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Monday, March 31, 2008
Talk about the Gwinnett Village Community Alliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
All this time that I have been writing about the Gwinnett Village I have focused so much on the Community Improvement District (CID) portion that I neglected to pay attention to the other critical area of the organization that is helping to lead the charge for change to the area - The Gwinnett Village Community Alliance (GVCA).
It’s high time and well deserved that I fulfill my promise to show them some love… right… now.
There are some key differences between the CID and GVCA. Where The Village CID relies on property owners that voluntarily self tax themselves and focuses on improvements to the infrastructure and economic development, the GVCA is funded solely by donations, grants and sponsorships and focuses on quality of life and community development.
The two sometimes cross paths and collaborate on projects such as marketing and branding for the area and the Village Green project, which is beautifying the area at exits along I-85.
The GVCA does hear plenty from residents about various code violations and from businesses complaining about the lack of customers and clients.
To improve this, The Village Alliance is encouraging businesses to join their merchant association and residents to keep a list of folks that live in their neighborhood with contact information so they can keep in communication and send announcements regarding the Gwinnett Village.
The Village Alliance’s biggest accomplishment so far was the 2007 summer program at Radloff Middle School, where they took 150 students off the street for eight weeks at 10 hours a day for tutoring and recreation with the Boys and Girls Club.
This year, in addition to Radloff, the GVCA will be adding Summerour Middle School to the program and Lilburn Middle School in 2009.
The Village Alliance biggest need is donations. BIG donations and grants primarily from the major businesses and corporations in The Village and abroad to support their summer school programs. Sally Sherrington-Haggard, Executive Director of the GVCA, pointed out to me, the level of performance by the local schools feeds directly into the equation of our property values.
So answer these two questions for me:
1) Do you want your property values to increase?
2) Do you want to keep the little brats busy and (hopefully) out of trouble this summer?
If you answered “YES” to either or both of these questions, then isn’t it time you called the Gwinnett Village Community Alliance and see what you can do to aid them in their mission?
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