Speaking Vietnamese, the Wheaton Library, Bus Stops, the Wheaton Regional Park, Knowledge of the School System…
Posted by meganmoriarty on October 29, 2009
What do all of the above have in common?
They were all identified as community resources by the members of Neighbor Corps this past Saturday.
After spending the morning formulating a common vision for Wheaton (see post here), we then turned our attention to what resources we as individuals bring to the community. For instance, Ann speaks Vietnamese; Roxanne knows lots about government contracts; Miguel can fix just about anything in your house or car; Ayad can build you a computer; Martha is a great cook; Huwey is a great event planner…you get the idea!
Julio explaining which assets he contributes to the Wheaton community
This process was just the beginning — at the next session we will be going out into the community to door knock and meet even more residents who each bring amazing gifts and talents to our community.
After thinking about our individual assets, everyone then jumped in their cars and went out in small groups to look at the community around them with fresh eyes. They came back with lists and lists of community resources: parks, bus stops, schools, churches, local businesses like restaurants and grocery stores.
Rosa, Roxanne and Mike won the asset “scavenger hunt” not only beacuse of the quantity of assets they identified, but by noticing specific things like: there are many home-based businesses in Wheaton; there are spaces that may be available for use on the weekends for community activities; there are a number of senior care facilities, but few for our young residents.
By taking stock of what resources we already have available in our community, we hope to build upon them to reach our common vision for Wheaton.
You can see more pictures from our Neighbor Corps session here. And help us with our community resources list of by adding what assets you see in Wheaton in the comments section.
