By Emily Randall
Northeast News
Jan. 27, 2010

The Northeast Community Action Network is coming to a turning point.

After four two-hour meetings in the past three months, community stakeholders have come to consensus about a new vision and mission statement for Northeast CAN and even identified a few goals and action steps. However, the nuts and bolts planning — budgeting, staffing — is still in the future.

At this past week’s meeting, the fourth planning session, East Patrol Major Anthony Ell clarified for the group that this has been an absolutely essential process for the future of CAN. That’s because, if a satisfactory plan does not come out of this process, East Patrol will reassign the four CAN officers who to this point have been the anchor of the network, which could mean the end of CAN.

“Whatever the end product is, it should be a new CAN Center that’s really inclusive in the Northeast community,” Ell said. “I know there’s been a lot of concern about this process and how we’ve gone about doing it. What we want is this process to continue, have all this hashed out. If we don’t have support within the community, it’s not going to succeed.”

The major indicated he is pleased with the direction CAN is going — away from solely fighting crime and grime and toward looking at the neighborhood’s problems holistically.

“I see a big pie,” Ell said, “and one slice of that pie is law enforcement, criminal justice.”

Myra Dillingham, the facilitator throughout this planning process, reviewed this past week the distance the group had come so far.

At the first meeting in November, the group identified everyone’s desires and some services the CAN should tackle. At the second meeting, five “key result areas” came to the surface that CAN would focus on: youth, diversity, crime, business development and community involvement. At the third meeting Jan. 11, which was sparsely attended in comparison to the others, five groups set a few goals under each of the five KRA headings.

Thusfar the group has developed a new vision statement:

“The Northeast CAN is a proactive organization providing solutions through collaboration and communication with all stakeholders in the Northeast community.”

There is also a new working mission statement:

“The mission of Northeast CAN is to zealously work to foster a diverse and vibrant community where civic, educational, neighborhood organizations and police partner and collaborate, along with its stakeholders, to provide guidance, support and resources toward the goals of growing thriving businesses, enhancing flourishing neighborhoods, boosting home ownership, reducing crime, motivating youth to seek academic and personal excellence and inspiring all residents to pursue a better quality of life.”

The proposed core values of the organization, in order of importance according to a vote at the third planning session, are: honesty, integrity, caring, diversity/inclusion, collaboration, dedication, excellence and safety.

John Wood, of Local Initiatives Support Corporation, said after the fourth meeting that things were looking positive. He said the feedback from the five or six Northeast residents (as opposed to representatives of Northeast organizations) had positive feedback about the process.

“I thought it was a breakthrough from that standpoint,” Wood said. “That was a major accomplishment.”

The next meeting, which is open to all Northeast stakeholders, will be from 3-5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2, at Don Bosco Senior Center, 580 Campbell St.