CENTRE WELLINGTON – The township’s community services advisory committee (CSAC) has decided the best approach to a proposed Neighbourhood Wellness Initiative is to turn the project over to staff, with regular reporting back to the committee.
Its recommendation will go to council for final approval at an upcoming meeting.
At its May meeting, CSAC heard presentations from councillor Stephan Kitras, who originated the idea, and communications officer Kendra Martin, who had worked on a similar project in Kitchener.
Kitras envisions developing a guide or manual that would help neighbourhoods hold spontaneous or planned events.
The guide would contain information on how to get permission to close a street for a block party or giant yard sale for example – and make it easy for these kinds of events to take place.
Kitras’ thinking is that people will want to connect with their neighbours once the pandemic is over, and new folks to Centre Wellington will want ways to connect with the community in which they now live.
He sees the initiative as a community-building, neighbourhood-building and mental health-building initiative.
Kitras wants to form a task force comprised of himself and six citizens to piece together what it would look like.
He brought the idea to council, which supported the idea in general but referred the matter to CSAC to sort through the details and return with a recommendation.
Martin’s vision is similar to Kitras’ – to pave the way for community-led events – but she proposed offering small grants for projects that would go through an approval system.
She would seek community input through social media and CWConnect and use the Youth Council – which has been dormant since the pandemic began – to help with community outreach.
She proposed starting as a pilot with just three projects to test the waters.
CSAC members were in favour of the concept but unclear about what they were being asked.
So, for the June 2 meeting, managing director of community services Pat Newson prepared a memo for the committee containing background information and the three options before the committee:
- form a subcommittee comprised of staff, committee members and citizens, and take it on themselves;
- approve Kitras’ proposal to recruit citizens for a task force; or
- approve Martin’s proposal and have staff develop a community-led grassroots program.
Although Kitras wanted to be part of the planning, because he is a councillor he is unable to sit on a committee in any of these scenarios.
“Because he is a councillor, he has to follow the rules of council first,” Newsom explained.
“It’s not the same as being a general citizen.”
Committee members felt badly for Kitras, but ultimately agreed that Martin has the expertise to develop such a program and bring the idea to fruition.
They added the words “in consultation with CSAC” to the draft recommendation so they will be kept up to speed on the project.
