Recap: August 23 Strategic Advisory Group Meeting
Strategic Advisory Group Meeting
Location: Heart of West Lakes Wellness Center (Assembly Room 1)
Date: August 23, 2024
Time: 8:30–10:30 AM
Committee Members Present: Timothy Ayers, Clay Rivers, Macene Isom (virtual), Bettye Williams, Vivian Bryant, Sherry Magee, Natalie Lovero, Jim Brooks (virtual), Stephanie Neves, Steve Hogan, Cecelia Davis, Eligio Santana, Vivian Bryant, Bettye Williams,
Additional Attendees: Joe De Jesus (OHA), Victor De Jesus (OHA), Rosemarie Campbell (OHA), Shelia Windom (OCPS, representing Dr. Williams), Lee Williams (Representing Bernadette Davis), Heather Numa Bell (Commissioner Bakari Burns Office District 6), Sarah Elbadri (Congressman Maxwell Frost’s Office), Daniel Friedline (City of Orlando), Mark Shamley (Lift Orlando), Tanya Pettway (Lift Orlando), Rhae Parkes (EJP)
Meeting Notes
Meeting commenced at 8:35am
Welcome - Sherry Magee
Sherry called meeting to order with reminders:
Early Action Activity: $100k to fund proposed project
Complete by Sept. 2025
There needs to be a willing owner
Has to have ongoing support if needed
Location will matter as it ideally needs to benefit residents in the entire focus area
Early Action Activity Ideas - Rhae Parks
Funds available for this project are capped at $100,000 and the project must be completed in the next 12 months by September 2025
Project must have funding to sustain project operations because Choice funds cannot be used for ongoing operations of the chosen project.
The group was instructed to choose two - three favorite ideas from the list based on the criteria above.
#13 (upgrade neighborhood signage) It was suggested to upgrade the neighborhood entrance signs and include honoring historical figures that their streets are named after. The signage can include art that honors the history of the area. This would also help with #19 (Beautification of Goldwyn and Columbia) - There are a total of approximately eight neighborhood entrance signs in the Choice Neighborhoods focus area map. It was also suggested to include flowers/landscaping but would need to make sure there's a plan to maintain landscaping. #13 (upgrade neighborhood signage), #6 (art to preserve the history and culture), #8 (Murals of first African American police officers and firefighters), #15 (plant flowers) can all be grouped together in the upgrading signs project. Signs can cost a few hundred dollars to $3,000 so there is potential for this project and another project.
#35 (Rename Lake Lorna Doone to Jackie Robinson Park) was mentioned and the City would be open to this project idea, however they would need to see a lot of community support in order to proceed.
#27 (Replace fishing pier at Gilbert McQueen Park) replacing this pier was in the current fiscal year’s Parks + Recreation budget but that it was not completed and the fiscal year is coming to a close.
Food Sustainability Access #2 & #3: (Community Garden) A community garden was in the original plan for Lake Lorna Doone park but that did not end up in the park. It was suggested that we could install the community garden and partner with Hebni Nutrition to operate it and distribute the produce into the community.
St. John Baptist who has an existing food bank and was also mentioned as a potential partner for distribution of community garden produce.
Washington Shores Community Garden revival was discussed and there would need to be a long-term commitment for operations.
The potential of a Farmers Market (#1) was discussed but ultimately this idea was postponed.
An Internet Cafe / Computer lab (#33 & #34) was suggested and also the need for more research on the actual needs and how to get people to use computer labs that exist because there are some in the community that sit empty. The idea was postponed.
After consolidating several related ideas, the group decided to move forward with two potential activities: Upgrading the neighborhood signage (including history, art and landscaping) and investing in community gardens at Lake Lorna Doone and Washington Shores Community Garden.
Action Item: Figure out details around the capacity of the City and Lift Orlando, project scope, cost, timeline, and what the next steps are for the two ideas that the group decided upon.
Action Item: Natalie will include breakdown of tally of Early Action Activities submitted in follow up email to attendees and include.
General Updates - Natalie Lovero
Branding: The voting period has ended for naming the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative. ‘Heritage Orlando’ was the winner with 95 votes over ‘The Harmony Project’, which received 48 votes. We are having our communications agency partner design 3 logo options and are hoping to reconvene the branding committee towards the end of the month to vote on the logo (date TBD).
Working groups launched on August 13th at the working groups kick-off meeting at L. Claudia Allen Center where we had all the groups come and learn about the focus of each working group, everyone then broke off into their individual working groups to meet one another and share their hopes for this planning process. The working group meetings will be scheduled out for the remainder of the year along with what topics will be covered at each scheduled meeting.
Our next large community meeting will be on September 19th and L. Claudia Allen Center is not available so we are reaching out to the schools for an alternate meeting location.
Lift Orlando is holding a community meeting to present the Flourishing Neighborhood Index Community survey results next week on Wednesday, August 28th.
Closing Comments - Sherry Magee asked the group what was going well and what we could change.
Bettye Williams thanked Rhae for her leadership style and making the discussion fun and engaging and Natalie for always sharing the information needed and expressed she was very happy with the progress.
Clay Rivers said he was happy with this SAG meeting.
Clay Rivers, Bettye Williams and Heather Numa Bell (representing Commissioner Burns) shared they did not like the style of the Data Walk community meeting because everyone is not able to receive the exact same information, some of the attendees have mobility issues, or it may be difficult to hear the information in that environment and that sometimes people feed off one another and can think about the information in another way based off of other’s responses.
Tim Ayers shared that the composition of the Strategic Advisory Group is very different from the impression that some others have about a group of powerful and elite people making decisions. He wishes people could see how the people around this table really do represent the community.
Vivian Bryant shared that OHA records their messages and translates them for residents and breaks it down for them to make sure that they understand the information.
Rhae Parkes shared with the group that there are duplicate meetings that happen at the Housing Authority properties and she gave a shout out to OHA staff because of all the work that it takes to pull those additional meetings off that this group doesn’t see.
Meeting adjourned at 10:05am.