WORKING ON NEIGHBORHOODS
I Surveys underway in neighborhoods,
seeking input on visioning
CARLY WILLIAMS
SPECIAL
TO THE CHRONICLE
Twenty-four residents of LaDeara Crest Apartments
united recently at the apartments' community resource
center to participate in group surveys conducted by
Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods (NBN) in partner
ship with United Way of Forsyth County.
Through April, residents from 13 northeast Winston
Salem neighborhoods are taking the surveys; survey tak
ers receive a small compensation for their time.
NBN and United Way will use survey results to inform
future development visioning by residents of specific
neighborhoods.
Using computerized technology, participants in the 90
minute sessions use handheld response devices (clickers)
to answer place-based questions regarding: health, safety,
housing, employment, economic development, transporta
tion, education, and recreational activities for children,
youths, adults, and seniors.
Surveys, both individual (paper) and group (electron
ic), were conducted in the following neighborhoods:
LaDeara Crest, Bowen Park, Dreamland, Castle Heights,
Cardinal Acres, Prospect Park, Lakeside, Eastgate Village,
Spaulding Drive, Wildwood Park, Northwoods Estates,
Monticello Park, and Ebony Hills.
In addition to conducting surveys, NBN and United
Way are co-hosting Neighbor Nites in these same neigh
borhoods.
If you live in one of these areas and would like to help
plan a dinner event with your neighbors and NBN staff,
please contact arue@nbncommunity.org.
NBN is a local organization that partners with neigh
borhood groups to support and enhance resident-led activ
ities by providing organizing assistance, technical support,
and funding as needed.
Carly Williams writes for Neighbors for Better
Neighborhoods.
Waughtown/MLK neighborhoods start
year-long planning to improve area
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
On March 3, more than 75 residents, property owners
and concerned citizens from the Waughtown/MLK neigh
borhoods met at the Enterprise Center to begin a year long
process of deciding what steps should be taken to make
their neighborhood an even better place to live, work and
play.
The next community meeting is scheduled for April 28
at 6 p.m. at the Enterprise Center and will include presen
tation from Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) stu
dents.
The March meeting was the result of a city of
Winston-Salem grant that was recently received by the
S.G. Atkins Community Development Corporation (CDC)
and uses the expertise of planners from the Piedmont
Triad Regional Council (PTRC) and faculty of WSSU.
The S.G. Atkins CDC received the grant to facilitate a
Martin Luther King Jr./Waughtown Neighborhood
Revitalization Initiative planning process covering an area
within a half-mile radius of the intersection of South
Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Waughtown Street.
This racially diverse neighborhood includes a growing
mix of residential, commercial and industrial uses. The
plan will update the vibrant gateway into a more safe,
walkable and appealing neighborhood for residents and
visitors alike.
Development opportunities will create a distinct sense
of character for the area as a destination.
More than two-dozen WSSU students from four dif
ferent courses at WSSU attended and helped with a vari
ety of logistical issues, including serving as scribes to col
lect all the participant's thoughts.
The meeting included a discussion of the purpose
behind conducting the planning effort presented by Dr.
Russell M. Smith, associate professor of geography at
WSSU. Marco Andrade, principal planner with the City
County Planning Board, reviewed past planning efforts
that were conducted in the area.
Finally, a small group workshop was led by Cy Stober,
water resources manager with PTRC, which engaged the
community in deciding how to make the neighborhood a
better place.
In the end, participants identified several key issues
that they felt greatly impacted their neighborhood. These
included issues of public safety, recreation, community
appearance and economic development.
Neighbors attending the meeting also felt strongly that
they would like to see more collaboration between the
neighborhood and WSSU.
Members of the project team leading the planning
effort are spending the this month meeting with additional
residents and groups in the neighborhood who were
unable to attend the meeting.
For more information contact Russell Smith, PhD,
Smithrm @ wssu .edu.
Alana James, United Way director of community-based collaboration, listens as
residents ask questions at the community information meeting on Thursday,
March 12, at the Cari Russell Community Center, 3521 Carver School Road.
The meeting, sponsored by Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods and the United
Way of Forsyth County, is a collaborative effort seeking active resident involve
ment in helping build stronger, healthier neighborhoods; for more information,
contact Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods at 336-701-2626 or arue@nbncom
munity.org.
Local community residents enjoy dinner as they listen to speakers of the
Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods and the United Way of Forsyth County.
Photos by Erin Mixelle for The Chronicle
Jackie Spease 'contemplates future involvement' as she reads the information
sheet, provided by Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods and the United Way of
Forsyth County, at the collaborative community information meeting.
?i Nakida McDaniels, left.
lead community organiz
er for the Neighbors for
the Better
Neighborhoods group,
explains the upcoming
plans at the community
information meeting.
NBN is a local organiza
tion that partners with
neighborhood groups to
support and enhance
resident-led activities by
providing organizing
assistance, technical
support, and funding as
needed.
Neighborhoods
from page AT
said.
She said the United Way is using mul
tiple resources to fund its work with NBN
and did not receive a grant for the project
but did receive an invitation to work with
residents. NBN had been working with
neighborhood groups already.
NBN is a local organization that part
ners with neighborhood groups to support
and enhance resident-led activities by pro
viding organizing assistance, technical
support and funding as needed.
James said the United Way is involved
with neighborhood-building because it
needs residents to help the organization
when it needs help. It's making invest
ments.
"What we're trying to do is build trust
so that people will work with us," James
said. The help the United Way needs is vol
unteer gifts, skills and talents. J
That's what NBN's Nakida McDaniels
told the group of about 20 people in March
that their communities need from them,
too, to form asset-based communities.
Residents need to be able to work with
institutions that can help them, she said.
"We teach the residents how they can
step up to meet the institutions" and how
the institutions can step back and work for
"sustainable solutions."
There are a lot of small groups working
in neighborhoods that need to be united
toward the same goal, McDaniels said.
NBN works to unite them.
James said United Way partners with
agencies to help build stronger communi
ties.
For "instance, if a neighborhood doesn't
have a grocery store, that might not
become known to the people who can help
the neighborhood get one until someone
actually goes to the neighborhood to see
the conditions. However, the neighbor
hood groups can unite to be one voice to
tell the organization that the community
needs a grocery store and the residents and
organization can work to find ways to
bring one to the community.
The ways the United Way and NBN are
using to get feedback from residents are
the meetings, surveys ? private and group
? that ask residents about themselves and
what they want to see in their neighbor
hoods, and Neighbor Nites, in which food
is served.
Food was served at the March meeting.
"A lot of this is about fellowshipping
and knowing who each other are," James
said.
McDaniels said it's also about educat
ing, motivating and agitating to get people
to act. "That's what place-based change is
all about," she said.
The coalition is providing leadership
training to residents who want to lead the
effort to improve neighborhoods. Impact
councils are being formed as the leading
agents.
Some of the issues residents had at the
March meeting were dormant neighbor
hood associations, food deserts, senior
services and not knowing neighbors.
Dorothy Bonner, a 30-year community
organizer who lives in the Bowen Park
area, said at the March meeting: "There's
nothing like making a difference in your
community and seeing the changes."
She said her area is in a food desert and
she and her neighborhood group have
started working to get a grocery store in
the area.
Dr. Madeline Scales, retired assistant
vice chancellor of student activities at
Winston-Salem State University, has lived
in North wood Estate since 1968. She said
when she first got there, she learned who
her neighbors were. Now, "we don't know
the people next door, so we really need to
do something."
Jackie Spease runs an after-school pro
gram and summer camp that help children
of inmates. She is hoping to find ways to
link the programs through working in her
community.
336-750-3220