THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 14, 1995 TAG: 9508140135
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: BY THE PEOPLE
An occasional series on citizens taking steps to build better
communities.
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER AND TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
No neighborhood college in your city? That might change.
Hampton officials have been meeting with other city governments about creating a neighborhood college in each city, or even possibly a regional college.
That might lead to an opportunity for the student/community leaders from different cities to take some classes together, said Pat Richardson, executive director of CIVIC, a privately operated leadership program. Richardson has been among those discussing the regional college.
The local governments talking to one another are Hampton, Virginia Beach, James City County and Norfolk.
Hampton also has developed these programs:
A Neighborhood Asset Exchange to encourage the bartering of skills between grass-roots groups.
For instance, one community may have a volunteer skilled in carpentry while another has a master gardener. City Hall would compile such information in a computer bank and make it accessible to neighborhoods.
Citizens have already contributed nearly $90,000, mostly in volunteer services, to the exchange program. David Blackburn, of the neighborhood services staff, keeps a list of the services available on index cards in his office.
He plans eventually to put the information on a computer and make it available.
Neighborhood Resource Centers with information on how other neighborhoods solved certain problems, a compilation of ``how-to'' publications, and a listing of volunteer help. For example, a community group wants to start a nonprofit company but lacks the know-how to create a financial plan and obtain a loan. City Hall would connect the neighborhood with a retired executive for one-to-one consultation.
While the program still needs to be formalized, Blackburn said six neighborhoods have gotten together and identified a building to be used as a resource center in the city's southwest area. MEMO: [For a related story, see page B1 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT for this
date.]
ILLUSTRATION: JIM WALKER
Staff
Youth participant Shanon Okerblom keeps notes during Neighborhood
College - a college that officials hope to expand into the region.
KEYWORDS: PUBLIC JOURNALISM by CNB