Winslow Weed and Seed meets at La Posada

The Winslow Weed and Seed steering committee members met with Dan Drake, from the U.S. Attorney's Office, as facilitator. In this meeting the committee approved a vision statement in which they say Winslow's Weed and Seed wants to ensure cooperation among Winslow residents, agencies, businesses and organizations resulting in citizen economic self-sufficiency making Winslow a safe, healthy, clean and beautiful community of pride and caring.

The steering committee's vision is to promote the Winslow Weed and Seed vision, mission, goals and strategies, developing collaborative relationships and coordinated efforts resulting in increase service provider capacity, better mobilized resources and increased citizen involvement.

These large statements were broken down and individuals began to work on each piece. The goals are to collaborate with Arizona Clean and Beautiful to develop a strategy for Winslow; to increase viable business and employment opportunities; to develop strategies to increase youth entrepreneurial opportunities; to develop programs and activities to increase positive health and life choices for Winslow residents; to increase collaboration among agencies with common goals resulting in complimentary efforts and outcomes; and to have a fully developed public education campaign to increase citizen involvement and awareness.

Operation Weed and Seed is a special program from the U.S. Department of Justice that deals with law enforcement on the one hand and crime prevention on the other. On the law enforcement side some of the pieces have already been put in place. The bridge between the weeding side and the seeding side is community policing. This brings increased citizen involvement and works to change attitudes among members of the police force as they recognize that they too can be "consumer friendly."

The steering committee was formed two years ago to begin working on the prevention, "seed" side. Winslow was recognized as an official Weed and Seed community in March 1999. This increases Winslow opportunities when it comes to certain funding and brings additional training resources and technical assistance. Among those who have worked on the steering committee have been representatives from the Winslow Family Resource Center, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the United People Who Care Organization, the Navajo County Probation Department, and the city and its agencies including the Recreation Department whose director Chris Mobley is the co-chair. The Winslow Police Department is a fundamental member of the group.

The group is open to new members and invites you or your organization to participate. This is a broad umbrella under which many activities for the community can take place. One of the sub-committees organized at this meeting is sending letters to 1000 CEOs regarding their expansion plans. The letter will remind them to include Winslow. Another group is developing a plan for a community-wide cleanup. The youth entrepreneurs are going to contact all businesses in Winslow about opportunities for youth employment and apprenticeship and the public education group is planning to survey junior high and high school students, then plan skits and presentations to involve elementary students in ways to improve Winslow.

The subcommittees each took responsibility for a particular aspect of these plans, and will report back by the end of August.

Weeds and Seed is up and moving. Come and join the effort - or just come and watch people work!

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