Rochester Park Crime Watch!!

Yah! We now have a crime watch committee. The name of the committee is The Rochester park crime Watch. It has been years since this area has had a committee. I am glad that we were able to get some of the residents as well as organizations to come on board. I am still connecting with people to get a whole lot more involved. this is greatly needed in this community. I invite anyone who wants to make a difference and be a part to come and join us. The next town Hall Meeting will be July 12, 2008 @ The Lord's Missionary Baptist Church, 6722 Bexar St, Dallas, Tx 75215. We are on a roll.

The power of community

Our "community" is growing!!

I had just gotten home from work and my phone rang telling me I had a text message:

8:19 I HAVE A WITNESS THAT THEY ARE BACK SELLING SINGLE CIGARETTES

Despite Evette going back to work and being unable to be at some of our meetings, she's making sure the community is staying on track!

After exchanging a few texts, Evette said she could be at the next community meeting to prepare us for the Town Hall meeting. PLUS, she said, she's bringing a friend!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

This afternoon the kids were at the After-School Academy having a "tye-dye party" as a part of their Spring Break activities. Mayrea walked in and hung out, helping out where needed.

Mayrea came to the last Town Hall meeting. After we left the meeting, she and I talked for a little bit. She was excited about how the meeting had turned out and said she wanted to make sure and come to the next one.

She and her 13-year old son have begun volunteering at the After-School Academy. She agreed to help out with our new idea to do a Community Clean-up project this summer.

She also told us of some good news...but I'll let her blog that herself!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Ms. Lori came to prepare lunch for the kids today. Lori has become an amazing force in the community.

Lori's neighbor, Rochelle, had come to check on her two boys in the After-School Academy. When she walked in, Sylvia and Lori immediately started asking her about attending the next community meeting.

As Rochelle hesitated and tried to come up with excuses, Lori explained to her that she just needs to take the first step and it would be easier after that. Lori went on explaining that her own reason for getting involved was because she "didn't have anything better to do" and "might as well." (and we are so glad that has been the case!)

Lori finally told her she may have to just go grab her and drag her out to the next meeting. That seemed an acceptable solution to Rochelle. Sometimes we need a friend, a neighbor to stand alongside us for support...sometimes we need them to "drag" us. That's what COMMUNITY is all about. Community is about support. Community is about holding each other accountable. Community is sometimes pushing people into things they don't think they want to be involved in and can't yet see the benefit.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

After I went back to the office, I heard a loud knock at the door. Mr. Rhodes was just passing by on his way to pick up his wife.

When I answered the door, he simply said, "I can't stay, but I wanted to give you this."

He handed me a complete CD recording of our last Town Hall meeting! "Listen to it. I think you'll find some interesting things to take notes on."

Mr. Rhodes is an asset. He's lived in the community for 60+ years and is often so frustrated with the lack of progress over the years that he has a hard time wanting to get involved again. But he has a desire and a passion to document what happens in South Dallas.

Because of him, we just may have a way to document the little and big successes of the residents of Rochester Park!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course, the previous entry told about Ms. Haynes helping Mr. Williams learn how to use the computer. Both have been a part of our Town Hall meetings and utilize the Educational Outreach Center's computer lab now on a regular basis.

People are coming together! People are beginning to see the value in each other! People are beginning to see how they can effect change in the community...OUR community....ROCHESTER PARK!

Let's keep talking...let's keep working toward solutions! You guys are awesome!

Next community meeting...

Thursday, March 27, 2008
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Turner Courts' Community Room

On Our Way!!

The meeting on Saturday went pretty good! We got to voice our concerns with Dallas Housing. They talk a good talk, but are they going to walk the walk. You know peoplle sure can speak on something that they know nothing about. I mean if you have never had to struggle or live in Turner Courts you really don't know how it feels to be neglected. There are a lot of thing that we still need to do, but you lnow what! It is going to happen. We need the support from the community to speak up, now more than ever. I know that they have said time and time again that Turner Courts would be demolished, but when and what happen until then is my question. Not one person at the meeting with the City Of Dallas or dallas Housing could answer. Why!!! Time will tell. For now we will still hold our Town Hall Meetings. Our next Community Clean Up meeting will be in the After School Academy from 12pm-2pm on February 20th, 2008. We would love to see you there. The Town Hall Meeting will be On March 1st 2008, at The Lord's Missionary Baptist Church, right across the street.

Council meeting

Hey everybody, i just wanted to enlighten everyone who wasn't at the meeting about the meeting that was held today. The meeting was a huge success and i feel that we accomplished alot and i felt that we brought alot of the important issues to the table. We even had residents come out which i had already expected (lol Janet). The important thing is that people showed up. I am really glad i came.

~Steven (Checo) Roberts

Making changes

Thank you to Wyshina, Ms. Haynes, Monique, Sylvia, Bernard, Lori, and Dana coming out to the meeting with Dwaine Caraway today! I hope everyone felt like they got to voice their concerns...and I hope you were satisfied with the response. (I hate that I forgot to take pictures!!)

Though Dwaine said he was going to get right on those issues, we need to make sure we get our part done so the city is unable to make excuses for the repairs they are responsible for. We want the city to see that we want our neighborhood to be better and we are willing to do our part to make it happen as long as we have their support…even if we’ve tried before (as I know many of you have made calls before).

We have tentatively planned a
Town Hall meeting
January 5, 2008
10:00 a.m.
Location: After-School Academy

Please write this down and plan on attending!

Before that meeting, there are several things we need to accomplish…
1) Writing down the specific address of EVERY street light that is out—Who wants to be responsible for that?
2) Ms. Haynes calling about the DHA change in paying rent
3) Getting the word out about the Jan. 5 meeting—inviting friends, neighbors, etc. We want to begin showing the city that we will show up…but we also can’t get discouraged when people don’t. We just need to persevere. People will start coming out when they see that things are actually happening.
4) Visit the churches across the street and find out what community efforts they have…and just get to know them in general…begin building a relationship with them (maybe invite them to visit the ASA or the EOC)—Who wants to be responsible for that?
5) Begin our own meetings/conversations.

We need a Resident Council here at Turner Courts. But, we don't have enough people to make it work--President, Vice President, Treasurer, Chaplain, Sergeant at Arms, and 2 alternates. I suggest that we just start having lunch/community conversations and begin talking about the issues and working on them. As we attract more people and create leadership within our own group, we can advocate for a resident council.

Wyshina had a great idea I think would be great for us to start working on…I am going to look into getting us all trained and deputized to be people who can register voters. If we can do that, we will probably do it during our ASA staff development meeting (anyone can attend though). I’ll let you know when we get the person to train us.

I want to hear your comments about the meeting. Make comments below. (Ask Sylvia if you need help doing this)

Thanks again for coming today! I look forward to the possibilities!!

I Still Have Hope!!!!

On Monday the meeting I think went rather well. I know that we can't conquer all the issues but when you get to talking about all that we face as residents, it's hard not to want to conquer them all. My hope for this meeting with Mr. Carroway is that he at least will show up, then maybe he will let the other committee member know our concerns. See! I found that a lot of the residents here have truly given up on changes to this community. Me, I have not. My plan for the future is to move but I still want to be involved with the residents of Turner Courts. My days have not always been pleasant living here but I have come along way in my perceptions of the residents. There really are some nice people here. I just wish that the people that have a say so in how things can be better, tell us what we can do, and maybe that would give the people hope. And that there are people from City hall that does listen and care!!!

"They Said It Couldn't Be Done"

This summer Ms. Janet had a great idea, she thought, let's open up a computer lab that the adults can use. So we brainstormed about it. We decided to set a time from 10:00am to 2:00pm, Tuesday-Thursday. This would give adults time for themselves while their children were at school. It worked out really well. The name of our new lab is called The Educational Outreach Center. At the EOC they can search for jobs, work on their resume, look for scholarships and financial aid and we provide community resources. We also have a children's library for those parents that still have little children. The best thing about having a computer lab is we have free!!!! Internet. It was a struggle at first trying to recruit people in but after a pep talk from Ms. Janet I felt a lot better. I still have my disappointing times but I know that my hard work is not in vain. We now have about 10 residents a day that come into the EOC, how great is that!!!! I still have a lot of things that I need to do to make it successful but I am never going to give up.