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Fund for an OPEN Society |
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because separate can never be equal. |
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Integration Lab |
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Contact Us
Email: open@opensoc.org NJ Office: 973.821.4198 PA Office: 215.546.0511 |
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labo·ra·tory (lab′rə tôr′ē; occas. lab′ər ə tôr′ē; Brit lə bôr′ə tər ē) noun pl. -·ries ☆ a place where theories, techniques, and methods are tested, analyzed, demonstrated, etc.
This community-based research project, the first of its kind, is studying how intentional integration efforts get started in diverse communities and what lessons have been learned during that process, so that other communities may apply that learning as they work to stabilize their communities for the benefit of all residents. The project has two major goals: to capture the history of intentional integration in the United States, with a major focus on the experiences in West Mt. Airy, Oak Park, Shaker Heights, Maplewood/South Orange and Pennsauken, and to cull lessons from the experience of intentional integration in the United States that can help communities and OPEN move that work forward under 21st century conditions and contexts. The project is documenting the reasons a diverse community takes steps to become an integrated one, what precipitates those steps, and what contributes to the success of their pro-integrative strategies. We seek to understand, from various perspectives, what the experience was like in each of five communities named above that took intentional steps to become integrated. By eliciting memories and opinions of community leaders, activists, and residents, and by studying relevant data about their neighborhoods, schools, demographics, real estate values, we are documenting actions and reactions that will inform communities striving for integration now and in the future. We will use the collected profiles – and a body of knowledge gathered through surveys of hundreds of people whose lives were affected by the changes in their communities – as the basis for a new online pro-integration community. OPEN will create a web site that will serve as a clearinghouse for knowledge sharing, data management, news, dialogue, and action that can be used by individuals, communities, non-profits, researchers, policymakers, students, and activists. We will maintain a participatory research space on this site, so that we can continue to learn from community members’ input and insight. A subsequent use for the collected data will be to assist communities in assessing their readiness for launching an inclusion initiative. OPEN will supplement this information with archival research, and additional data collection. At the end of the project, we will have vivid pictures – or profiles – of five communities and the success and challenges they faced while pursuing stable integration. OPEN will make these narratives available on its web site and publicize them through our own networks and those of our partner organizations.
We thank our program partner: Center for Assessment and Policy Development And our funders: Annie E. Casey Foundation, Sociological Initiatives Foundation |
