Our Initiative

            Rehoboth CDC and the Canyon Corridor Neighborhood have been diligently working to create a community change. Rehoboth CDC has completed its 1^st Leadership Academy and we had 35 students enroll and we had 28 successfully complete the program. The leadership academy was held every Thursday from 6pm-9pm. The youth graduates from the leadership academy are now teaching a summer leadership academy for youth, three days a week, two hours a day. Two of the adult graduates from the leadership academy are assisting with ESL classes, twice a week for two hours a day. The CCNA also held its 1^st block party on June 7, 2010. Four youth from the neighborhood, two police officers, 2 older residents from the neighborhood, and 3 members of the Hispanic Neighborhood Association, and Maya Henley formed a committee and planned the block party from start to finish. The committee worked hard on trying to pull this event together. In the end we had a very successful event, there were over 200 people at the event, with free food, games, prizes, contests, and entertainment. The neighbors were pleased with the turn out and a lot of the neighbors who were unaware of what the Canyon Corridor Neighborhood Alliance was gained more knowledge and are interested in becoming more involved in future activities.

           

            The CCNA has also begun using twitter and facebook to post events, pictures, and meetings for the technology savvy residents. One of the subcommittees of the group have begun translating materials into some of the more popular languages spoken in the community (Burundi, Bhutanese, Russian, etc…) The third subcommittee is currently seeking funding to acquire land on 27^th Ave and Camelback (where the old Lou Grubb Chevrolet used to be located) to open an International Urban Market Place. This market place will have a fresh farmers market, restaurants that offer authentic cuisine from countries abroad, and culture specific markets (for spices, meats, etc…). The vision of this group is to revitalize the stigma of Canyon Corridor and make it a more desirable place to live, work, and worship. 

 

            The Canyon Corridor Neighborhood Alliance has also participated in charettes, and walking audits of the neighborhood to create safer routes to school and to help change the curb appeal of their neighborhood. The CCNA will be hosting its 3^rd Annual “Around the World Community Play Day” on October 9, 2010 and the residents are planning to launch the “Taste of Canyon Corridor” this year at the Around the World Community Play Day.

 

We still face the challenge of breaking through to more refugee groups. The challenge is the language barrier and cultural barriers. We have not yet identified all of the key community leaders to encourage them to support the CFAA movement. We are still working with the International Rescue Committee and some of the apartment owners, where the refugees live, to encourage them to get more involved. We are also working on getting more seniors actively involved. We have a lot of participation from the youth and the middle aged adults but we have not been as successful to date with gettting seasoned adults involved in the meetings, but they do attend the events that are hosted. We will be working on involving them in the planning stages of our upcoming events.

           

As we move forward, we are planning to host more leadership academies and encourage the graduates to exercise the skills learned and start being more actively involved in community organizing through the grassroots approach they were taught. Our 3^rd annual Around the World Community Play Day is currently being planned by some of the graduates. Our plan is to make the residents take more control of the activities and meetings. As a team we are supporting residents of different ages to take charge of the meeting agendas and present more during the meetings so that it becomes a community effort. We also feel that when we launch the International Urban Marketplace the movement will really take off because the core of the planning committee are residents and this is their “baby” that they are birthing, and they will be excited and encouraged as they see how their hard work has begun to pay off.