Avril, Miriam, & Ronell

Visited with Ronell, Avril, and Miriam at Ronell’s house and learned that the Green Light Project is still going strong. The Green Light Project was begun by community members working with a WPI student team in 2011, one of the CTPC’s most open-ended projects, as the basic starting point was, get the student team of five together with MGV residents Ronell Trout and Sheila Galant and figure out what to do together to advance MGV. The GLP celebrated their two year anniversary in December with a big community day that also included our third successive student team, one that this year worked with MGV, the City Department of Parks and Recreation and other stakeholders on redeveloping Perseverance Park.

The GLP represents real resiliency of a truly grassroots run operation, one that depends on deep commitment to others, strategic thinking and hard work, constantly renewing faith (Miriam’s chief responsibility) and learning to network effectively. The latter skill bore fruit last week as the GLP leaders, along with Basil Tommy who sits on the GLP board and has also helped guide and assist the CTPC since its inception in 2007, met with Mayor de Lille in their efforts to secure a venue in MGV for their various functions for youth (dance, music, and art), seniors (socializing, exercise) and others. The Mayor will be joining them again for a public meeting in MGV this coming Tuesday, 29 July 7:30 PM. Hoping for good news!

An important new initiative in 2014 is the soup kitchen presently operating from Ronell’s kitchen and the community center, serving 150 people on a recent Wednesday. I can’t recall exactly how the GLP is sourcing food for the soup (other than that they occasionally chip in with their own money), but the equipment came from a small fund the CTPC had set up in 2012, with the understanding that the GLP could apply for the funding by submitting a basic proposal describing how the funds would be used (purpose, benefits, costs, operational basics, etc.) as a means of strengthening the group’s ability to craft proposals to other potential supporters. The GLP considered various options for using the funding but delayed over year before deciding that the soup kitchen would be a most impactful investment.

CTPC Insider News: Sheila is coping with health concerns but remains optimistic. Some good signs of continued progress at the park — the path has been installed, concrete benches now define much of the park perimeter, and the area was clean and generally well-tended – but community members reported that from their perspective collaboration between the MGV park steering committee and the City was lagging and needed reinvigoration.

Tags CBO Community Networking Maitland Garden Village