the existing South Vo Tech High School at 9th Street and East Carson Street on Pittsburgh's South Side.
Pittsburgh Public Schools has plans for a partial closure for the South Vo Tech High School. The partial shut down provides the extra capacity and necessary space that is needed. The overhead exists.
The High School's academic program is to close. However, elements that remain open include the multi-sport, lighted stadium, called Cupples Stadium, the trade-school and industrial arts building and some night school activities.
The Oversight Board (I.C.A.) suggested that the RAD funds ($4-million annual) paid to the Pittsburgh Public Schools should be deployed to services elsewhere in the wake of the closed rec centers and swim pools.
The Help Center engages and informs the public. Citizens of all ages and abilities are matched with possible programs as participants. Leaders, coaches, and organizers get a support network to better craft permit requests and coordinate facility opportunities.
Ideas, resources, equipment, policies, certifications, clearances, and associations are managed, coordinated and expanded at the help center. A knowledge base is a database with names and contacts as well as ideas.
Mission:
Let us work together and achieve more with existing resources. The Community Learning Outreach Hub's Help Center is a place for establishing cooperation, competition and coordination among citiizens and entities for parks and recreational purposes.
School buildings are great resources.
Facilities are often idle in the evenings, weekends and summers. Other buildings, (i.e., the former Gladstone Middle School in Hazelwood and South Hills High School near Mt. Washington) are closed (temporary or permanent). Additional buildings, (i.e., South Vo Tech High School, Connelley Tech,) may close in the future.
Dr. John Thompson, PPS Superintendent, desires school building use.
South Vo Tech's significant benefits:
Night School Commercial Arts Program Lighted football/soccer/lacrosse stadium with artificial turf, press box and seating for 5,000 Close to river access Close to trail access Walking distance to Grant Street Plenty of rooms Cafeteria Auditorium Indoor Swim Pool Vo Tech building for tooling. The South Side makes a central desitination. Its vibrant neighborhood can sustain evening hour activities among wide interests and ages.
Other centers for overflow exist within a close distance:
Phillips School Library, seats 30 and 30 station computer lab.
Oliver Bath House, Ormbsy Rec Center, South Side Hospital, Neville Ice Rink (presently closed), Arlington Rec Center (presently closed), Brashier Assocation, Market House Gym and Market House Senior Center, City Theater, Salvation Army, ACHIEVIA, Terminal Way, Duquesne Heights Community Center, Rex Theater, South Side and Mt. Washington branches of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, many church settings including the new Mountain Retreat, Hostelling International headquarters (presently closed), IBEW Union Hall, a number of social, ethnic and civic clubs.
Citipark Recreation Centers have been closed to the kids since August 2003.
Some of the 19 Rec Centers might reopen with Save Our Summer, 2004.
Some of the Rec Centers might reopen to various agencies with a new license application. For example, Mercy Hospital might utilize the Warrington Rec Center on some days and hours throughout the summer.
The city's only indoor ice rink has been closed for three years.
Some of the swim pools closed in August 2003. Many are not slated to reopen.
Host community gatherings with online and face-to-face components.
Better technology elements can make outreach and wider connections with a more diverse groups of citizens.
Our effectiveness can improve with:
- distance learning
- life-long learning
- increased diversity
- better civic engagement
- knowledge base management with wide access and input
- the sustained conversations
Pittsburgh's civic engagement legacy is fragil. Life's demands make limited opportunities for voting yet alone meeting attendance. Blending on-line sessions with in-person roundtable opportunities insures more producitive awareness, input, and betters long-term solutions.
Pittsburgh's digital divide is wide in terms of the spectrum of users.
In some sectors of our society, everyone is on-line. Our capacity is tremendous. However, mindful resources and youthful input are not being realized in most instances. The opportunity to interface with technology can bridge some generational gaps.
Existing on-line discussions in Pittsburgh are often vile, and brimming with miss-information. Other cities have flourishing netizen opportunities (The Well in Boston, Interaction sites in San Diego). Pittsburgh can sping to new splendors if we go out of our way to couple face-to-face handshakes along with the digital sharing of ideas.
Creating Literate Olympians Here
The Help Center at South Vo Tech can become a place for people of Allegheny County to inquire about permits. City, County, School Districts, Parks all gather and support the Help Center, assisting consumers and citizens.
The Help Center becomes much like a an Olympic Village. Various non-profit, sports, recreational and coaching interest can have their headquarters here. Indianapolis has its Pan American Suite. Colorado Springs has some national sports governing bodies within an old army base. Pittsburgh's Help Center, complete with the only sports library in the United States, can be at South Vo Tech.
The Help Center -- Day and Night
The South Vo Tech High School facility should not turn into a dark hole when it can be a new center for community engagement. Let's make the site the place for on-going community interactions, around the clock and all year long. The library, computer lab and other spaces are needed for visitors.
Always On Networked Hub
To augment the in-person gatherings, an online presence is being established. Various web and email based tools are available.
The internet tools and resources are available and ready. Some have been operational for years in other wide-reaching ventures.
Some of the technology resources and expertise of the Pittsburgh Public Schools can be extended in these endeavors. The access to the library and computer labs gives citizens and groups closer connections to the schools. New grant writting collaboration efforts are expected.
Network Position
The Help Center as well as the Community Learning Outreach Hub fit into an overall network with CLOH.Org. The global endeavor has many different faces and nodes. Various teachers, classes, partnerships and types of student activities can take place. A knitting cirlce is going to feel at home in a certain type of setting that will be foreign to a policy debate. So, to welcome a wide audience, we should have a lot of different names and programs. But most of all, CLOH.Org is best described as a "network."
For exmple, consider TV 13, WQED. WQED is a statation, a network branch of Public Television. Many different shows air on 13. Some programs are homegrown and some are developed elsewhere. CLOH is a network, with many different programs, ages, abilities, activities, sectors of the community and locations.
Ownership's Discussion
The discussion of ownership needs to happen early and often Perhaps these talks are best left for face-to-face discussions at this junture.
Ownership, control, power and other aspects of this endeavor have already come under great consideration and scrunity. These issues remain idle in this plan, at this time. However, they are to be fully explored and documented in short order.
Ownership's Overview
At first glance, we are creating a network for the public domain. The largest assets are our relationships and contacts of good will that serve the greater good. For these elements, there is no price tag and there is no lord and master.
At second glance, we are creating a hub of activities with wide and distributed owners. For example, the Three Rivers Publishing Group is going to be re-formed and meet once a month. The members of the Three Rivers Publishing Group are going to have the largest stake in the TRPG. Value is going to be created, but it is going to flow to the participants and won't be bound to the overall hosts.
At third glance, we are creating a project that is an extension of the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The administrators of the district, and perhaps the elected board members, are going to own the overall creation. This program needs to have a home at PPS. PPS oversight and direction is going to be required. PPS policies are going to be "in charge" and "in place." By all means, the original intent is to have the institution of the PPS govern the actions within the PPS areas.
Termination Rights Reside Beyond the PPS Authority
Just as school-aged students within a school's classroom know that the authority resides within the school's teachers and administrators, same to with these programs. PPS officials can freely expel students, teachers, programs and classes. However, termination is not an option.
For example, a heated monthly class might coalesce around a hot topic, i.e., Riverboat Gambling. PPS leaders could issue orders to nuke the class from its buildings due to poor behaviors or some other reasons, justified or otherwise. However, the class participants might decide to reconvene in a local church basement, off-site from PPS control.
Exit Strategy
These programs can start after a plan has been devised so that they can terminate or transition. All parties need to know and understand the exit strategies.
Worst Case Situations with Highest Probability
A program hurdle to overcome is overheating. Internet start-ups came and went in the dot-com boom because they were so wildly popular that they could not sustain themselves under the heavy weight of constant flows of visitors. We can create a buzz. We can create some capacity. But, the volunteers and leaders in this program can't be in two places at one time. We can't be put into failing situations. We can't be in this with a half-hearted level.
Idealist.Org organizers overheated on this venture already.
In a prior life as an independent small press, my largest fear was owning a best seller. Being too popular can be fatal for a business. Here, we need to plan for total success. We need to set standards, make waiting lists, and evaluate performances. And, we need to be a network hub that can exit elements to others within and beyond our network's domain. We need to react quickly. We need to preserve our sanity while riding a shooting star.
We can be a total success, if we plan for it and expect it to occur.
Expected Impact
The key is the building of a network that makes a significant contribution to our community. Serious, long-term improvements can be realized. These efforts make a resource that shines brightly so people choose to move where we function.
![[Diagram of Help Center connected to various organizations]](diagram_arrows.gif)
Life, like the Olympics, provide a journey from feelings to world records.
When athletes gather at international competitions, the differences are staggering. Different languages, political backgrounds and religions clash among participants in each game, race and contest. Desipite these differences, all have much in common. All want to excel. All have a trust that good conditions, fair play and an agreement on the rules of their respective games. The common trust covers, shall we say, the basics. The basics provide the blanket of peace and understanding. With fair play expected, people can play well together. The basics MUST be covered. Then, after the basics, excellence enters the landscape and offers the upside that wildly motivates each person's immagination. People can create wonderful, vibrant communities and successfully overcome stark differences given this formula.
Matters spin out of control as fairness is questioned. In 1980, the Olympic Games were held in Moscow. The athletes from the USA had to boycott. In 1984, the Olympics were held in Los Angeles. Then, again, many nations made decisions to boycott. Boycotts happen when trust is lost and fragil. As matters appear to be unfair, people will stay home, move away, boycott and put attention elsewhere.
Voter appathy and absent civic mindedness are issues in blighted areas. A lack of cooperation and a lack of fairness can give rise to a cancer that hinders a community.
Similarly, there are now many people all over the world who, regardless of language, religion or politics, agree on the basic rules under which the human game, in all its variety and diversity, should be played. But while the athletes have at their disposal detailed rules that enable them to play and work together despite their differences, we only have a feeling, often unarticulated and usually unexpressed, of warmth or sympathy towards one another's ideas and aspirations.
Could we, the electorate, do what the athletes have done and put these implicit feelings into words? What would happen if we could easily get in touch with people, organizations and companies - down the street and around the world, online and face-to-face - that had agreed explicitly on some basic values and goals?
Acting alone is difficult
Right now, there is a good chance that on different floors of an apartment building somewhere in your country two people are looking out the window and wishing there were a garden or a playground below, instead of a dirty courtyard. But acting alone can be difficult, and in many neighborhoods, both rich and poor, there are no mechanisms for people to know that they are not alone - that their neighbors (or schoolmates, or office colleagues) might gladly cooperate with them if only they knew how and where to find them.
Splendid solutions are available for many problems
Over the last few decades, most social and environmental problems have been tackled by someone somewhere. As a result, useful resources and successful programs can be found all over the world, for dealing with existing problems as well as for presenting new ones. The challenge is to get this information to anyone who needs it.
Locals know best.
Local people usually know what will and will not work for them. Employees usually know more about the business they work in than an owner or stock holders/investors. Locals who know best also can mean local agencies and charity organizations. Those who work in nonprofit organization in neighborhoods and individual social workers are locals too. These people would know better how to fix and save our summer with camps and summertime lessons for kids, as opposed to corporate endowment administrators and philanthropists. The locals who know the best for the situations might be unable to finance the endeavors. It would be a shame to have a disconnect. It would be a blessing for the community to have a common ground network in place, such as the Help Center.
The work at the Help Center gives more power to locals and defines the needs and priorities of the locals. The Help Center's work mixes equal partners among those who want to work together.More choices are better.
Few social and environmental problems have only one solution. Generally, the more choice, the better off we'll be.
To choose, we need to know what's available.
More people participating, voting, volunteering, giving, organizing and learning more about local issues would probably benefit most communities and organizations. Unfortunately, unlike many businesses, most nonprofit and community groups don't have the means to promote their activities as effectively as they would like. Not everyone knows where to start or who to work with to make a difference in his or her community.
With the Help Center, we can do more and do more in an easier fashion. We need to create a network, new coalitions for afterschool, and a set of relationships among all, from coaches to recreational seekers.
Loose and Effective
Being loose and effective at the same time is crucial. If it's not loose enough, individuals and organizations that cherish independence will not take part. If it's not effective, why bother?
Loose and effective tension can be resolved with the application of the internet and informal networks of people.
People agree to a basic rules in everyday life. On the internet, the set of rules includes protocols such as "http://www." In basketball, rule agreement includes the basket's rim height (10-foot above the floor). In both cases, people have agreed on the basic rules. Once these rules are in place, anyone can create a website, or play basketball with anyone else, without having to report to any central authority.
Wherever you live, you've probably seen two children meet on a basketball court (or on a soccer field or over a chess board), and start playing without having to exchange a word. This happens because the rules are taken for granted. These rules enable people to participate - playing, coaching, watching or reading - all the while linked by invisible threads to others who share their love for the game. Yet these threads don't constrict in any way.
The web provides similar situations. People publish, read, contribute to sites effectively and independently because the rules on the web are shared by everyone. These open protocols (web rules) change slowly and by broad consensus.
Imagine our network based upon working with others.
A goal: Help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives.
The Help Center is built for our common desire to find practical solutions to recreational and environmental problems, in a spirit of generosity and mutual respect. We each have our own beliefs, but work for kids and sports is the work of togehterness and independent of political ideology or religious creed.
Ideas are important, but people matter most of all. Patience, laughter, play, literacy always help.
From words to action
If the undestanding of rules and a foundation are put in place and make sense, Pittsburgh can cross from words to action. On the internet, in city neighborhoods and around the county, the Help Center programs could invite people and organizations to support goals by meeting and working together.
NET NEIGHBORHOOD
The internet permits the collection and dissemination of information about resources, services and volunteer opportunities offered by thousands of organizations. More than 25,000 organizations already use Idealist.Org.
A local web outreach hub makes it easier for people with similar interests to find one another and share. The hub handles ideas, experiences and resources within schools, businesses and other institutions. CLOH.Org can match technical experts with organizations that need them.
One outcome is the building of "networks of trust" - based on references and recommendations from people who have worked with specific organizations. Potential volunteers and donors can know whether an organization they want to work with is legitimate and reliable.
While on-line we can create flyers, posters and other material that people can download from the web or pick up from a local organization to invite neighbors, schoolmates or office colleagues to clean up the public spaces or to work on other concerns. The on-line piece is crucial. A growing number of people have access to the web. The glass is half full: enough people have access (at home, at work, in libraries, in cafes and at schools) to create a ripple effect in many communities.
The Marketplace of the Help Center
Local grocery stores enable product suppliers (makers of toothpaste, milk and coffee) to reach many more people than suppliers could by themselves. And, local grocery stores allowing people to find a variety of products without having to track down, call or visit every supplier. Similarly, the Help Center lightens the load for "citizen engagement.suppliers" of health, human rights, sports, recreation, afterschool and economic development. The Help Centers reaches people who want to work with the engagement suppliers.
Sharing Vision
Depending on local conditions, some of this interaction could happen online, and some in writing or in person, through resources, speakers or trainers supplied by different organizations. Where no internet access is available, local organizations could be invited to list their services and activities on a computer, in a file cabinet or on a bulletin board. It doesn't matter as long as people can easily find what they need.
If we now put all these pieces together, online and at the Help Center, we can get an endless variety of combinations.
All for one and one for all
If you now take all of these examples, add your own, and multiply them by the imagination and initiative of people around the world, all of the ingredients listed above start forming a new pattern. Let's go back to just three of them:Acting alone can be difficult - but by creating places on the Web and on the ground where people can connect with one another and with the resources they need, we can make it much easier to find people to work with.
To choose, we need to know what's available - and by bringing the elements of action and participation - talking, learning, organizing, giving, voting, volunteering - to more neighborhoods, schools and businesses, many more people could have access to them.
![[The clean yard]](yard_clean.gif)
Which leaves us with one big question: what about those people who will not be able to clean up their yard, or work with their neighbors on any other issue, because their government will not allow it?
Four hundred years ago, John Donne wrote that "no man is an islandä any man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind." Building on this, we can say that any person who can't work peacefully with others for a better life diminishes all of us. And while people can argue about what kind of government works best for their country, the freedom to work with others for the common good is seen as a basic right by every major philosophy, religion and international convention.
Thousands of organizations work to uphold a range of common rights. But, these organizations should not be working alone. Whatever the issue (health, education, peace, the environment) the freedom to work on any of these issues concerns all of us. Together, as in, all for one and one for all, we can build a broad coalition to support each other and each endeavor that benefits life in Pittsburgh.
The challenge is that by being so broad, such a coalition would find it impossible to agree on specific strategies and tactics. So let's not even try. Instead, there are two things we can do. First, by inviting people and organizations to connect with one another, online and through the Help Center, we can make it easier for people to learn about their rights, organize to protect them, and lend a hand to others around the county who may need support.
Once Pittsburgh opens a Help Center, the people could easily get in touch with other players, coaches, teams, organizers, boosters, sponsors with similar interests. Then people, organizations and businesses from down the street and around the state can start to agree explicitly on some basic values and goals. Then Pittsburgh can begin to fix itself.
What would happen, in other words, if we did the following:
- Agree on a short statement - such as the "rules" proposed above - that will enable us to connect with one another.
- Invite people, organizations and companies that support this statement to meet and work together, online and face-to-face.
- Provide places, tools and resources for making this interaction as effective as possible.
- Promote this within our school, community, city, county and even around the world.
Putting it another way, what could we achieve with a loose and effective network - as loose and effective as the Web itself - of people and organizations that act locally, think globally and share what they can with others? Let's find out.
END of the Help Desk Story - version 1
