Community - Priorities

After speaking with several members of my community I learned of what people in the area thought of the issues with the busy road as well as how much effort everyone was willing to put in to resolve the issue. There are many options for this problem, and all of them cause money and will end in an inconvenience for someone. Depending on whom I spoke with and where they lived changed their position and how desperate they are to see the problem solved. People at the bottom of the hill are free of the problem, but still part of the community, and still very involved. 

However some solutions that have been presented would cause traffic to be redirected towards the bottom of the hill and reduce activity on the problem road. As soon as other members of the community realize that the problem could be theirs they are suddenly not so eager to help, for obvious reasons.  In many situations the members of a community participate for their own benefit or to help others until their neck is on the line. Members of the community who live in different areas of the neighborhood away from the road are more than eager to give ideas, advice, and their time to help resolve this issue, but when they are at risk of inconvenience they immediately jump ship.

A community is only as good the people who form it. Without good intensions there will be no people and therefore no community. Without a desirable goal no one will want to be part of the community, and it will fail. What makes a successful community?  It is essential to listen to everyone’s voice, and be cautious and understanding of the majority’s interests and position on the issue. Values are a key piece in the drive for this community. This community values a safe, helpful, and convenient neighborhood.  This issue with the road takes away from that value, and so the community tries to help solve it, but without the help of the city nothing can really legally be done to solve the problem.

Everyone is very supportive within this neighborhood and is willing to help to the extent that they are not inconvenienced. Everyone’s priority within the group is the direct the traffic away from the neighborhood. Not just the top because everyone tries to help for the better, but the most important and highest priority is themselves.  If they are in danger of being inconvenienced then the community’s goals are split and essentially they are no longer a community. A community’s highest priority is to satisfy the common goal of the community without upsetting too many members along the way.

My Community - Signal Hill

A community that I am involved in is my neighborhood, the signal hill community. It is a very good neighborhood with many great people. The neighborhood has many walking path areas, a lot of facilities, such as a recreation center, soccer fields, hockey rinks, baseball diamonds, parks, and schools. It is middle to high economic status neighborhood as fairly high finances are required in order to own a home in this neighborhood. This is typically a good thing because it means all of the neighbors are hardworking peoples and contributing members of society. This is important in a community in order to have similar goals for community development. Since most people within the neighborhood have similar concerns this will direct community development in a mutually satisfying direction.

                Currently there is an opportunity to enhance the quality of life within the community. There is a road running through the neighborhood connecting the shopping center to the east of my neighborhood with the main road and neighborhoods west of my community.  This means that thousands of cars pass through that area, making life very inconvenient for people who live on that road as it is very noisy for long hours, and it is also very difficult for them to get out of their own driveways. 

                I personally do not live specifically on that road, but very close to it and so I consider that area to be part of my community. So obviously to enhance the quality of life in this community something must be done about this road. I have attended several community meetings where members of the community come to offer reasonable opinions on ways this could be fixed. Several ideas offered by the community are to seal the west access to the neighborhoods so that those people are forced to use alternate routes to get home. Another is to install gates and passes so that only certain people (the people who live in signal hill community) are able to use the road. There were a few other ideas, but they were kind of unreasonable. The environment was very positive, helpful, and open minded which helped lots of opinions to be shared. In the end, the board (which for my neighborhood is the city of Calgary and the alderman) took all ideas into consideration, but no concluding solution was made. Now it has been about 8 months and still no word on solutions or decisions.

                This is a very involved community but has yet to be empowered since the community has no power on its own to shut down a road, or show any sign on influencing the city board to do so. This can have negative effects on a community when it sees that its efforts have little or no effects, people get discouraged and contribute less to future efforts in community development. It is great to have an involved community, but without empowerment no development will take place.

Lessons from Invictus applied to community development

After watching the film Invictus, I learned a lot about methods for community development. The movie stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. The movie takes place in South Africa and Morgan Freeman place the role of Nelson Mandela. The movie begins when Nelson has recently been released from jail, law has recently been passed allowing blacks to vote, and he is struggling to balance racial tensions within the South African community. When at the springbok’s game Nelson notices that the colored folks in the crowd cheer against their own countries team due to the white dominance within the team and its racist past. Nelson identifies this as an opportunity and works through this sports team to unify the countries separated community. Nelson starts by meeting with Matt Damon the captain of the national South African rugby team vaguely hinting his intensions to use the Springboks to bring this country together, and that he wants the Springboks to win despite strongly despising them years ago.

                Aside from the primary goal for the Springboks to win, Nelson requested the Springboks preform community outreach within the schools. Working with the nation’s youth, and gaining their support is a great way to begin reshaping a community. Starting community development with the youth is a great place to start. It shows both to the parents and the children that you care, and also changes the attitudes of the up and coming generation. Nelson intended to use this to help remove some of the color barrier since the large majority of the team was white it would gain the support of the country to rally behind the team in unison before the upcoming rugby tournament which would be hosted in South Africa.

                Sport is a great way to create friendships and bonds regardless of color. When playing on the same team as another person, it doesn’t matter your differences because you need to work together to succeed. A team needs to work as a single unit and doesn’t have time to worry about issues like the color of your skin. They must be one big extended family.

                Another way that sport is a great way to develop a community is it can be used as a common interest or goal. Nelson knew the country was hungry to win, and it didn’t matter what color your skin was. If you supported the same team you were practically best friends. They showed this effectively throughout the film near the end when the South African team won the tournament and the white man celebrated with the black body guard, as well as when the white policemen celebrated the victory with the little black boy. With the introduction of a common interest or goal a community can develop. It can be a long process, but slowly and surely the color barriers were removed.

Benifits of extraciricular activities for children

I recently read the article Participation in sports and cultural activities among aboriginal children and youth https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=14giANHzYcYw0jXLYX5FjCLBJ9em5uI7hMYla54jIFhq2XJEa3C9j9rJB3JsD&hl=en&authkey=CMm4kZoF&pli=1.

                This article is about methods to help develop the aboriginal community’s youth primarily through extracurricular activity. According to the article recent studies have shown that extracurricular activities can and will have a variety of positive effects in the development of the aboriginal youth community. Extracurricular activities can be anything from music lessons to sports and athletics programs or even cultural activities. Participation can benefit the children with greater academic performance, improved physiological performance, and positive friendships. Physical exercise is also closely linked to improved development such as increased self-esteem, greater mental awareness, and prevention of negative habits such as smoking.

                Living off of native reserves has also had great influence on how many children participate in extracurricular activities. Roughly two thirds of aboriginal children living off reservations tend to participate in sports at least once a week. Children with higher educated parents and higher household incomes were also more likely to participate in extracurricular activities. Keeping busy also encourages children to participate in more activities. Studies show that aboriginal children who spend less than 4 hours watching TV or playing videos games are more likely to participate in extracurricular activities. Studies have shown that children who take up an activity such as volunteering, music lessons, etc. are also more likely to take up a sport versus the children that devote more time to television and video games are less likely to do either.  

                I agree with all of the facts pointed out within this article, and I think these statistics should not just be restricted to aboriginal children as the same results can likely be derived from a child of any other birth origin when participating in extracurricular activities. Participation in other curricular activities will encourage development of more skills and keep an active mind rather than spending so much time watching television. By participating in extracurricular activities it allow them to develop social skills, life skills, and long lasting friendships with other children with similar interests.

                Community development can frequently begin with the youth of the community and the process can take anywhere from a week to years depending on the change. By giving their youth a strong start on life it will allow the aboriginal community to grow, develop, and get away from past habits that maybe perceived as negative.  Regardless extracurricular activities are a key piece in youth development, which in turn strengthens the developing community.  Sports and extracurricular activity are not only a great way to help the youth grow, but also a great way to get the parents out, meeting and greeting. By getting the parents to talk hopefully this will create ideas and inspire the parents to press towards greater development within their own community. Anytime people with different ideas or opinions meet, thoughts are stirred and hopefully an urge to improve something within their community emerges.