Claudette Grant is the community organizer at Friendship Court for Piedmont Housing Alliance.
How did you come to be the community organizer at Friendship Court? Where have you worked prior to this job?
Was your hiring a part of a broader shift by PHA towards more community engagement?
What does your job entail, day-to-day? How did you build trust with residents?
How does that building of trust impact the redevelopment planning process? How did that lead to the creation of the resident advisory committee?
Did you have concerns about holding the election for members on the resident advisory committee?
How did the Youth Leadership Group evolve out of the election?
How have you seen the resident advisory committee evolve? When did you see them first experience really having a voice?
How have you seen residents not on the committee come forward with feelings about the redevelopment process?
What’s the relationship like between residents in Friendship Court and the surrounding community? The Downtown Mall, for example?
Do you feel like you need to protect residents from outsiders trying to use them?
Charlottesville is still very segregated, how could the mixed-income approach to redeveloping Friendship Court affect that?
Have you heard residents with concerns about mixed-income housing in Friendship Court?
Where do plans for the early childhood center stand?
What advice around community-engagement would you give other people wanting to do this work?
What have you learned through this resident-driven redevelopment process?
What was the trip up to Washington, D.C. like with residents to look at mixed-income communities there?
How has this job as community organizer changed you? Do you feel a part of the community at Friendship Court?