I have formed a radical belief about "helping" neighborhoods. It just occurred to me that it has a biological analogue--antibodies and a immune system.
Neighborhoods recognize foreign material and ideas and often form strong reactions to exclude the material or idea. While our immune systems do sometimes hurt us, mostly they protect us.
Outsiders and ideas that are not understandable by the community are attacked. So. Be sure that the idea and that agents are formed from within from the organism. Now there is an appropriate challenge for all interactions--parents-children, teachers-students, helpars-helped.
Perhaps the only way to help is to become one with the neighborhood--to understand it in the terms it understands itself. True for children and students too. Paulo Freire had something to say about that.
Ideas from outsiders who are understood by insiders can get into the community in that way--being transformed, translated, transmuted to fit.
That is my way. The outsider stays out. The transmuted ideas (tools and methods) may get in, in some form, perhaps not recognized by the outside agent.
Each organ of an organism has it's own ability to avoid outsiders. Therefore simply getting into one organ or into the blood stream is not enough. The idea must fit with every organ of the body, must be able to be assimilated by each organ. Acceptance by enthusiasts and do-gooders is not nearly enough.
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Leading Coalitions is a similar story from the otherside--how can an organization change itself to better fit the community it is hoping to serve.