Huffington Post / September 11, 2015
Imagine an old, abandoned end unit row house that is tall, slender in build, and neglected in infrastructure. For many years it’s been a crack house, filled with needles — a revolving door of drugs and criminal activity. The back of thhuff post articleis house overlooks a local schoolyard, where neighborhood children and youth come to learn and play. The house stands in contrast to a beautiful rebuilt school and is a reminder of the challenges students, educators, families, and the community face daily.
To the community, this house also offered an opportunity to be a part of the amazing transformation of the Lower Price Hill neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio….
Oyler has become a beacon of what is possible when the community, city leaders, families, educators and partners work together. The Community Learning Center Institute, the lead agency at Oyler, is now leading a collaborative of partners to revitalize the housing around the school so that the neighborhood’s families have a safe and stable place to live with a thriving community learning center.
Too often, communities aren’t included in the decision-making about schools. And lately, many schools are being ripped out of their communities through closure. However, the Oyler story demonstrates that when our communities share ownership for the success of our schools, children and neighborhoods thrive.
For more about Oyler, visit Marketplace, which has been following the school:
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/wealth-poverty/one-school-one-year.