We have some exciting updates to share with you about what the East University Avenue Choice Neighborhood team has been up to this summer!
What's Been Happening?
Over the last few months, we have been busy gathering feedback from our community members who live, work, and spend time in the East University Avenue Choice Neighborhood. This includes communities in Greater Duval, North Lincoln Heights, Lincoln Estates, and Cone Park. We wanted to know what community members’ hopes and priorities are for how we can make the East University Avenue Choice Neighborhood and East Gainesville an even better place to live, work, and grow. We ran a community survey from March to June and got nearly 500 responses! That's amazing!
We made sure to spread the word about the survey through local businesses, schools, community centers, neighborhood events, and even on social media. It was great to see so many people get involved and we appreciate the time everyone spent to share their ideas. You can find the results on our website and we’ll be sharing key insights on social media!
Digging Deeper with Pine Meadows and Lake Terrace Residents
We’ve also been doing another survey that’s just for our neighbors living in GHA’s Pine Meadows and Lake Terrace communities. This survey is longer and asks more detailed questions about what residents want for their homes, families, and neighborhood. Our awesome GHA Resident Services team and Community Ambassadors have been working really hard to get as many people as possible to fill out this survey. They have been knocking on doors, hosting events, and engaging with neighbors at every opportunity. We also hosted a Seafood & Surveys Night at Pine Meadows to celebrate Black Music Month with GHA residents in June! Our goal is to get at least 70% of households to share their thoughts through the survey - and we’re almost there! Every household that completed the survey gets $25 off their next month's rent and a chance to win cash prizes.
What's Next?
Now that we're wrapping up the surveys, we're almost ready for the next big step! This fall, we’ll be bringing together groups of residents, business owners, community organizations, government officials, and other stakeholders from across the Choice Neighborhood, city and county to analyze the survey results and help turn them into strategies for the East University Avenue Choice Neighborhood Plan. These strategies will help guide the Gainesville Housing Authority, City of Gainesville, and other community partners to take action to improve the future of our community. With the survey results in, we’re also exploring potential ideas and partnerships for the Early Action Activity, which will be announced this Fall!
We Need Your Help!
We need people like you to join these working groups to help make the best plan possible! If you’re a community member in Pine Meadows, Lake Terrace, Greater Duval, North Lincoln Heights, Lincoln Estates, Cone Park, Cedar Grove or Forest Pines, we would love for you to join! The groups will meet 3 or 4 times in the fall of 2024, and each meeting will last about 2 hours.
Ready to make a difference in your community? Sign up to join a working group at this link. Together, we can create a plan to make our community’s vision for the East University Avenue Choice Neighborhood a reality! Thank you for being part of this journey with us.
Questions, concerns, or ideas? Reach out to a member of our team:
Tabitha Alston, Community Ambassador - TAlston1978.TA90@gmail.com, 352-519-9427
Dominique Pinder, Community Ambassador - dominiquepinder4@gmail.com
Michael Eaton, Gainesville Housing Authority - michaele@gnvha.org, 352-872-5500 ext. 7135