Theme-based Community Meetings for 2019
We thought it may be a good idea to have one event per month in 2019 in order to get people outside and connecting regularly to share food, drinks, news, ideas and time.
The key changes here are that we want to re-engage residents who used to come out and share open spaces and build new reasons to get out of the house or work and connect in many locations in Melrose.
Here’s the line up we ran by some folks who all seemed to like the idea. It’s a framework and we still need all of you to come shape things and make these monthly themes and events come to life.
June - “Vision & Strategic Planning for Melrose”
Reach to invite a lot of new members to bring them into the vision and strategy phase. This is in addition to the already determined goals for Oakland Police Department through NCPC 27x. These activities will include planning for events in each month of 2019.
July - “Putting Vision Into Melrose Action Committees”
June’s event determined vision, strategic planning, and a list of Action Committees that will have worked together for 1 month by July’s meeting and we’ll see the AC leaders share what’s working, what can be better, what they need from us and what we need to do to plan for National Night Out in August.
August - “National Night Out Introduction to the Melrose Community”
August events start early with National Night Out where we hope to have a neighborhood map to pass out and hub areas, possibly at Fairfax/Foothill, that directs visitors to various block parties throughout Melrose so they know which way to head to join people focused on certain themes, for example: “Melrose Gardens Party” could be a group that share their gardens with visitors, or “Melrose Arts & Culture” could be a youth group of Poet Laureates performing spoken word with music, etc.
September - “Melrose Merchants Block Party”
Melrose merchants have offered to create a Block Party this year to be held along Foothill Blvd, and possibly Bancroft Ave, to feature community services and to bring people all down to these two main streets to connect around business, vendor contributions, drinks, food, and music that represents Melrose residents.
October - “Octoberfest, Harvest Festival, Halloween Events”
October includes a lot of opportunities for events around local harvests of vegetables, honey, meats, beer, and all sorts of food that make it feel and look like Fall in Melrose. We want to create gatherings and possibly host Halloween events where kids, and parents if you’re into that kind of thing, can stroll out among the community blocks and/or merchants to go Trick or Treating in a safe setting.
November - “Dinners, Thanking Melrose Non-Profits, and Homeless Reunification”
We want to expand upon the traditional Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner and volunteer activities that only take place on Thanksgiving Day to extend to other environments, other foods, and other audiences to ensure we’re engaging Melrose community members of all backgrounds. If we can do something that goes beyond a day or two of food and add something like reunification services for Homeless people and families we can do a lot of lasting good this month. We’d also like to give thanks to our tireless, usually underfunded non-profits who give every day of the year.
December - “Celebrations throughout Melrose, Giving Back, Open Doors”
While some folks celebrate Christmas and it’s understandable if they are not available to take part in community activities that month we’d like to try hosting events and activities throughout December for those who are not traveling out of town for holidays, are available, and/or, do not follow any faith and want to spend time celebrating with those also staying in Town.