The Next Neighborhood Association Council Meeting

Monday, September 13th , 2010- 5:00 p.m. – 6:35 p.m. Refreshments provided by  University Street Community Club

Featured Program -  Worried about the kids in your neighborhood?

The numbers show that alcohol and other drugs are very easy for our kids in Greenwood County to get.  Ann Crawley from Community Initiatives will be the speaker during our September 13 meeting, and she will talk to us about how we can become a major part of the solution to this problem.

RSVP required to secure refreshments – 941-3370

2010 National Night Out registration

2010 National Night Out Planning Kit

2010 Neighborhood Association Council update

Programs and services to Greenwood County neighborhoods include:

• Great American Clean-up
• National Night Out
• Make a Difference Day
• Organizational Assistance
• Neighborhood Association Council
• Crime Watch Programs
• Community Action Grants

Neighborhood Association Council:

(153 associations – 6/30/2010) October 2009 Current list of participating associations

(NAC) is made up of the Presidents, board members of neighborhood, homeowners and community associations. The NAC takes an interest in the issues of the Greenwood County neighborhoods by creating a unified voice in addressing broad-based concerns. This group has an executive committee, which represents the individual organizations  they serve. Umbrella organizations offer ways for groups to collaborate to accomplish a collective voice for a large area. The NAC meets on the second Monday of each month. All neighborhood, homeowner, and community associations are invited to attend.

Neighborhood Leadership Academy

To empower leaders from the neighborhood associations to be able to organize their associations to build upon the assets of their communities; in order to make Greenwood County a community that cares about learning, where everyone accepts a responsibility for encouraging and enabling all of our people to reach their full potential and to become positive contributors to our economic well being and quality of life.  Classes are offered on a quarterly basis.

Community Action Grants

Neighborhoods/Community/Homeowner/Property-owner Associations wishing to apply for a Community Action Grant must attend a one-hour information session.   All meetings are at the Bornemann Center for Community Education beginning at 5:00 pm.The following Mondays are the dates for the Grants information sessions  October 18, 2010 – January 17, 2011 -  April 18, 2011 Please see the Grants tab for further information.

National Night Out

Neighborhoods throughout Greenwood are invited to join forces with thousands of communities nationwide for the Annual “National Night Out” National Night Out is designed to: (1) Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness; (2) Generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime efforts; (3) Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police community partnerships; and (4) Send a message to criminals letting them know neighborhoods are organized and fighting back. Many neighborhoods throughout Greenwood host a variety of special events such as block parties, cookouts, parades, visits from police, flashlight walks, contests, youth activities and anticrime and drug rallies.  Greenwood County celebrates National Night Out annual the second Monday in October.

Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)

A.B.C.D. focuses on the unique combination of assets within a community to build upon its future. A strong community-building force lies within each resident of that community. Each time a resident uses his or her capacity, the community is stronger and the person more powerful. Empowering community residents to recognize their talents, skills, abilities and how to mobilize those assets are the basis behind A.B.C.D. because…strong communities are reflections of those local residents who are identified, valued and used.

Healthy Greenwood Neighborhoods, Inc. is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of a local Bank of America grant!

The monies received will be used for the sole purpose of supporting the ABCD project. The goal of this project is to provide a technological resource to participating neighborhoods to enhance their capacity for gathering neighborhood assets. By providing the neighborhood leader with the mobile resource (laptop computer) with the customized Asset Inventory in their individual communities, the project will be able to reach a maximum number of households in that targeted neighborhood.

Asset Based Community Development (A.B.C.D.) is a strategy, developed by Dr. John P. Kretzman and Dr. John McKnight of Northwestern University; to assist community’s to rise above the troubling elements found in American society. The strategy utilizes the resources, talents, abilities and capacities of individuals, associations and institutions within the community from the inside, out. Traditionally, communities have been addressing the corrosive elements in society by focusing solely on the deficiencies, working from the outside, in. Most communities, targeting their needs and what is missing, have realized that approach does not produce positive results. In fact, emphasis on the weaknesses within the community encourages a negative perspective of focus only on those needs and deficiencies. The reality is that every community experiences problems; the choice for the community is whether to address those problems utilizing their own assets (inside, out) or to seek assistance from agencies and governmental bodies (outside, in).

A.B.C.D. focuses on the unique combination of assets within a community to build upon its future. A strong community-building force lies within each resident of that community. Each time a resident uses his or her capacity, the community is stronger and the person more powerful. Empowering community residents to recognize their talents, skills, abilities and how to mobilize those assets are the basis behind A.B.C.D. because…strong communities are reflections of those local residents who are identified, valued and used.

Neighborhoods interested in serving as the pilot associations need to contact Toni Able 941-3370