For the first year of the two-year project, ANC focused on Regina’s North Central neighbourhood. However, as North Central had received more money and attention than other Regina inner-city neighbourhoods, the organizations involved agreed at the end of ANC’s first year that moving ANC’s activities into the adjacent Core neighbourhood for the remainder of the project would be more productive.
The Core Community Association (CCA) put the ANC resources towards community consultation. Community engagement interviews centred on four issues: what people thought of the neighbourhood, what they liked, what they wanted to change, and what issues had affected them personally. With the addition of small and large group sessions and efforts to engage the business community, CCA heard from close to 1,000 residents.
CCA used ANC’s action grants for:
- A communication initiative that promoted CCA as a way to report and access information
- Signs to publicize events and services
- Numbering residences located on back alleys to make it easier for emergency service workers to find them
- A leadership workshop
- The purchase of a large capacity refrigerator to be used by community organizations
- A volunteer recruitment and matching strategy
- Teaching quilt-making skills
- Providing lawnmowers to at-risk youth from the community so that they could give residents help with their yard work while gaining employment experience
Support continued to the North Central neighbourhood in the form of a door-to-door survey of residents that created an opportunity for connection and a means of finding out what other needs and services might be required by community members.
Two important lessons were confirmed in ANC’s second year in Regina.
First, neighbourhood revitalization initiatives stand a better chance of success if residents or established associations are well informed of the project in advance of its arrival.
Second, the United Way of Regina decided to consider funding community development worker positions within neighbourhood-based charitable organizations rather than pursuing ANC-style neighbourhood development itself.
ANC activity increased awareness of the demographics and development issues that affect the Core neighbourhood as well as giving CCA a better understanding of residents’ needs. CCA Coordinator Leila Francis said, “We can now speak more confidently of the neighbourhood’s needs and wishes.”
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Key Contacts
Tracey Mann
Director of Community Impact and Investments
United Way of Regina
2300 - 11th Avenue
Regina, SK S4P 0K1
Tel: 306-751-4755
Email: tmann@unitedwayregina.ca
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