Properties of Merit (POM) founder, Siobhan “Sam” Bennett felt that the creative, entrepreneurial and systematic problem-solving approaches common to business could be applied to solve social challenges – in this case improving the quality of life in communities. Principles integral to business success such as adhering to mission and identifying market niches could also guide the success of “social entrepreneurial” problem solving. Over several years, Bennett worked to develop systems and procedures for the inaugural Properties of Merit Awards Programs to help ensure their effectiveness and allow for the programs to be easily transplanted to other communities.

All POM programs center on basic human behavioral truths. If you thank and publicly recognize people for a given behavior such as excellent property maintenance, they will do more of that behavior and others will strive to receive that same recognition (POM Awards program). If you empower students to help renovate their own schools, they will experience first-hand the importance of property upkeep and maintenance (POM Construction Company program). If you physically make a block or neighborhood cleaner and better maintained by picking up litter and planting trees, hardy perennials on an ongoing basis, residents are far more likely to keep that neighborhood well tended (POM Service Corps program).

Properties of Merit programs parallel the findings of social scientists and criminologists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling and the “broken-window theory” they discussed in the Atlantic Monthly in March 1982: “Just as physicians now recognize the importance of fostering health rather than simply treating illness, so … the rest of us ought to recognize the importance of maintaining, intact communities without broken windows.” Properties of Merit programs seek to proactively assist communities wherever they are on the continuum of community health in the critical work of engaging citizen volunteers and promoting those behaviors that will improve, protect and build their community immediately and over time.

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell had been a frequent keynote speaker and special guest of the inaugural Properties of Merit Awards programs since its inception in Allentown, PA in 1999. Seeing this program could assist communities throughout the Commonwealth, the Governor committed to providing seed money through the Department of Community and Economic Development to ensure Properties of Merit could be made available to communities on a statewide basis. Properties of Merit is actively working to significantly expand its sponsorship and financial support base in order to successfully accomplish this statewide expansion mission.

The first Properties of Merit Program
The first Properties of Merit program was created in 1989 in Oneonta, NY (population 13,000) by Bennett, who partnered with the local newspaper, the Daily Star, and a group of community leaders she assembled around this concept.

Living all over the world with her family before settling in Oneonta, Bennett fell in love with the slate sidewalks, beautiful Victorian homes and tree-lined streets of this upstate New York college town. What concerned her however was the trend of homes being converted to rentals with little attention to the external maintenance of those properties and the negative effect this had on the surrounding neighborhoods and overall community.

Upon graduating from college, she began purchasing some of these Oneonta Victorian conversions and began upgrading their exteriors with a view to enhancing their neighborhoods. Convinced of the relationship between a property’s street appearance to the quality of life in its surrounding community, she created Properties of Merit to recognize and encourage property maintenance that enhanced the appearance and quality of life in Oneonta. The concept was a simple one – if you thank property owners who take exceptional care of their properties, they will continue that behavior and over time inspire others to do the same.

Properties of Merit ™ Awards Programs
In 1987 Bennett relocated to Allentown, PA – a much larger community (population 106,000) – but one that shared the sidewalks, historic architecture and tree-lined street charm of her previous home in Oneonta. Over time it became clear to Bennett, that while Allentown’s challenges were different from those of Oneonta, Properties of Merit might be helpful in assisting Allentown. After a year spent meeting with community leaders, Bennett launched the first Allentown’s Properties of Merit Awards program in 1999 with a dedicated cluster of Crime Watch and Neighborhood Presidents, many of whom are still highly active in the Allentown program. These leaders based their Allentown program around the premise that “well tended neighborhoods are safer neighborhoods”.

In 2007, multiple Properties of Merit programs were launched in the greater Lehigh Valley region surrounding Allentown with initial funding from Susque-hanna Patriot Bank, Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham and the Lehigh County Community and Economic Development Office and a DCED grant facilitated by Pennsylvania State Senator Lisa Boscola.

The Awards Program is the initial Properties of Merit program we recommend communities institute. Centered on a Properties of Merit Purpose Statement that states the challenge/opportunity they feel their community faces, the Awards Program represents a low-cost, volunteer-driven, structured program citizens can use to make a difference in their community.

Properties of Merit ™ Construction Companies
At this same time Bennett noted that many students in the Allentown School District (ASD) were leaving for the surrounding suburbs. When queried, their parents shared common concerns regarding the educational quality that the school district delivered. Bennett gathered comparative information about ASD and surrounding districts over the next year and confirmed that the perception of ASD and the City of Allentown was far worse than the reality. Clearly, the health of the City of Allentown and ASD were bound together and ASD’s largest and oldest school, William Allen High School drove much of the negative and incorrect perceptions.

In response, in 2000 Bennett created the non-profit student led William Allen Construction Company, collaborating with co-founders from ASD administration, WAHS staff, and corporate partner Alvin H. Butz, Inc. – one of the top 100 general construction companies in the country. This nationally innovative public-private partnership positioned students to initiate and dramatically enhance the physical appearance and perception of their school, while also gaining powerful work experience. Again, a creative, entrepreneurial and systematic problem-solving approach applied to a community challenge – in this case improving the quality of life for thousands of young students and future citizens while also helping solve a chronic community perception problem. The Properties of Merit Construction Company ™ Program will be ready in 2008 for communities to assist in the work of revitalizing their communities.

Properties of Merit Service Corps
Bennett notes that the key is “ownership. When we own something, have a stake in it, we pay attention. When it isn't ours, when we're not a stakeholder, that attention becomes optional.” When tree wells and public spaces suffer from chronic litter and weeds, often the culprit is lack of ownership. Residents of a littered neighborhood, often transient, will step over trash because they didn’t put it there. No one will pull the weeds from tree wells or sidewalks, because it’s not their responsibility. Often municipalities lack the resources to tend to “important but not urgent” quality-of-life issues such as these. Bennett launched several pilot programs to determine ways to address this frustrating problem.

Observing the annual arts festival held in the parks system in Allentown, PA had chronic litter problems, Bennett created the ongoing “Mayfair Trash Busters” in 1999. Partnering with the Junior Naval ROTC unit from William Allen High School, cadets earned community service hours by keeping the festival clear of trash. Striving to launch this concept on a larger scale, Bennett worked with Crime Watch President James Molchany on neighborhood cleanups that not only systematically removed litter, tires, shopping carts and other debris from targeted neighborhoods, but also planted trees in empty tree wells. Convinced they had enough experience and data to proceed, in 2007 Molchany and Bennett launched the most recent POM program The Properties of Merit Service Corps with an initial DCED grant facilitated by Pennsylvania State Senator Pat Browne.

By changing the appearance of chronically littered blocks identified by city administration and community leaders with ongoing cleanups over a three-year period of time, the Properties of Merit ™ Service Corps proactively intervenes in a neighborhood’s decline so that decline is not inevitable but correctable. Through ongoing cleanups of neighborhoods and special areas (waterways, slopes) commencing in the spring, these neighborhoods are visited at least four times annually over three years, with tree and hardy perennial plantings in the fall. Every other Saturday between April and October, working with organizations like Treatment Trends (drug and alcohol rehabilitation non-profit) and the Junior Naval ROTC Unit, these neighborhoods are systematically cleaned of debris and litter, with the City of Allentown Department of Trash and Recycling immediately removing all collected debris. The Properties of Merit Service Corps program will be ready in 2008 for communities wishing to make a difference in their more challenged neighborhoods.

Affiliations
Properties of Merit is a member of PANO (Pennsylvania Association of Non-Profit Organizations) and is registered with the Pennsylvania Board of Charitable Organizations. Properties of Merit is an official partner of The Pennsylvania Downtown Center and the PA Main Street and Elm Street programs they administer.

Supporting Properties of Merit of PA, Inc.
Please send your tax-deductible donation to Properties of Merit of PA, Inc., The Butz Corporate Center, 840 Hamilton Street, Allentown PA 18101.

Reaching Us
We appreciate your interest in Properties of Merit and encourage you to learn more about us. Please consider becoming a financial supporter of this important endeavor by joining us as a Properties of Merit member or sponsor. And if you’d like to launch a Properties of Merit program in your community, please let us know. We look forward to working with you! We can be reached at sam.bennett@mypom.org, mypom.org (July 2007 launch) OR by calling 484-560-2810 610-770-9584 (fax).