Neighborhood Watch and Weed and Seed
On September 20 I was privileged to attend the annual dinner of the Land Trust of Schenectady. If you are not familiar with the Land Trust I will explain what it is. What I wanted to note though was that the speaker for the dinner was Peter Laun. I don’t know if the readers of this list or blog are familiar with Laun. He is a law enforcement coordinator for 32 counties for the Northern District of New York for the Department of Justice. His special gift has been assisting communities to develop Weed and Seed programs. His office is in Syracuse.
The Land Trust of Schenectady is a non-profit that is focused on developing affordable housing with the unique method of selling the house but not the land. Abandoned houses are purchased by the Land Trust and rehabilitated. Then the land in leased to the homeowner on a 99 year one time renewable lease and the house is sold to them. The purpose of this is to stabilize the market price of the house and keep it in an affordable range. It is then not subject to market fluctuations. The Land Trust participants are then a part of a home ownership community that can support them in their trials as homeowners. There is a Land Trust program in Schenectady and Albany.
The Weed and Seed program was developed by the Department of Justice a number of years ago to provide funds to communities to combat drug traffic and community deterioration. It is supposed to help police and community come together with a variety of strategies to deal with these types of crimes. There is a Weed and Seed program in Albany too and I will note more about that shortly.
What I wanted to identify here is Mr. Laun’s “Top Ten Tip List”. This is something that might be good for the Neighborhood Watch.
First, identify stakeholders and honor them.
Conveners of a network have a responsibility for its success of failure.
Dream lots of dreams. Multiple projects lead to multiple successes.
Know what you don’t know (never fake it!).
Positive attitudes attract positive out comes.
Your enthusiasm for a project is catching.
When in doubt: Play a hunch. Don’t think: instinct!
Celebrate little successes, especially in the beginning
Timing is the ultimate judge of what is possible.
It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
And a comment about survival:
“Your survival depends NOT so much on what HAPPENS to you as to how YOU ADAPT to what happens to you.”
My wife pointed out that his comment on survival sounded a bit like Gandolf’s comment on how we use out time in the Lord of the Rings.
I found his comments interesting and thought they may have some relevance to the Neighborhood Watch’s thinking for itself.
The Albany Weed and Seed program encompasses the South End of Albany. As you may be aware there is some ambiguity as to what comprises the “South End” but the area of the program does extend as far as Delaware Avenue in some places. The Director of the program is Linda Miller. Linda Miller is a very dedicated person. It would be nice to find a way to support the work of Weed and Seed. This is an important program that makes a positive contribution to our community. The local program was started in 1999.
The Land Trust of Schenectady is a non-profit that is focused on developing affordable housing with the unique method of selling the house but not the land. Abandoned houses are purchased by the Land Trust and rehabilitated. Then the land in leased to the homeowner on a 99 year one time renewable lease and the house is sold to them. The purpose of this is to stabilize the market price of the house and keep it in an affordable range. It is then not subject to market fluctuations. The Land Trust participants are then a part of a home ownership community that can support them in their trials as homeowners. There is a Land Trust program in Schenectady and Albany.
The Weed and Seed program was developed by the Department of Justice a number of years ago to provide funds to communities to combat drug traffic and community deterioration. It is supposed to help police and community come together with a variety of strategies to deal with these types of crimes. There is a Weed and Seed program in Albany too and I will note more about that shortly.
What I wanted to identify here is Mr. Laun’s “Top Ten Tip List”. This is something that might be good for the Neighborhood Watch.
First, identify stakeholders and honor them.
Conveners of a network have a responsibility for its success of failure.
Dream lots of dreams. Multiple projects lead to multiple successes.
Know what you don’t know (never fake it!).
Positive attitudes attract positive out comes.
Your enthusiasm for a project is catching.
When in doubt: Play a hunch. Don’t think: instinct!
Celebrate little successes, especially in the beginning
Timing is the ultimate judge of what is possible.
It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
And a comment about survival:
“Your survival depends NOT so much on what HAPPENS to you as to how YOU ADAPT to what happens to you.”
My wife pointed out that his comment on survival sounded a bit like Gandolf’s comment on how we use out time in the Lord of the Rings.
I found his comments interesting and thought they may have some relevance to the Neighborhood Watch’s thinking for itself.
The Albany Weed and Seed program encompasses the South End of Albany. As you may be aware there is some ambiguity as to what comprises the “South End” but the area of the program does extend as far as Delaware Avenue in some places. The Director of the program is Linda Miller. Linda Miller is a very dedicated person. It would be nice to find a way to support the work of Weed and Seed. This is an important program that makes a positive contribution to our community. The local program was started in 1999.
posted by paul at
6:21 PM
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