CENTER FOR URBAN TRANSFORMATION

Anchor organizations, Fifth Ward CRC and  Pleasant Hill CDC,  currently engaged in the revitalization of Houston’s 5th Ward, are expanding their work in bricks and mortar development and planning to a comprehensive approach that also focuses on the individuals and families that express an interest in wanting to improve their quality of life through a conglomerate of resources  available through The Center for Urban Transformation. 

 

    Led by the 2 anchors,  a  collaboration of Houston organizations and institutions  established the Center for Urban Transformation in the 5thWard to provide community members a better continuum of services, bridge gaps, drive innovative cross-sector programming, and expand resident capacity to lead change. A team of representatives from collaborating partners developed a strategic plan that will guide implementation of the new initiative.  The collaboration includes:

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·         Attorney Joel Androphy / Berg and Androphy

·        Baylor College of Medicine

·        Can Do Houston

·        Houston Habitat for Humanity

·        Kinder Institute at Rice University

·        Legacy Community Health

·        Pleasant Hill Ministries and A Fifth Ward Coalition of Churches

·        Yes Prep School - Fifth Ward

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The collaborative has initially focused its’ energy in these areas: Education  - “Empowering Educational Equity in Houston’s 5th Ward” a report of recommendation from the community for the community for Houston ISD; Health and Wellness - welcoming a new Legacy Community Health Center; and Social Injustice and Inequalities – a pro-bono strategic partnership between Berg & Androphy  and Pleasant Hill to  level the playing field and to eliminate to the extent possible the well-documented, racially motivated convictions and sentences that make a successful life for at-risk youth with criminal cases an impossibility.  Most recently, Harris County District Attorney Ogg  and leadership from Houston's  Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, and Berg &  Androphy engaged in dialogue and strategies to  best bring about the cultural changes necessary to effect system-wide improvement as it relates to criminal justice and the inequities  among minorities and low income individuals, particularly youth.  

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