The Street Mural Initiative

Hello All!

Wow! It has been almost a year since The Project Lightbulb Challenge Crew has posted an entry to the blog, and my oh my a lot has changed! First of all, Muhammed is now the Supervisor of the Challenge. He has also changed his name to Joshua. Becky is in graduate school at the University of Baltimore studying social work. The challenge has entered into its third round of competition. The new Americorps members working on the project are Whitney Graham and Jimmy O'Keefe. They are working in four Baltimore neighborhoods this time around: Reservoir Hill, Remington, Harwood and C.A.R.E.

The current block that is winning the challenge is the 300 block of Ilchester in the Harwood neighborhood. As a celebration of the block's hard work towards energy conservation, Jimmy and Whitney are working towards completing a street mural. The theme of the mural will be energy conservation. The impetus for this project came from the two previous Americorps members working the Challenge - Maddy Kamalay and Anna Simons. We are working in conjunction with two artists that graduated from the community art's program at MICA, Tamara Payne and Whitney Frazier. Both artists have extensive experience in Community Art's initiative. Whitney spearheaded three community mural projects in Hamilton on Harford Road. Tamara was the coordinator for the Barclay School mural that decorates the entry to Barclay Elementary. We are trying to coordinate the street mural project with the annual Ilchester block party held after the 20th of August.

We are looking to receive our grant money through the Charles Village Community Foundation. Their mission is to improve the visibility and promote the desirability of living in greater Charles Village. www.charlesvillage.org


Here is a link to Whitney Frazier's blog:

www.artcorecfa.blogspot.com
www.whitneyfrazier.org

 

Here are some photos from Tamara Payne's Barclay Mural: 

Here are photos from our initial meeting about the Ilchester-Barclay street mural:

It's (Almost) Party Time!

With the block party less than two weeks away, the PLC crew has been busier than ever. In just a few short weeks, the block party has evolved from a vision to a plan, and things are beginning to materialize. Between advertising, permits, and budgeting, Muhammed and I have had our work cut out for us. As always, our Civic Works partners have been a great help, as well as our enthusiastic Lyndale Ave participants. Last night we had a block meeting on Lyndale to discuss our plans for the block party. We made sure that residents are aware that the block will be closed to vehicles from 3-7 pm on Saturday, July 2nd and invited them to bring a potluck dish, lawn chairs, and any games they may have. We plan to re-flyer today with a second invitation--hopefully people will RSVP within the next seven days so we can compile a guest list.

Today we've invited our Block Party Planning Committee to have lunch with us and talk logistics. Our volunteer sign-up sheet is getting full and I am so grateful for all of the support and enthusiasm from our coworkers! As Muhammed's and my terms of service come to a close, the Block Party is such a wonderful way to culminate the first (hopefully of many) Project Lightbulb Challenge! The party should be a fun time for everyone to get together and celebrate energy savings and community building. In addition to celebrating the Challenge and the success of the 3600 block of Lyndale Ave, we are also celebrating an important milestone for our sister program, Project Lightbulb. Project Lightbulb will be performing the 3,000th home energy upgrade in Baltimore City at 3:00 pm on Saturday July 2nd on Lyndale Ave, to kick off the block party. There will be a ribbon cutting, some brief words, and a few members from the local marching band New Edition. Afterwards, we hope all of our Lyndale residents and Challenge participants stick around to enjoy music by DJ Barry, relays, a raffle, games, arts and crafts, good food, and of course--energy networking. With so many of our Civic Works programs represented at the block party as well as the coming together of proactive, energy-conscious city residents, the air should be humming with conservation talk.

Block party aside, recruitment efforts are still underway and we are finishing up our last handful of IHD installations. As the block party quickly approaches, I hope to be posting updates much more frequently! Time flies when you're having fun...

Party Planning and Other Developments...

It's hard to believe that it's already June 3rd, although with the 100+ degree weather we've been having in Baltimore, it certainly feels more like August! Muhammed and I have been busier than ever with IHD installations, block meetings, continued recruiting, and (the really fun part)--BLOCK PARTY PLANNING!

As promised in my previous post, the winning Project Lightbulb Challenge block is...*drum roll*...the 3600 Block of Lyndale Avenue! Our Lyndale block was chosen to host the block party, which will occur on July 2nd from 3-7 p.m., due to high participation and energy conservation efforts.This morning we plan to flyer the 3600 Block of Lyndale Ave, informing them that they have won the Challenge and will be hosting the block party. Although Lyndale Ave has the honor of hosting the event, all Challenge participants will be encouraged to attend. This upcoming Tuesday, Muhammed and I plan to speak at the monthly Belair-Edison Community Association meeting at 7 p.m. at the Herring Run Library. We will announce that Lyndale has won the competition, and inform residents of future opportunities with the Project Lightbulb Challenge.

Last week we had our first Block Party Planning Committee meeting, to which we invited Civic Works employees who have expressed interest in helping us plan the block party. There were representatives from Project Lightbulb, BNEC, Neighborhoods for All Ages, among others. With the variety of skills, interests, and connections brought to the table during our meeting, I have no doubt that the party will be a great success. I am so grateful for all of the helping hands at Civic Works, as well as on Lyndale Avenue. We are fortunate to have a very active Block Captain as well as the President of the Belair-Edison Community Association living on Lyndale Avenue. They have been invaluable resources during our recruitment process on Lyndale, and continue to go above and beyond in terms of block party planning and preparation.

In addition to our residents' and Civic Works' connections, Muhammed and I plan on cold-calling various local businesses for donations in order to bolster our block party budget. We have a long way to go as far as planning, but the block party vision is beginning to manifest, and we're just taking it one step at a time, making sure we've considered every possible detail. One last note on the block party--the date of the event coincides with the upgrade of the 3,000th Project Lightbulb home, so we will be celebrating this amazing achievement as well!!

Check in early next week for more updates on the IHD's, block party developments, and other news from the Project Lightbulb Challenge!

The Project Lightbulb Challenge has a slightly different approach compared to other Civic Works programs geared toward energy conservation. Rather than focusing on the neighborhood level, we are focused at the block level, and this has been so effective for the scope of our project. Now that we have been out on our blocks, in action, for about four and a half months, we have really fostered some strong relationships with our participants. Some days, we may visit a block four or five times over the course of the afternoon, doing home visits, fliering, or re-stickering our signs. I love when we see the same faces on the porch fronts several times a day, and have a few moments to joke around or listen to a few anecdotes. Better yet, residents really turn to us for resources and advice about their energy usage and bills, and it feels good to be able to refer them to other Civic Works programs, or simply schedule a time to sit down with them ourselves. It feels good to have such an active presence on our blocks, and as we get to know our residents, we get to know their families and friends, some of whom live on different blocks. I guess my point in all of this is, to some folks, ten blocks may seem like a pretty small portion of the city...but when you are concentrating at the block level, you form such strong relationships with the residents of those blocks that networking becomes so much easier. If the Project Lightbulb Challenge continues in the future, I have great faith that our current participants will be an invaluable resource in the recruitment of the next challenge blocks.

This week in updates, we are still chugging along with the IHD installations, following up with residents who have received their new BGE meters and teaching them how to use their devices. The journals that Muhammed and I made are very simple and straightforward, which I hope encourages religious usage. The journals are in calendar format, each day having a space to fill out readings from the device. Residents can fill out readings for "Today" (usage so far today) "This Month" (usage so far this month), and "Right Now" (the rate of kWh usage at any given moment). Each month has its own page in the journal, and on the backs of the calendars are monthly surveys to rate usage and satisfaction. It was so great the other day when we visited one of our residents on Cecil Avenue to drop off his journal and check in to see how he was liking the device. The man was so excited to show us one of his discoveries; when he turned on the microwave, the kWh usage rate jumped from $0.07 to $0.31 per hour! It was so rewarding to see a resident actively using the device, and learning how much energy various appliances in his home use. These are the kinds of findings we would love our participants to record in their journals.

This evening we are hosting a block meeting for the 2500 and 2600 blocks of Cecil Avenue. The weather looks a bit ominous, but hopefully it clears up by 6:30. It is really crunch time for recruitment, and these block meetings have been very successful. Our recruitment efforts are at an all-time high, but because of the time sensitivity of the block party application process, we are deciding this week which block will receive the block party, based on both energy savings data and participation. Muhammed and I are very excited to start planning the block party. Stay tuned--we will reveal the winning block in our upcoming post!

Adventures With BGE

This week has been a whirlwind of activity, between hosting our block meetings and trailing the BGE crew all over town as they install our participants' IHDs, my feet (and my car) are ready for a breather this weekend! But as the weather warms up (and cools down..and warms up...) everything seems to be coming together.

The IHD (if you remember, that stands for in-home display) installations have been very interesting, and our Challenge participants are excited to play around with the devices. From the moment we turn them on, the devices show how much energy the house is using and how much money that equates to...you can see how much you've spent daily, weekly, and monthly. One awesome feature is the messaging system; the device can remind residents of energy-saving tricks. As one resident told me, looking at the device made her want to go through the house unplugging everything, just to see how low she could get her numbers. This is EXACTLY the effect we want these devices to have. Muhammed and I are preparing some journals for our recipients so they can record how they're liking the device and which features are especially effective in helping them save. As one of the first studies of this kind in Baltimore City, it's important that the program is well documented--this way we can get a good idea of just how effective devices like the IHD are, especially in low-income neighborhoods.

In addition to running around with the installation crew, we hosted our second official block meeting last night between the 2500 and 2600 blocks of Robb Street in CHM (Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello). It was a great success; we got the community together for refreshments and a good discussion of Civic Works' programs, and recruited about six more families into the Project Lightbulb Challenge. We were also able to sign quite a few residents up for the Project Lightbulb home energy upgrade, and BNEC. One of the little girls on Robb Street told me that when she grows up, she wants to "do what I do", and that's what I love about Civic Works--the organization not only gets resources out to people in need, but also provides employment and job skills to Baltimore City youth. It's nice to know that when she's old enough, she can probably achieve that goal. Go Civic Works!

It's All Happening!!

Last Thursday, Muhammed and I hosted our first official block meeting on the 3600 block of Lyndale Avenue in Belair-Edison. We had called our participants the week before to invite them to the meeting, but had only gotten two definite responses. We also advertised for the block meeting with fliers, which we put in each resident's mailbox.  By the day of the meeting, however, it still looked like not too many people were interested. Nevertheless, it was time to hold a block-wide meeting, so rain or shine, good turnout or poor turnout, we decided to go ahead with it. The objectives of the block meeting were (a) to talk about the installation of the IHD devices with participants who are receiving them (b) to refer our participants to the Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge (BNEC) and (c) to try to recruit the rest of the block. We loaded up our cars with sandwiches, lemonade, BNEC kits (full of energy-saving devices and resources), and a table and chairs and set out to Lyndale Ave with a bit of apprehension...

By the time we reached Lyndale the storm clouds had passed and a lot of residents were outside working in their yards and enjoying the weather. With the aid of our block captain, Mrs. Morgan, and a couple of other participants, we swept the block one more time, knocking on doors and inviting residents to the meeting. The table full of sandwiches and cookies, and the large pile of BNEC kits certainly helped in the recruiting process. The meeting was a huge success!!! We recruited 11 new residents during the one-hour meeting...that's more than we've ever recruited in a given day, maybe even in a given week. These block meetings are definitely the ticket to full-block recruitment. By the end of the meeting, everyone was very excited--some residents were having a lot of fun posing for photos with CFL lightbulbs and Project Lightbulb Challenge signs. We hope to have similar meetings (with similar recruitment success!) on each of our other participating blocks within the coming weeks. Next on the agenda is the 2600 block of Robb Street in Coldtream-Homestead-Montebello (CHM), which will be this upcoming Thursday, May 5th at 6:30 pm. We're keeping our fingers crossed for an even bigger turnout...and this time we'll bring a LOT more sandwiches!!

In the news...

It's always nice to hear about folks working on projects similar to the PLC. It seems like neighbor-to-neighbor energy savings collaboration is really catching on, both across the city and across "the pond". When we first began the PLC, the Project Lightbulb team attended a community meeting where representatives from the Reservoir Hill community in West Baltimore were talking about their very own version of the PLC. A portion of the funding that fuels the Project Lightbulb Challenge--the Community Energy Savers Grant--is also helping to fund a project in Reservoir Hill. Residents were excitedly talking in January about putting up door decals, signs, or in some other way having residents display their energy usage. So it's nice to know that even if the PLC can't reach every neighborhood or block in Baltimore, at least other groups are working toward similar goals. And the whole public display of energy usage seems to be a very hot idea right now.

Check out the link below to learn more about the incredible effect neighborly cooperation and public energy usage display has had on one neighborhood in the U.K.

U.K. Neighborhood Records Its Electricity Use on the Street
http://www.good.is/post/u-k-neighborhood-records-its-electricity-use-on-the-street/

According to the article, after only three weeks, residents reported a 15% drop in energy usage! WOW!! This is very inspiring to all of us at the PLC. I love that they write the block averages right on the street--it is very eye-catching and definitely a constant presence. I'm not sure that the paint they use on the pavement would fly here in Baltimore, but I love that the display is so artistic...it keeps things fun, and helps to beautify the street. At the end of the article, the author actually asks CAN YOU IMAGINE if a movement like this were to take hold in America? CAN YOU IMAGINE if people were using in-home energy display devices to help monitor their energy use? In a few more months, hopefully we'll be able to stop using our imaginations and look at actual charts, graphs, and resident testimonies to learn exactly how using devices and displaying energy usage publicly effects citizen's consumption right here at home.