Running head: PSY 363 MODULE 10 1
PSY 363 Module 10
Mohamed Mohamed
Rudkin text.
Empowerment
1. Discuss how neighborhoods can revitalize themselves to become vibrant and healthy
for the residents living in those communities. Describe one very successful program – the
Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative – what were some of the things done to make this
program so successful?
The Dudley Street Neighborhood initiative worked together with the community to create a shared
neighborhood vision that coalesced around the image of an urban village. A village provides foods,
goods, and services, employment, opportunities for socialization, and recreational activities. The
residents shared the vision of urban village guided community organizing and development on
Dudley Street. Less than twenty years after the initiative was formed, about 13% of the
community’s 24,000 residents joined this initiative. Through cooperation with local businesses,
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PSY 363 MODULE 10
banks, non-profit organizations, and religious groups as well as government agencies and
foundations, they were able to achieve many resident-driven plans. Through the initiative, three
hundred homes have been built, three hundred renovated, streets have been cleaned up, parks have
been rehabilitated, low-income houses have been established, daycare networks formed, a high
school founded, began a youth recreation program, and opened up a community center.
2. Describe Zimmerman’s (2000) three components of empowerment (page 282) –
provide examples of each:
I. Efforts to gain access to resources: One requires efforts for them to be able to acquire
resources. Resources are the elements available for the satisfaction of human wants and
desires. Resources are often a battleground for power and therefore efforts to control
