The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Southside pride on display at block party
Residents of Elyria’s southside gathered on Oct. 7 at the Elyria High School student parking lot at the intersection of West Avenue at 6th Street for a block party to celebrate the Ohio Neighborhood Engagement Lorain County initiative.
Southside pride was on full display as residents and community advocates came out to enjoy music, fun activities and a performance by local dance troupe African Royalty.
A pilot project developed by the Community Foundation of Lorain County to strengthen neighborhoods and civic engagement, the initiative targets Elyria’s south side in Ward V and Lorain’s Ward III.
The Elyria program encourages residents to work together to improve their neighborhoods to develop civic engagement and came together with input from Elyria Ward 5 Councilman Marcus Madison.
According to CEO Brian Frederick, the program began in 2017 when senior program officer Linda Styer had an idea for a way to get communities working together directly in providing mini-grants of up to $500.
“I’ve been at the community foundation for about 19 years. And I want you to think about the name for a second: Community. It was an organization created by Lorain County for this community,” Frederick said. “What we’ve come to realize is that the only way we are going to make this community better is if we do it ourselves.”
One of the projects funded by the program identified with input from Styer was the Southside Neighborhood Network who are working together to coordinate on beautifying the area and organizing to collectively improve life in Elyria’s southside where coordinator Brenda Warren has signed up street representatives.
“When you think about your world you, think about your neighborhood and you think about the people who live around you. And these are the people who are closest to you; and these are the people who can be right next to you when you are ready to make a change,” Styer said. “These are the kinds of things we know neighbors and residents want to do to change their neighborhood.”
Warren said the organization will hold their next meeting on Nov. 14 and hopes to build on the momentum created from the support given by the Community Foundation.
“It’s all about us working together. This is our community and we want to be a part of making a difference,” Warren said. “We are here with our southside neighborhood network signing up street representatives so we can hit the ground running, finding out what things folks are concerned about in our community and working together to get those things actualized and get those things resolved.”