Sense of community. Check.
Pride in surroundings. Check.
Housing, safety and health. Needs work.
More than 500 Bowness respondents took part in “Voices of Bowness,” the first community report of its kind in Canada, modeled after Calgary Vital Signs and the results show citizens are very attached to their community, according to the lead strategist of the report.
“We learned a lot of great things about Bowness and we also learned about the areas that need some work and improvements,” United Way strategist Cesar Cala said.
“This study gave us a chance to look at the neighbourhood and see how we can make it better.”
Despite all of the good news in the community, 24 per cent of respondents felt the arts, health and wellness, housing and safety areas of the neighbourhood could use improvement.
“Our next steps will be to work with the community and take action including increasing cultural opportunities, deal with graffiti and working to get drugs off the streets,” Cala said.
Longtime Bowness resident and volunteer Andreas Brunthaler wanted to be a part of the study by going door-to-door asking residents what they thought about their community.
“People love Bowness. I love Bowness,” Brunthaler said.
“To make our community better we needed to take a look at what we should be doing. Almost every bit of feedback was positive.”
