Neighborhood Snapshot: Southwest (Kirk) – FRESNO
In 2012, the Southwest neighborhood in Fresno (with a designated target focus on the Kirk area) was
selected as one of eight neighborhoods in four cities – Flint, Fresno,1 Memphis and Milwaukee – to
participate in the Building Neighborhood Capacity Program (BNCP).
BNCP is part of the Administration’s place-based
programming efforts, which includes the Promise
Zones and Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative.
Recognizing the power of place to influence access
to opportunity, BNCP seeks to catalyze communitydriven change in neighborhoods that have
historically faced barriers to revitalization.
BNCP focuses on building community capacity: the
knowledge, skills, relationships, processes and
resources that neighborhood residents, partner
organizations and city-level stakeholders need to
work together to achieve better results in safety,
education, housing, health and human services and
other key areas.
BNCP Neighborhoods Build Capacity By:
Forming a Local Team of Residents and
Partners
Learning about Neighborhood Assets and
Challenges – Past and Present
Planning and Implementing Learn By Doing
Projects
Developing a Neighborhood Revitalization
Plan
Highlights to Date

Focused neighborhood revitalization plan on the priority results: All residents feel safe in their
neighborhood; all residents experience economic success.

Created Action and Change, a bilingual merger between an English-speaking resident group and a
Spanish-speaking resident group, to create a resident-driven community partnership, which comes
together monthly to discuss community challenges and identify solutions.

Increased capacity to use data to drive the development and implementation of effective strategies.
For instance, after learning that city data indicated that approximately 2,880 of Fresno’s 42,000
streetlights were broken, Kirk residents created and implemented a complementary neighborhood
survey to show the disparity between the number of working streetlights in their neighborhood versus
other areas of the city, prompting priority repairs.

Partnered with the City Neighborhood Revitalization Team to decrease blight and improve housing
conditions, including compiling data on commercial and housing code compliance and illegal
dumping in alleys.

Contributed to establishing Kirk Community Garden located at the California-Elm Community Center.
Work in Progress

Identifying learn-by-doing projects with the anchor partners, St. Rest Church and the West Fresno
Family Resource Center.
1
The other two BNCP neighborhoods in Fresno are El Dorado Park from the first cohort and the Yokomi expansion
neighborhood which started BNCP in 2014.
www.buildingcommunitycapacity.org
April 2016
By the Numbers
Source: American Community Survey Data (ACS), 2010-2014
POPULATION
RACE
City of Fresno
Southwest (Kirk)
Southwest (Kirk)
1,436
5%(T)
4%(T)
7.90%(AA)
12.24%(AA)
City of Fresno
21.80%(O)
27.99%(O)
506,132
0.0%(PI)
12.90%
(A)
0.20%(PI)
48.19%(W)
1.04%
(A)
51.20%(W)
1%(AIN)
0%(AIN)
7.90%(A
5%(T)
EDUCATION
ETHNICITY
A)
ETHNICITY
Southwest (Kirk)
Fresno
Hispanic or Latino
74.0%
48.0%
White or NonHispanic/Latino
26.0%
52.0% )
21.80%(
<HS Degree
O)
0.20%(PI
HS Degree or Equivalent
12.90%
51.20%(
College/Higher Ed W)
(A)
Southwest (Kirk)
Fresno
55.0%
25.2%
22.0%
22.9%
24.0%
51.9%
1%(AIN)
ECONOMIC SECURITY
AGE OF RESIDENTS
10.80% (SWK)
10% (F)
65 and older
18 and older
Southwest (Kirk)
Fresno
% Below Poverty Line
36.0%
30.6%
Unemployment
18.4%
15.4%
7.90%(AA)
5%(T)
65.40%(SWK)
70% (F)
4.50% (SWK)
12% (F)
4.30% (SWK)
5% (F)
20% (SWK)
16% (F)
10.30% (SWK)
9% (F)
18 to 24
15 to 17
5 to 14
Under 5
0%
KEY PLAYERS
20%
40%
15.1% (AZ1)
11.7% (F)
21.80%(O)
HOUSING
12.90%
(A)
60%
80%
0.20%(PI)
% of Vacant Housing Units
Southwest (Kirk)
Fresno
10.0%
8.0%
1%(AIN)
75.5% (AZ1)
Neighborhood Partnership:
Action and Change
13.2% (AZ1)
11.1% (F)
51.20%(W)
73.6 (F)
5%(T)
7.90%(A
Neighborhood Partner Organizations: West Fresno Family Resource Center, A)
Kirk Elementary, and Fresno County Economic
5.2% (AZ1)
Opportunities Commission
4.6% (F) - Local Conservation Corp, and Centro La Familia Advocacy Service
Cross-Sector Partners:13.4%
City (AZ1)
of Fresno (lead agency), Mayor Swearengin, Fresno City Manager, Fresno Police Department, Fresno
14.0% (F)
Development and Resource Management-Community Revitalization
Division, Fresno Housing Authority, Fresno State University, Fresno
21.80%(
5.8% (AZ1)
Economic Opportunities
Commission,
Wells
Fargo,
First
Five
of
Fresno
7.8% (F)
O)County, Fresno Unified School District, Fresno County Department
of Public Health, United Way of Fresno County, California Endowment (Building Healthy Communities), Reading and Beyond (Fresno
0.00%
20.00%
40.00%
60.00%
80.00%
0.20%(PI
Promise Neighborhood),
Fresno Regional
Foundation
&
Habitat for Humanity of Fresno County
)
www.buildingcommunitycapacity.org
April 2016
12.90%
51.20%(
(A)
W)