In 2019, a group of stakeholders joined forces in Orchard Knob to address housing, health, and neighborhood connectivity. In 2024, The Orchard Knob Collaborative is celebrating the launch of its new virtual community resource hub as well as ongoing tech training, health and safety home repairs, and much more. From telehealth-specific training to address healthcare access (and provide residents with devices) to HVAC installation for homeowners in need, the Collaborative’s work has been focused on addressing disparities to improve health and wellness outcomes to strengthen the community.
For The Enterprise Center, Program Manager Katherlyn Geter has spearheaded the work, working alongside other stakeholders and keeping residents’ priorities and needs in mind. With her background in both healthcare and local government, Geter’s unique experiences have helped propel the ongoing Orchard Knob Connected Communities project. Here are Geter’s top five recommendations on how to keep changing neighborhoods connected:
- Consider how you will reach your most marginalized residents. Orchard Knob is a historic and changing community, comprised of mostly older adults. Although the neighborhood association has one of the highest rates of meeting attendance anywhere in the city (regularly 30-50 neighbors), that is still a small fraction of the more than 1,000 residents who call the community home. For that reason, door to door efforts and intentional event outreach has been key, as well as asking residents to nominate neighbors in need.
Thanks to funding from Tennessee Valley Authority, Connect Humanity, and Dollarwise, the Collaborative was able to scale its work in 2022. Developing a plan for reaching residents to communicate opportunities and provide them with available resources, repairs, and technology was critical to the success of the project and to paving pathways to access – as well as demonstrating need. - Block leaders are an incredible way to amplify your message and remain aware of neighborhood opinions and needs. Postcards in a mailbox, posted flyers, and announcements at community meetings are all key to getting your messages to the community, but nothing beats having a trustworthy, recognizable connection living within the neighborhood to communicate the message street by street. Especially as communities across Chattanooga are facing rapid change, development, and new neighbors, block leaders are also a welcoming voice to integrate newcomers and educate them on both history and opportunities in the area.
- Harness technology to help keep residents engaged in their community. When beginning this work in Historic Orchard Knob, one question that consistently remains is “how do we ensure the neighborhood feels ownership and pride in what is being created?” Building an intentional neighborhood website that can exist as a resource hub, living archive of events and images, and a way to communicate with residents directly has been a critical component to ensure these efforts continue to scale and strengthen the fabric of the community. While we contracted with a third party company to build a site that was extremely easy to navigate as a user or as a manager of the back end, website building platforms like Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress also offer free and low-cost options for communities looking to build their own. (The Orchard Knob hub site also has open source components for other neighborhoods interested in replicating the framework.) Now that the Orchard Knob community hub is built with residents’ priorities in mind, the neighborhood association will receive a laptop and ongoing tech support as they cultivate the resource hub, taking ownership of its future development to meet evolving needs.
- Ease of access is important. From considering the schedules of the residents when planning events to an awareness of their technological knowledge and device access when building a website, approachability is important for trust, impact, and sustainability of the work. Just because a door is put in front of someone doesn’t mean they can open it; ask yourself if you’ve unlocked it, if the knob is reachable for everyone, if the door is visible and inviting. For the website build, that means engaging video, a posted meeting and event schedule, etcetera.
- Remember you work with the residents, not just for them — collaboration is key. Engaging residents from the very beginning to understand their pain points and priorities is key for successful community problem-solving. The Orchard Knob Collaborative includes stakeholders from area businesses, nonprofits, and voices from the neighborhood to holistically address neighborhood health, safety, and connectivity. Orchard Knob is fortunate to have Parkridge Medical Systems within their neighborhood footprint and have harnessed that partnership for a regular meeting location, food provided during meetings, and more. For those trying to build connection within their community, an important question is “what other community partners can I / should I involve?” Identifying those stakeholders and involving them in the process is a great way to scale your work while also sharing in the heavy lifting.
Have questions? You can reach out to Connected Communities Project Manager Katherlyn Geter at katherlyn@theenterprisectr.org.
You can also learn more about the Orchard Knob Connected Communities project here.
