But it doesn’t end there.

Nearly 75 Glass Farm residents have installed Historic Glass Farm Neighborhood Pride house banners or yard signs in front of or on their homes all around the neighborhood.  Along with our partners at Habitat For Humanity, volunteers spent several weekends this spring visiting, delivering and installing community-designed signs to let everyone know that we love where we live!

Our proud history and bright future together is now on display for all to see.

None of this would have been possible without the vision of Glass Farm residents who care deeply about their neighborhood and the place we call home. Thank you to Glass Farm Block leaders, Janette Richie and others, who worked with artists and members of the community to create the banners. These leaders spent time looking outward and forward for more ways for neighbors to connect to one another and remind one another that, collectively, we can work to lift each other up.

As a result, now it seems like no matter where you turn in the neighborhood, there is pride everywhere you look. These things don’t just happen. It took a lot of work and collaboration but sometimes something as simple as a sign is all you need to tell the world that we are proud to stand together as residents of Glass Farm.

Thanks to the Lilian Colby Foundation for sponsoring this project and making it a reality.

Get in on this! If you don’t have a house banner or yard sign yet and would like one for your home or rental, please stop by the Glass House Collective office for a free sign or email info@glasshousecollective.org or call 423-402-0565!

The first house banner installation day was hosted in February by Habitat for Humanity. Our friends and partners, Daniel Gamble and Callie Burkhater, lead a small crew of volunteers on a rainy Saturday morning to start installing banners around Glass Farm. They got as much done as they could in the rain and ended up helping home owners on Taylor Street, Frost St, Wilder Street, Glass Street, Chamberlain Avenue, Wheeler Avenue, and Campbell Street.

You are in for a treat if you haven’t driven around Glass Farm much in the past few weeks! There are now more than two dozen homes around the neighborhood with brand new Glass Farm house banners hanging proudly!

With two more volunteer installation days planned before the end of March, it won’t be long before banners and yard signs will be seen throughout the Glass Farm historic neighborhood.

Gamble said it was exciting to help neighbors celebrate finally being able to hang a banner on the home they’ve worked to improve. “Letting others know how you feel about where you live is important. Everyone was really excited about this part,” he said. Habitat’s home repair program has helped many homeowners in Glass Farm over the years and it was a reunion for the crew to visit again on such a fun occasion.

It is no small thing to celebrate this milestone and successful artist-lead and resident-driven collaboration. We want to stop and remember that this neighborhood pride project began nearly two years ago during conversations that were happening between the Glass Farm Block leaders. Local leader, Janette Richie, and others wanted to find a way to celebrate the residential neighborhood. That conversation got bigger, artists worked with residents on design ideas, and later more residents came out to vote for their favorite design during 2018 Glass Street LIVE! Today, house banners are on homes and more are coming! Thanks to the Lilian Colby Foundation for sponsoring this project and making it a reality.

There are still many more banners to hang and two more installation days planned. If you are a renter or would rather have a yard sign, we will have those available too.

Important Dates:
Saturday, March 23: 2nd volunteer installation day hosted by Habitat For Humanity
For those who have already been contacted by Glass House Collective. Mark your calendar for March 23rd as your banner installation day. We will be back out in force with the Habitat For Humanity crew and volunteers to install as many banners as we can, weather permitting.

Saturday, March 30: 3rd volunteer installation day hosted by Glass House Collective.
Please contact us if you would like to receive a banner and would like to schedule your installation on one of our volunteer days. email: info@glasshousecollective.org | Via telephone: 423-402-0565

looking good, Glass Farm!

]]> http://www.glasshousecollective.org/banner-days-glass-farm/feed/ 0 http://www.glasshousecollective.org/warmth-hope-end-year/ http://www.glasshousecollective.org/warmth-hope-end-year/#respond Fri, 04 Jan 2019 02:36:13 +0000 http://www.glasshousecollective.org/?p=5593 The staff of Glass House Collective were the invited guests of the Glass Farm Block Leaders Christmas Party and as much as we love to host, it was unbelievably special to arrive to this lovely neighborhood party as guests. Seeing neighbors gather together at meaningful times, neighbors organizing themselves around ideas and events to create connection and change, neighbors working toward common goals and showing their pride in Glass Farm… is the only gift we need.

Speaking of pride, many of the new Glass Farm house banners were distributed at the Christmas party and we were so glad we were there to hear everyone’s excitement and plans to hang their banners on their homes. As always, our appreciation to the Lilian Colby Foundation for sponsoring this project, which was sparked from an idea at a Glass Farm Block Leaders meeting nearly two years ago. It is so gratifying to see ideas from our neighbors turned into action. Now, everyone who drives through Glass Farm, will be able to see banners flying proudly from homes all around the neighborhood. Coming next: Be on the lookout for more neighborhood pride signs to place in yards as we look for different ways to celebrate and utilize the new winning design voted by the community!

In all, the evening was really special and we are so proud to see so many people working together to celebrate one another. Archway, especially Michele Peterson and Nedra Davis, generously hosted the party in their space and were the party sponsor. All the presents were generously gifted by Lee/Santa with Progress Barber Shop on Glass Street. Events With Taste provided the delicious food. And The Glass Farm Block Leaders provided the postage for the Christmas party invitations. Thanks for inviting us!

PHOTOS HERE

Highlights from the day include that awesome streetscape simulator, watching all the Glass Street superheroes in their new capes, Gospel On Glass, delicious food made by our neighbors, and local art from around the community.

The Glass Farm Block Leaders booth was a busy place as Miss Janette and her volunteers gathered surveys and input from the neighborhood to select the design for new house banners for the Glass Farm historic district. The winning design will be revealed at this year’s Christmas party on Friday night! Janette said the survey participation during Glass Street Live was terrific and she really appreciates everyone who took the time to stop by the GFBL booth. Remember if you participated in the survey and signed up to receive a free house banner, free banners will be given to the first 50 who come to the Christmas Party Friday night, December 14th, at 6pm at 2523 Glass Street.

It was great to see so many people interact with the streetscape installation, lead by architect, David Barlew. Glass Farm resident, Johnny Patmon, volunteered to help kick things off in the morning and said he appreciates how the block party became a place for productive conversations directly with the community who are impacted and advocating for change on Glass Street. “Thats who you should ask in the first place, is the community who wants to see change and improvement in their community. So we asked people if they lived in the neighborhood and for how long because that’s important,” he said.

Feedback on the streetscaping proposal and signatures of support were gathered in different ways throughout the day at Glass Street LIVE! Barlew said that Gail McKeel, who has lived near Glass Street for years, prepared several signs expressing different opinions of the mock-up and streetscaping plans. “Visitors to the installation were asked to pose for pictures with signs of their choosing that expressed their opinion of the proposed scheme. In all, Gail collected more than fifty photos of individuals, friends, couples, neighbors, and families sharing their thoughts about the mock-up,” David said. The pictures will be delivered to CDOT to show support for the proposed streetscaping.

As usual, Glass Street Live’s food vendor’s did not disappoint. In fact, Miss Dunyetta of D’s Eggroll’s says the block party continues to be a great venue for her small business and 2018 was her best year yet. “GSL is great for exposure. It opens our menu up to a lot of new customers. It’s so exciting to see the people and the support that they gave us. We really enjoyed ourselves,” she said.

GHC Community Relations Manager, Nicole Lewis, spent the day helping some of the neighborhood’s youngest superheroes earn their capes. Judging from the number of capes buzzing around Glass Street Saturday afternoon, the Capes and Superheroes activity was a hit. “The kids really enjoyed completing the tasks,” Lewis said. Be on the lookout for a fun campaign coming in the new year to celebrate these young neighbors who are superheroes for their neighborhood.  Also, a special shout out to Leo Ascarate. Leo screen printed Glass Street on the back of the capes. Thank you, Leo!!!

Hardly last and never least, starting the day with a full program from Gospel on Glass was the best. GOG curator and musical director, Deborah Bledsoe, did an amazing job selecting the performers and pulling the stage together. Miss Deborah said the whole day “felt like a big holiday celebration with friends and family!” Indeed.

Let’s do it again next year !

REVISIT THE DAY! Browse the photos here

Did you give your input recently about ideas for the new house banners for Glass Farm residents? This summer and early Fall, the Neighborhood Pride committee – including Block Leader, Miss Janette, business owner, Mr Joe, emerging young leader, Asia, and Pops, who has been living and renting in the Glass Farm area for a few years –  reached out and had conversations with their neighbors about what the community was most proud of and what they wanted to see represented on the new house banners.

The committee worked with their neighbors so that ideas from the residents of Glass Farm and the business owners along Glass Street would be shared with the creative team designing the banners for homes and light poles.

The design team took all the neighborhood input, worked hard and listened closely. Now that design proposals are in, there will be one more chance at Glass Street LIVE! for residents to choose the best design idea that will become the new banner.

Miss Janette is encouraging residents to visit the Glass Farm Block Captain tent at Glass Street LIVE! this Saturday. She will be on hand with volunteers helping distribute simple surveys for residents to fill out while attending the block party to help choose the best design for Glass Farm.

“The biggest number of votes for any one design will be the one chosen. So this is your chance to vote while the designs are in the booth and surveys ready,” Miss Janette said.

Also if you are one of the first 50 residents to give input  just remember to leave your contact information and receive a free house banner once they are produced. You can be one of the first Glass Farm residents to hang the new banner on your home!

Janette says she believes things can improve when more people in the neighborhood are involved in what goes on in their neighborhood and choose to get involved in shaping what’s coming next.

“House banners and a Pride program will help too. We want more people interested in what’s in their neighborhood now and what’s about to take place in their neighborhood. It will be alot better.”

Miss Janette says that this project is nearly complete. She hopes to receive a lot of surveys for the best design at Glass Street LIVE! so the committee can get the banners produced and delivered to residents soon.

Don’t miss the chance to leave your vote and check out what the committee and creative team accomplished after gathering input and inspiration from the community.

Glass House Collective would like to thank Miss Janette for her leadership and helping see this project through. We are proud and grateful of her entire committee, Mr. Joe, Pops, Asia, for their time and effort bringing in community ideas and new voices.  We would also like to thank the project’s funders from The Lillian Colby Foundation. We can not wait to see these banners hanging proudly on homes in the coming months!

This campaign, funded by the Lillian Colby Foundation, will create a visual celebration of neighborhood distinctiveness that enforces our community’s identity, cohesiveness, and pride of home. That means soon you’ll be seeing and hopefully displaying custom designed house flags, yard signs, videos, and banners.

To get the ideas flowing, the Glass Farm Block Leaders formed a committee early this summer and set out to gather input from the community as a way to identify what we’re most proud of in the historic Glass Farm district as well as the business district along Glass Street. The committee is comprised of a homeowner, renter, business owner, and youth from the Glass Farm Neighborhood. These passionate neighbors will each receive a stipend for their time and commitment.

The committee distributed and gathered surveys in the recreation center, the residential neighborhood and the business district. The survey asked a few simple but important questions, including: What are you proud of in your neighborhood? And, If people were more proud of this neighborhood what it would look like?

Amber said she is most proud of “The amount of effort people are putting in the community to make it great.” Audrey is proud that there are “Expectations of becoming a great community.” Glenda mentioned that she feels most proud of “Neighbors keeping up their yards and houses.” Charlotte is proud that “Everyone knows everyone and everyone watches out for each other.”

Now that the surveying is complete, creative teams are forming to take the lead in turning all of this great input into a meaningful visual campaign that tells the world how proud we are to live, work and play in East Chattanooga. In the meantime, The Chattanooga Design Studio put together a collage of images of places in the neighborhood our resident committee is proud of. The creative teams will draw their inspiration from the over 50 surveys and photographs completed and combine that with a few more community work sessions. “This process is in place to empower our neighbors and business owners to work with a team of artists to instill a sense of pride amongst the residents and provide skills development opportunities to the area through Rondell Crier’s Studio Everything,” Community Relations Manager, Nicole Lewis, said.

The goal is to reveal the exciting results at the Glass Street LIVE block party on November 3.

If you’re a neighbor with more ideas, please get in touch with Nicole Lewis via email or phone to be added to the campaign contact list and stay informed about future planning sessions. nicole@glasshousecollective.org | 423-618-9865

Block leaders in the Glass Farm neighborhood recently coordinated a yard sale to raise funds to jumpstart the initiative. It was a huge success in pairing neighborhood investment with support from the CFGC and Lillian Colby Foundations. Block Leaders coordinator Janette Richie is excited to discuss ideas with her fellow neighbors. “I take pride in my neighborhood just like for us to become one big family.”

Thanks to foundation investment, it looks like we now have the funds to move forward.

Using national models, our Neighborhood Pride campaign plan is to produce banners, house flags, yard signs, and videos using our well-known resident – artist centered protocol.

We’re excited to continue partnering with Habitat’s Neighborhood Revitalization team to implement the residential component of the pride campaign including the yard signage and house banners. Studio Everything will be another crucial partner in designing and building pride signage to help mark and welcome passers-by to the neighborhood.

If you’re a neighbor with more ideas, please get in touch with Nicole Lewis via email or phone (nicole@glasshousecollective.org 423-618-9865) to be added to the campaign contact list and stay informed about future planning sessions.