Did you know building capacity in our neighborhoods includes contributing to the local economy in quiet, yet surprising ways?
It’s an idea worth exploring at the Prince William Neighborhood Conference, Sat., Feb. 25 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Development Services Building at the county’s Main Government Complex in Woodbridge (right on the Prince William Parkway near Hoadly Road).
Registration opens Jan. 25 at www.pwcgov.org/neighborhoodconference.
Read more about it at Manassas Patch.
City of Manassas Neighborhood Services Manager Kisha Wilson-Sogunro received an important phone call recently - from the White House.
Organizers of the President's Champions of Change program invited her to their weekly panel and networking discussion. Ten Champions, ranging from educators to entrepreneurs to community activists from around the U.S., were being recognized for the work they are doing to better their communities.
Sogunro thinks the invitation resulted from the city's recent Virginia Municipal League President's Award, the latest of 11 state and national awards the city, its community partners and volunteers have accumulated in the past five years for their neighborhood revitalization projects.
She accepted the invitation in typical "Kisha" style - by asking for more.
Sogunro asked if she could bring with her the four AmeriCorps VISTA members who are living in Georgetown South and working with residents to revitalize that community.
And the White House assistant said yes.
"I was extremely appreciative," said Sogunro, who took Kimberley Jenkins-Bailey, Mignon Broughton, Kenisha Salvary and Jesus Tlatelpa with her to the White House on Dec. 15.
The Manassas group joined up to 75 others in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for a four-hour panel, Q & A and networking session. One Champion of Change panelist was Timothy Solano, a child abuse victim who overcame substance abuse, homelessness and incarceration to become an executive board member for Habitat for Humanity International. Solano admitted: "When you're making speeches about cleaning up your neighborhoods, I was the guy you were talking about."
Kenisha Salvary, 20, who graduated from Osbourn High School, was moved to tears. "I related to his story of survival and the challenge of single parenting. We need to bring these success stories to GTS where people my age can hear them."
Mignon Broughton, who recently published her own story of struggle, Hidden Voices: Revelations of a Young Soul [Godzchild Publications], took heart in Solano's message as well. "Don't let your struggle stop you. Keep your focus. Be confident. Model that for others, and they will learn to meet their goals."
Another Champion of Change panel member was Rev. Dr. Judy Talbert, who works closely with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and was recognized for dedicating 36 years to helping at-risk and challenged populations, including the homeless, ex-offenders, members of gangs and persons with HIV-AIDS.
"It was encouraging to hear that I don't have to leave my faith at the door when I'm working," said Kimberley Jenkins-Bailey. "What we are doing in GTS matters and is making change. We are planting seeds and watering for the future. My role is to use my time wisely now and do the best I can."
"It was an energy boost," said Sogunro, who talked one-on-one with Jonathan Greenblatt, Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. "Manassas is on the right track with capacity building and I'm eager to do so much more. We heard story after story of people who
turned their lives around and now they're working to make their communities better. We need a strong hand, but also offer that hand to lift people up."
On Jan. 16, the City of Manassas, Manassas City Public Schools and the Boys & Girls Club of Manassas will launch a pilot youth transportation project that will connect youth in Georgetown South to the club for after school and early evening tutoring, mentoring, computer lab, athletics and other programming. If successful, the pilot will be expanded to other areas of need throughout the city.
Sogunro is also recruiting community partners and volunteers for the Big Day of Serving Manassas on May 5 in the Bristoe Station neighborhood - moving the successful 1 By Youth model to the next area in need of revitalization.
"Engaging youth drives change," says Sogunro. "We also have a great untapped influx of veterans returning to our neighborhoods. These vets have the skills and abilities we need to build strong neighborhoods. We need them in CERT-Fire Corps and Neighborhood Watch. We need them on the boards of our community associations."
As soon as she returned to her office, Kimberley Jenkins-Bailey taped up her quote of the day. It reads, 'After you go to the White House, life will never be the same.in a good way!'"
To sponsor, partner or volunteer with City of Manassas Neighborhood Services in their 2012 initiatives, call 703-257-8240 or e-mail kwilson-sogunro@ci.manassas.va.us.
For more information about the Champions of Change program, visit www.whitehouse.gov/champions.
On Oct. 4 in Richmond, the City of Manassas was awarded the Virginia Municipal League’s prestigious President's Award for its Neighborhood Revitalization Projects over the past five years. Representing Manassas and the City’s community partners and volunteers, from left, Round Community resident Robert Punihaole, Weems Community resident Cindy Brookshire, Baldwin Community resident Jose Paiz, Council Member Sheryl Bass, Neighborhood Services Manager Kisha Wilson-Sogunro (holding award), Mark Olsen, President, Historic Manassas, Inc. and Owner of Olde Towne Landscaping; Traci DeGroat, Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity, Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park; Manassas Mayor Harry J. Parrish II and City Manager Lawrence D. Hughes. Photo by Dave Parsons.
Congratulations to Todos Super Market! From the website of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia:
"The Tayloe Murphy Resilience Awards honor the most resilient businesses in Virginia — those which displayed growth, a dogged entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to community in areas facing high unemployment, high poverty and low entrepreneurial activity....
With the opening of a new 50,000 square-foot grocery store last April, Todos Supermarket celebrates a milestone. It’s only recently that business returned to levels before the foreclosure crises decimated adjacent neighborhoods.
A controversial local immigration law passed in 2008 had a chilling effect on customers and put the market and its owner and founder, Carlos Castro, in the middle of a fight that roiled the community. Castro, who fled El Salvador’s civil war as a boy, helped lead opposition to the law while working to bridge a cultural and community divide in Prince William County. The county ultimately revised the law, which gave police power to investigate a person’s legal status to only those in custody for a suspected crime.
Now Castro looks to the future, hoping his new anchor store at Marumsco Plaza will play a key role in the revitalization of Route 1 in Woodbridge.
Photo Credit: Linda Hughes
Six hundred volunteers from 44 church groups traveled to Manassas from Northern Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania to be part of a 1 By Youth service event in the Point of Woods neighborhood of Manassas on Saturday May 14.
Read more about it on AOL Patch here.
A slideshow of pictures is here.
A 1 By Youth project last year that served residents of the Georgetown South neighborhood earned recognition as the “State Neighborhood Youth Effort of the Year”.
Congratulations to the Manassas organizers, among them Cindy Brookshire of Prince William Study Circles, on another fine effort.
...that Cindy Brookshire has been named Woman of the Year in Manassas, Virginia.
A well-deserved award. Congratulations to Cindy.
-- Bill Corbett
The City of Manassas has won “State Neighborhood Youth Effort of the Year” for the national pilot 1 By Youth project that took place on April 24, 2010 in the Georgetown South neighborhood.
Christen Zenich, City of Manassas Neighborhood Coordinator, accepted the award on behalf of a community partnership at the 11th Annual Virginia Statewide Neighborhood Conference in Roanoke, Virginia on September 25.
The partnership included Colorado-based Group Cares, Mike Garcia Construction, Habitat for Humanity of Prince William County, the Boys & Girls Club, Manassas Assembly of God and Unity in the Community. More than 1,000 teen and adult volunteers from three states participated in the massive one day, one community, one impact neighborhood revitalization project. Nearly 60 Manassas area sponsors contributed to the project including Lowe’s, 84 Lumber, Summit Construction, Sherwin-Williams, Chadwick, Washington, Moriarty, Elmore & Bunn, E.E. Wine, TruGreen LandCare, Virginia Contractors Supply, Vulcan Materials-Manassas Quarry, J.E. Rice True Value Hardware and Walgreens.
Volunteers painted fences, built soft-fill pathways and re-mulched playgrounds in the 45-year-old neighborhood of 860 townhomes, one of several walkable communities that surround historic Old Town Manassas.
Georgetown South has continued to engage residents by training Neighborhood Watch members, strengthening alternatives for youth and working with volunteers to paint front fences and rebuild the L Green playground. On Nov. 6 the community plans to cut the ribbon on a new outdoor pavilion on the H Green, thanks to generous donations from Mike Garcia Construction, Summit Construction, 84 Lumber and Lazlo Concrete.
“Without 1 By Youth Manassas, I have no doubt these results would not have been possible,” said Christie Strader, Community Manager, Georgetown South Community Council, Inc. “The intense preparation for that day and the community meetings that V.O.I.C.E. [Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement] facilitated to bring residents out in support of the revitalization took us all from zero to 60 mph in terms of networking, making connections and going beyond cosmetic changes to build community and set new standards.”
The City of Manassas has already begun to work with Group Cares to bring 1 By Youth back again next year. The Point of Woods 1 & 2, and Point of Woods 3 neighborhoods have been selected as the site of 1 By Youth 2011 on May 14, 2011. Sponsors and volunteers are welcome. Contact Christen Zenich at 703-257-8315.
The 1 By Youth Award is the tenth award the City of Manassas Neighborhood Services Department has garnered in the past three years at the state and national level.
The Virginia Statewide Neighborhood Conference, provides an opportunity for people from all locations, socio-economic levels, and sectors across the Commonwealth to learn best practices for addressing neighborhood issues of the times, attend workshops, network with one another, and share experiences and information toward building stronger communities. To learn more, visit www.vsnc.org.
The City will hold its own local neighborhood conference on Nov. 13 at the Boys & Girls Club. Registration is open through Nov. 10 at www.manassascity.org/neighconf.
Photographs are courtesy of Randy Donaldson, Lynn Grizzard and Meghan Oakes.
Sixty three per cent of the people in homeless families in our community are children. "A coordinated plan can greatly reduce those costs and help us meet our goal of appropriate housing options for all citizens," says Frances Harris, the current chair of the Continuum of Care, who presented the plan at two public forums in Lake Ridge and Manassas to solicit community input, and plans more presentations to community groups throughout the area.
To learn more and for instructions on how to offer your input, go to this link at PWCVA.com.
-- Cindy Brookshire
