Establishment of Community Congress Rests with the City1
By VERONICA CLEMONS
Chronicle Suff Writer
The process to establish a
Community Congress for Win
ston-Salem's Enterprise Commu
nity has been planned and is
ready to be implemented. How
ever, how quickly the plans
move along rest with city offi
cials since Common Visions
denied a request for funds to get
things underway.
A grant request for about
$17,000 was made to the Com
mon Vision Board of Directors
for the preparation phase of the
Congress. The money would pay
for supplies and meeting spaces
needed to get the most commu
nity involvement possible for
one of the most integral parts of
the Enterprise Community.
The Community Congress is
the mechanism by which repre
sentatives will be selected tos
erve on the Enterprise Communi
ty's Boared of Directors.
Assistant City Manager
Allen Joines said Common
Vision board members felt that
since the city was the lead
agency it should provide the
funding.
Common Vision turned
down the requestfrom the group
that has been working closely
with Enterprise Community
plans. Common Vision became a
supporting agency of the concept
after the idea was brought back
from a meeting attended by
Joines and Jame Grace, execu
tive director of the East Winston
Community Development Cor
poration, said Ellen Monahan.
Grace, who has been
involved in promoting the pro
ject, said he recently received
notice from Common Vision
Chairman Richard Janeway that
the Mayor and the city manager
will be considering the request. It
will ultimately be presented to
the Board of Alderman.
Monahan, who works with
Common Vision and helped
write the Enterprise Community
grant application, said there is a
misconception about Common
Vision. People think it is a grant
ing agency and it is not. How
ever Common Vision has made
exception for a few projects.
Those projects were one time
special projects or had no other
avenue to receive funds. This did
not apply to the Enterprise Com
munity, in which the city is the
lead agency.
Common Vi&ixm receiver
$20,000 each from the city,
Forsyth County, the Chamber of
Commerce, the Winston-Salem
Foundation and United Way.
Most of the money is used for
operating expenses for Common
Vision.
Monahan said the board did
discuss the request for the Com
munity Congress but decided it
was fairest, and Mayor Martha
Wood agreed, to let the lead
agency handle it because mem
bers did not want to establish a
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precedent.
Grace said he felt good about
the city taking up the responsibil
ity to keep tilings moving.
When the city did not
receive the $3 million federal
grant K implement the project,
city officials said they would be
committed to it anyway.
The Enterprise community
represents an economically
deprived area in Winston-Salem
that includes more than 30 neigh
borhoods. The $3 million would
have gone to complete strategic
plans that would economically
revive the area and help alleviate
poverty.
Grace said the $17,000 is
very important to begin working
toward those strategic plans out
lined in the proposal.
"It's very critical," he said.
"Everyone needs to know what
the Enterprise Community is all
about."
Ten of the 19 voting mem
bers of the board of directors will
be residents in the designated
area.
The area has been divided
into six districts, and the number
of representatives from each dis
trict to serve on the board is
based on the population. There
will be one representative per
every 4,000 people.
The other voting members
will consist of elected officials,
and representatives from the reli
gious community, financial com
munity and foundations.
Both Joines and Grace agree
that the number is not too large.
"It has the number of players
needed to make this successful,"
Grace said. "And community
people do not have enough input
and oversight of leadership."
."It provides us with a good
cross-section of representatives,"
Joines added.
The number of community
representatives on the congress is
not limited. However, each dis
trict must come to a consensus
on how many it wants.
Once board members are
selected, the city will provide
leadership training for all of
them. The training will be pro
vided by Forrest Toms, CEO of
Training Research and Develop
ment. The sessions will focus on
commitment of board members
to the project and accountability
to the community.
The process calls for a com
munity congress annually or bi
annually to provide an avenue to
get information back to the com
munity from board members.
Grace said he would like to
start as early as this summer get
ting out information to various
community organizations about
the Community congress. The
effort will consist of five to six
teams comprised of 8-12 mem
bers. They will conduct a door
to-door campaigns, meetings
with existing neighborhood asso
ciations, church groups and other
organizations to get as much
involvement as possible.
"We should be standing at
every entrance of Happy Hill
Gardens with those orange jack
ets on passing out pamphlets and
doing whatever else we can to
get people involved," Grace said.
The work toward implement
ing strategies cannot begin until
board members are -selected; . ? ; ?
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