Our West End - Please Read!

Friends,

Our website is up! Check it out at www.ourwestend.org. Let us know what you think and please do not hesitate to provide us with any feedback.

If you can spare a few minutes, I ask you to please read my post below and get in touch with me should you have any questions, concerns or comments. I really want to hear from you.

Recently we came across a very misguided perception of what we do. Therefore, I want to make it absolutely clear what it is we do. We are funded by the United Way and have several community partners. As part of our agreement, we are responsible for rolling out several positive initiatives in the west-end. Some of these include the following:

1) Developing a comprehensive strategy for the west-end focusing on community engagement and empowerment. We will look at ways to get residents engaged in their neighbourhoods and what tools they need, etc. Most importantly, we will reach out extensively to the community because this strategy will be one for the community, by the community.

In addition to the above, I need to be clear that this is not at all similar to the CIP that was done for Sandwich Town for several reasons. First, this strategy will encompass neighbourhoods east and west of the bridge, not just the Sandwich area. Secondly, this is by no means a planning study. It is a community engagement and empowerment study looking at grassroots initiatives that residents can get involved with.

2) Developing a roundtable comprised of 50% residents and 50% stakeholders. The purpose of this roundtable is to provide us with advice, guidance and resources as we move forward with our initiatives. Certainly in the beginning phases, the roundtable will help with the framing of our strategy.

3) Developing a resident-led parks committee looking at parks in the west-end that are under-utilized. The purpose of the resident committee is to identify strategies and ways to repurpose some of the parks to increase user-ship, among other things.

4) Continuing our work in assisting the Safety Village in developing neighbourhood watch groups all across the west-end. We have held several town halls over the years to organize various neighbourhoods in establishing a neighbourhood watch. We want to continue this good work and eventually develop a resident-led crime prevention and reduction group that represents the entire west-end neighbourhood.

5) Empower youth to take ownership of their community. Right now we are working with youth who want to lead a community bbq sometime in late summer/early fall. We believe youth should be involved in our community and should take leadership roles in actively making it better.

We have been able to put in place a fantastic team to roll out the above initiatives. I am so very proud of the great team we have, comprised of individuals who are selflessly serving our west-end community.

Let the good work continue.

Fabio

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