By Cheryl Jahn

City Partners With Community Associations

Jan 19, 2018 | 10:15 AM

The city has seven different Community Associations: the Blackburn Community Association, the College Heights Community Association, the Hart Community Association, the West Bowl Community Association, the South Bowl Community Association, the Crescents Community Association, and the West Beaverly Leisure Society. They provide different programs, often through a shared-use agreement with the School District, such as sporting events. They are run by volunteers and overseen by volunteers and have been acting in relative isolation for decades. But for the first time ever, the City has entered into formal partnership agreements with each of the seven Community Associations.  

“I’m a single parent. I’ve raised three kids. I’ve been involved in some of the different programs because it is affordable and it’s accessible,” explains Heather Bromley, President of the West Bowl Community Association. “It’s something that parents can do with their kids or they can expose kids to different programs, whether that’s soccer or badminton or basketball for a relatively cheap price.”

But, the City recently became more active on behalf of Community Associations, identifying the needs of each individual association and how the City can help. In some cases, the City helps an association with courses on how to write grant applications, provides liability insurance and helps with advertising their programs in the Active Living Guide.

“Each of the partnership agreements are unique, depending on which community association we’re dealing with,” says Cheryl Livingstone-Leman, Community Coordinator for the City. “As we know, College Heights is running hundreds of programs, hundreds of volunteers and they need different kind of supports than, say, the Crescents Community Association, which is a very small Board, in an older neighbourhood, so their support would be a little bit different.”