Shiloh Native Norman Baynes came home to retire and went right to work. Her efforts are paying off in a big way – $5,000 cash and national recognition.

From Staff Reports

As we reported last month, Shiloh community leader Norma Baynes has been honored by NeighborWorks^¬Æ America with the national Dorothy Richardson Award, commending her exemplary work in resident leadership development and community organizing. One of eight people
chosen from around the country for the award, Baynes will receive a
$5,000 award for the Shiloh Community at a ceremony in Washington, DC on August 14.

NeighborWorks^¬Æ America provides financial support, technical assistance, and training for communities across the nation through a network of 240 member organizations that work to strengthen communities and provide affordable housing opportunities. Neighborhood Housing Services of Asheville, a charter member of NeighborWorks¬Æ America, nominated Baynes for the award. NHS works to provide affordable homeownership opportunities and strengthen neighborhoods through programs of home construction, loan financing, and community outreach.

Shiloh is one of Asheville\’s earliest African American neighborhoods, where many residents can trace their family heritage back more than a century. During the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, and again during the height of Jim Crow laws, numerous families relocated to Shiloh from outlying counties, where being black was often to live in fear. Baynes, born and reared in Shiloh, graduated from Winston-Salem’s School of Nursing and worked at Asheville‘s Mission Hospital. After marrying, she and her husband, Doyle Baynes, left Shiloh and reared three children. Baynes retired in 1997, moved back to the street where she had lived as a child, and dedicated herself to community organizing. Her goal was simple, "Take the power away from developers and put it back into the community."

NHS and the Shiloh Community have been partners since 2001. Baynes strives to foster relationships between private- and public-sector organizations, motivating activism among her fellow residents to create improvements and self-sustaining enrichment in her community. She works with community task forces and the Shiloh Community Association to develop strategies for confronting such issues as aggressive commercial development, land use, community identity building, crime, neighborhood infrastructure improvements, and resource development for youth.

Chris Slusher, NHS’ Executive Director, says, "Community change begins with individual action, and Norma is finding that the fear that accompanies speaking out is quickly diminished by the acquisition of effective personal tools and experience. One of the most transforming experiences Norma has had is through NeighborWorks^¬Æ and Community Leadership Initiative training, where she saw people who “love where they live” learn that through solidarity with others that they can find their voice and speak out for their neighbors and their community."

Baynes is Vice President of the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods and represents the Shiloh Community Association city-wide as a member of the Steering Committee for CAN\’s first Community Congress in Asheville, involving all neighborhood associations and their leadership. In addition to forging strong links throughout Shiloh, the accomplishments of Baynes and the Shiloh Community Association include:

blocking a developer from building six houses on a small area of land (2000);
keeping a commercial parking lot from being placed in between two homes (2002);
partnering with the City of Asheville, NHS, Design Corps, Community Foundation of WNC, Asheville-Buncombe County Technical College, and the Parks & Recreation Department, to design and build a modern bus shelter/rest area, the only shelter in the community of more than 900 households (2005);
after twice being denied non-profit status, receiving designation as a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit corporation (2006).

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