Monrovia Area Partnership Program Honored for 'Out of the Box' Thinking

The Monrovia Area Partnership community activism program has beaten out entries from 42 countries to become a finalist for an international prize recognizing "out of the box" thinking by governmental agencies.

The Out of the Box award is sponsored by the Community Tool Box program run by the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas. The MAP program was named one of 10 finalists in November, and the winner will be decided through online voting.

"The partnership in Monrovia stood out to the international panel of judges, in part because of its inventiveness and in part the role it played in encouraging activism and volunteerism," said Stephen Fawcett, the director of the Work Group for Community Health.

The Community Tool Box program received more than 300 entries for the award from countries around the globe. Finalists included programs in the Phillipines, Kenya, India, the rural South and New York, Fawcett said.

MAP began in 2007 as a way to increase community engagement in underserved neighborhoods throughout the city. MAP leaders spend six weeks taking city-sponsored classes that teach neighborhood leadership, the role of government, neighborhood organizing and problem-solving skills.

The city , bringing the total number of MAP leaders in the city to 60.

Dan McConnell, the neighborhood services coordinator for the city, said the city is particularly hopeful that it will win the award so it can take home the $5,000 prize for its MAP leaders.

"It was kind of right up our alley because our neighborhood leaders could certianly use some more money," McConnell said.

Larry Spicer, one of the city's first MAP graduates, said the program helped transform his neighborhood in south Monrovia.

"It used to be really bad. There was really bad drugs and everything and we had some blight," Spicer said. "But when the city came in and partnered up with the neighborhood leaders, it changed everything."

Earlier this year, Spicer and his neighbors in the area near Sherman and Los Angeles Avenues got together for an outdoor movie night sponsored by MAP. He said it helped bring the community together.

"The neighbors didn't really know one another," Spicer said. "They brought the neighbors together in order for us to know one another. We got to meet everyone that lives on the block."

The program has also helped residents gain access to city services and resources that they didn't know were available, Spicer said.

"We learned about the resources in the city, how to go through the city to get something taken care of and use city hall as a tool to clean up our neighborhoods," he said.

Spicer was recently named to the city's Planning Commission, something he said wouldn't have been possible without MAP.

Voting for the Out of the Box award closes Jan. 31, and a winner will be named by Feb. 15, 2011.