Community Hub Coming to Casino Road!
Hello from the Casino Road Initiative!
The Initiative has had a busy fall, and an even busier winter is ahead of us. Here are some updates we’re excited to share with you:
Casino Road Community Hub
We are SO excited to announce that after a year of planning, we are ready to embark on our first project! Starting in early 2018, the Casino Road Initiative will start on the journey of transforming the Children’s Village on the corner of Casino Road and Evergreen Way into a true Community Hub. With early childhood and adult education classed at the center of activities happening at the Village, space will finally be available to wrap around families with additional opportunities and services, ensuring all families in our community have the opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential.
ChildStrive, who owns the complex, has volunteered to move their administrative offices to another location. While this may take some time to accomplish, the end result will be nearly an entire building being opened up specifically to house programs and services for the community.
Pomegranate Center
To help us in this process, the Initiative has been learning from and talking with the Pomegranate Center. They specialize in ensuring public spaces are designed based off of direct input from the communities that will be using them. Using a process perfected over 30 years of practice, Pomegranate Center would give the community the power to prioritize the programs and services offered in the space in addition to influencing the design and aesthetics of the Hub. To learn more about them, please take a look at their website: www.pomegranatecenter.org. We hope to know whether we will be working with them by early 2018.
Restorative Practices
Over the course of the last year, ChildStrive has been working with the Initiative and the International Institute of Restorative Practices (IIRP) to learn how to create a restorative community on Casino Road. Restorative Practices are an emerging field of social science that evolved from Restorative Justice. Prioritizing strong relationships as the best way to avoid and repair harm, Restorative Practices believe that people are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive change when those in positions of authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them. To learn more about this field, please check out IIRP’s website: www.iirp.edu/what-we-do/what-is-restorative-practices
Thank you for everyone’s support, and please feel free to reach out with any questions! Also, don’t forget to follow us at www.facebook.com/casinoroadinitiative for more current updates!