Stacy Harwood

Stacy Harwood is an associate professor in the department of Urban & Regional Planning at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. She has shown the film in her Neighborhood Revitalization course, which is taken by mostly seniors and graduate students studying urban planning, architecture, or geography.

Harwood has used Gaining Ground since 2014, and its predecessor, Holding Ground for many years, along with readings related to community participation, gentrification, transportation, neighborhood environmental issues, and commercial development.

The film’s realism appeals to Harwood: “Gaining Ground doesn’t romanticize community change. Rather, it shows a lot of vulnerability. DSNI is held together by overworked, underfunded individual people, who are successful, but still struggling. You don’t know how it’s going to end, just like in real life.”

Harwood particularly appreciated that the film illustrated to her students how “messy and complicated” it is to affect change. “Students have the idea it’s very simple. But the film shows that you need to get financing, deal with the politics and challenges of implementing programs, and the need for leadership,” says Harwood. “It breaks down the concept of neighborhood revitalizing so students can see that it’s a lot of work. It gets them excited, but shows them it’s a long-term project—not just a year, but decades.” For example, her students were really interested in the benefits derived from DSNI’s community land trust. But the film shows how challenging it is to collectively own and maintain property.

Inspired by the film Holding Ground, several years ago Harwood began a partnership between her students and the 5th & Hill Neighborhood Rights Campaign. The group represents residents who live in the lower income neighborhood located just north of campus. The residents have spoken in Harwood’s class, while her students have attended the group’s meetings, and even conducted a door-to-door survey of residents to gather their opinions on plans for future development in the area to submit to the city council.

Gaining Ground helps the students see how their work fits into the bigger picture. “They want to see change quickly. Students don’t see how what we’re doing in one semester makes a difference,” says Harwood. “I can’t give them 20 years of experience, but the film helps them see that our work is one piece in a longer process.”

The film has also helped students find their career path, says Harwood. “It gets them thinking: ‘Do I want to work for local government, a nonprofit, a local bank, or be a community organizer?’” Says Harwood: “Some students are interested in social justice and doing good, but don’t have a clear sense of the skills needed for various jobs. Through the film, they can begin to see which field they’re most suited for.”

Harwood has used a wide variety of resources with the film, including many local documents and materials such as newspaper articles, reports, testimonies, census data, and city council plans spanning several decades. She also looks for personal narratives and oral histories to show her students the contradictions in how the story of a particular neighborhood may be told over time. For example, one person’s blighted slum that ought to be torn down may be another’s richly historic area in need of revitalization.

One of Harwood’s favorite resources came in the form of a student who is a resident of the 5th & Hill neighborhood. “The film really got her excited. She said, ‘I’d like to do that in my neighborhood!’” says Harwood. “The film helped demonstrate the value of working with local residents like her. It’s better to have them drive the process, rather than having change come from the top down.”

See Harwood’s syllabus [here].