Acadia Community Garden - Next Meeting February 15, 2012

Tonight was the first meeting for Acadia Community residents interested in creating a community garden behind the Acadia Recreation Centre.  




NEXT MEETING -  Please Come join us!

Date: Wednesday,  February 15^th 2012

Time: 7:00 pm

Location: Acadia Recreation Complex (240 - 90 Avenue SE)

If you have any questions, please contact Patricia Fair at 403-286-9759 or pdfair@telus.net .  


Blog and Facebook
I am starting Acadia Community Garden's private blog and private Facebook page to make it easy for the group to communicate, share pictures of other community gardens, ideas, and planning.  Come out to a meeting, sign up for the blog and Facebook page, and have lots of fun with us!  


Calling all Acadia Artists!
If you are an Artist residing or working in Acadia and are interested in partnering with the community garden group to help beautify the space, please contact Geoff Sandhurst at cgsandhurst@shaw.ca  or (403) 253-2577.  Geoff is also developing a south Calgary Artist Network as a sub group of the CADA Artist Network. Please feel free to call about more info if you are interested. 


Thank you, 


Corinne Sandhurst

Email from the City of Calgary that was sent with Survey results in previous post

Dear Resident of Acadia:

Thank you very much for your interest in the Strong Neighbourhood Initiative. Some of you participated in a resident gathering in October-November of 2011 where we provided more specific information about this initiative. To those of you who did, we thank you for your time and input.   As promised at the gathering, this letter is to update you on the Strong Neighbourhood activities and let you know about the next steps. 

At the gatherings, we presented residents with the information collected through brief surveys, graffiti walls (residents writing ideas on paper attached to a wall) and previous resident gatherings; and participants had a chance to build upon what others offered. In terms of information, we collected everybody’s ideas and have provided you with an updated version of them.  Some of these ideas are related to living within a geographic area such as outdoor recreational activities and facilities, high level of traffic, amenities, etc. Be assured that we will make sure that all these concerns are kept in mind as we progress forward. At the gatherings, it was apparent that people enjoyed meeting neighbours and had a good time engaging in conversation with them. We will keep this in mind by allowing time for socializing in our future plans.  

As next steps, we will be hosting a meeting with those people who expressed an interest in taking the initial ideas further. At the same time, we will continue meeting with residents who don’t know about the initiative by having smaller scale gatherings at different locations in Acadia.

Another piece of update is about the surveys. Last fall, we were busy collecting a total of 613 surveys both in-person and on-line. Five people were the lucky winners to gift cards from the names of those entered for survey prizes. We will be letting you and the rest of the community know about the results of the surveys when the compilation of the data is completed.

We will be in touch with you to let you know about new developments and concrete initiatives that people might be interested in pursuing. In the meantime, you can find information about SNI at:

  http://acadiastrongneighbourhoodinitiative.blogspot.com/

                                                                                          

Thank you again for your participation and ideas.

Tamara Baldwin

403-537-7582, Tamara.baldwin@calgary.ca

Viviana Reinberg

403-537-7596, viviana.reinberg@calgary.ca

Viviana Reinberg, MSW, RSW Community Social Worker Community & Neighbourhood Services, The City of Calgary South Area, 502 Heritage Drive SW Mailing address: P.O. Box 2100, Stn. M, # 100, T2P 2M5                    
403, 537-7596,  Fax: 403, 221-3568

Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic and we’ll change the world.  Jack Layton

Survey Results from the City of Calgary

ummary of Acadia Residents perceptions about their Community

Collected from different engagement activities through 2011

(Acadia Community Association Winter Carnival 2010, Acadia Community Association 50^th Anniversary Event, Block Party, Acadia Elementary School Picnic)

What residents like about Acadia

Good location/accessibility to amenities and services (19)

• close proximity  and access to amenities, services, schools 
• Have schools in the community K-12 (3)
• Good shopping / stores

Community spirit (8)

• It’s family oriented /Traditional family friendly neighbourhoods (3)
• Friendly neighbours, small town feeling, seniors,  (3)

Greenspaces (4)

• The playgrounds, fields, Trees Big trees

Good Volunteer Base (2)

• Amazing community association board members
• Dedicated senior volunteer group

Financially sound, affordable (2)

Great schools and facilities (1)

Very clean community (1)

What residents think is missing in Acadia

Amenities for children/ youth and families (14)

• Daycares/before & after care (2) 
• outdoor rinks 2
• Community theatre (free for kids)
• Kids activities 
• A video store 
• The YWCA/YMCA
• Fitness classes for seniors and people with disabilities

Family oriented events (7)

• Community block party
• Pecha Kucha event
• Collaborative sculpturing Art program

Outdoor spaces for enjoyment (5)

• Outdoor rinks
• Safe/decent bike paths or lanes and walking path to park 
• Waterpark/SplashPark 

Improve connection among residents (4)

• Increased participation in community affairs 
• Better communication and connection among people

ARC that focuses on Acadia community (3)

• Priority for Acadia residents
• Offer free programs 
• Walkable and inviting 

Broad Range of Playgrounds

Outreach to ESL families

• Translation of promotional items

Noise barrier off Southland Dr 

 Free computer lab program: for seniors and youth

Waste receptacles, composting station, recycling stations

What residents don’t like about living in Acadia

Traffic  (12)

• at Heritage and Macleod Trail + flow
• The traffic driving/speeding through my neighbourhood.  
• Traffic calming needed at Fairmount Drive.

Lack of recreation and arts facilities (5)

• We need Y(M/W)CA.  
• Visual arts centre for adults, seniors and youth.  

Too homogeneous population (4)

• Not enough young families ( lack of )
• Not enough kids
• Demographics: we need to encourage young families to settle in Acadia
• When I am in Acadia, I am feeling like I am Canadian

Secondary suites (4)

• Rented basements with small windows

Garbage

Lack of family doctors in area (2)

Excessive tax for elderly

Dogs in playgrounds and parks

• Dog  feces in yards

Vandalism/Crime (3)

• Vandalism, break ins

Mobility  (1)

• People hardly stay within community. Go out to access activities, programs and services

Too many schools (1)

• Schools – kids bussed in doesn’t give kids who live there a chance to develop relationships with kids in their community. 
• Not enough students for the amount of schools

Lack of strong volunteer participation (1)

• Volunteerism 

      Neighbours

• Smoky fires in summer

What residents would change about Acadia

Less traffic and Permits (10)

• Traffic – main road always backed up, make safer roads
• Tired of speeding on 86^th Avenue and Ashley Crescent,
• Too much traffic: calming barriers on Acadia Dr & Fairmount Dr  & 84 Av (4)
• Get rid of parking permits (1) – (I like the permits) (2)

A skatepark in Acadia (7)

• Keep kids  in Acadia not downtown

Less crime (7)

• Get rid of crime.  I had my car windows smashed a few months ago and several neighbours have had break-ins. Thanks
• More  police presence
• PACT – Give info on crime and what to be aware of

Increased sense of volunteerism and community (3)

• More community interest & involvement (volunteers) people seem to come out to events but do not commit to help. Same people always helping.
• More backing of the community associations etc.

More community events/increase social networking (6) 

• Connect all community members – kids/seniors/apartments/houses... everyone
• More community gatherings

Increase beautification and cleanliness (5)

ARC to focus on community needs (4)

• offer more sports activities (3)

• Do shimmy sports at the ARC for kids ( Free)
• More classes/activities at ARC

Celebrate multiculturalism (4)

• A community multicultural school 
• Conversations between immigrant families and the rest of the community

More amenities within the community (1)

Better wheelchair accessibility (1)

Better information about community events (1) 

More community activities for families (1)

Demographics: need younger population (1)

Outdoor activities (1)

Water park (1)

Acadia Community Garden - Start Up Meeting Jan 26 at 7 pm at the ARC

 Interested in gardening but no space?                      

Do we have a solution for you!  

We are organizing a community garden in Acadia located behind the Acadia Recreation Complex. 

Come join and give us your ideas at the start up meeting at the ARC

Date: Thursday January 26^th 2011

Time: 7:00 pm

Location: Acadia Recreation Complex (240 - 90 Avenue SE)

Should you have any questions, please contact Patricia Fair at 403-286-9759 or pdfair@telus.net

Acadia Photographs on Acadia Strong Neighourhood Facebook

There are wonderful historic photographs of the community of Acadia researched and posted to Facebook by Samuel, one of our community residents.  

Check out the photos and if you have any in your personal archive, or love to research and share info about the community of Acadia, please feel free to share on the public facebook page. Just search in Facebook

"Acadia Strong Neighbourhood Initiative".  

If you have a story to share about Acadia, please message Samuel or I on the Acadia Strong Neighbourhood Initiative Facebook page.  Who knows...if we collect enough memories, maybe we can put together a wonderful history book about our neighbourhood to share with residents new and old.

Thank you!

Acadia Strong Neighbourhood Initiative Update!

Acadia Strong Neighbourhood Initiative

The Acadia Strong Neighbourhood Initiative brings residents together to address common concerns and enhance all aspects of community life. Below are some activities undergone to reach that goal.

Resident Engagement

We had 4 resident gatherings to begin conversations about what is important for people living in Acadia. We will be letting the community know about issues generated as well as the data collected from surveys when all the information has been analysed. Any ideas about the best way of letting you know about this would be most welcome.  

Meeting Community Groups

As community includes people who work, study and worship in Acadia, we began conversations with faith groups, schools, and other community groups located in the community. At some point in the future, we will be approaching businesses who have an interest in community life. 

Block party

Partnering with Lutheran Church of Our Saviour, we had a very successful block party on 86^th Ave. The purpose was to meet people on that block and the adjacent streets and pilot the idea of block parties in Acadia. The intention was that residents would be inspired to organize their own block parties on their streets and motivate others from other areas of Acadia to do the same.  If you are interested in organizing a block party on your street, we have all the information to obtain the permit and can connect you with potential partners who might assist you in your plans. 

Surveys

We were busy collecting a total of 613 surveys both in-person and on-line. Five people were the lucky winners to gift cards from the names of those entered for survey prizes. We will be letting you know about the results of the surveys when the compilation of the data is completed. 

As next steps, the idea is to move towards a group or groups of residents taking action towards improving community life. To this end, we will continue meeting people and we are planning to have smaller scale conversations with people who are naturally congregated in a physical space. If you know of a group who would be interested in having a presentation about the initiative, or live in an apartment complex with access to a meeting room, we would love to hear from you so that we could organize a gathering. 

We will also have further conversations with those people who have already participated in gatherings and have expressed an interest in moving things forward. We will keep you posted about new developments.

You can learn more about this initiative at http://acadiastrongneighbourhoodinitiative.blogspot.com/

If you are interested in actively participating in building community within Acadia, please contact us. 

Tamara Baldwin, 537-7582, Tamara.baldwin@calgary.ca 

Viviana Reinberg, 537-7596, viviana.reinberg@calgary.ca