Residents Given Reins to Improve Neighborhoods

Leon Walker said his Wildwood neighborhood was one of the best-kept secrets in Manassas 20 years ago. But as drug issues surfaced and property values dropped, he said, the feeling of living in a perfect community faded away.

"I'm really concerned with the way the neighborhood has fallen," said Walker, the president of the Wildwood Homeowners Association. "When I came in '88, everybody knew everybody and it was safe. We had a neighborhood -- something we don't have anymore."

Walker said it's time to return his community to where it was decades ago. And, he said, with the help of the Neighborhood Improvement Group pilot program launched by Manassas, he thinks he can.

"Whoever's idea this program was, it was one whale of an idea," Walker said. "I think with the help of the city, we can become a neighborhood again."

The program, launched last month by the Manassas Neighborhood Services Department, brings residents from across cultural lines together in neighborhood "study circles" to discuss issues, projects and ideas for change. The program culminates with group members carrying out one of their ideas.

"This gives you the opportunity to tell what your concerns are and address the issues in the community," Neighborhood Services Coordinator Kisha Wilson-Sogunro said. "We've learned that people want to be involved in the community but didn't know how. This provides that opportunity."

Walker is one of 13 people in the Wildwood study circle, which, along with the Weems circle, will wrap up its six-week session this week. The city will launch three more study circles for residents in the Georgetown South, Point of Woods/Cannon Ridge and Wellington neighborhoods March 17.

"Kisha has identified this as a potential problem-solving exercise, and the city said, 'Go for it,' which I think is great," said Manassas resident Audrey Sensale, who has been observing the Weems group. "I think this is a good way to get some positive results in the community."

Wilson-Sogunro said the idea for the program surfaced after November's Neighborhood Services Conference, where people began meeting neighbors and discussing ideas. The problem was, she said, nothing was in place to continue that interaction.

"We had about 200 people come to the conference and enjoy it," she said, "but then they wanted to know what came next."

Wilson-Sogunro said George Mason University helped get the study circles off the ground. The university donated $1,000 to train the 17 facilitators needed for the groups and provided volunteers and advice after undertaking a similar program on campus regarding immigration.

"Because we are an education institution and can look at all sides of the issue, we felt we were in a unique position to bring people together," said Charvis Campbell, assistant dean of university life at George Mason's Prince William campus. "We are really empowering the community here. They get to decide what the issues are and how to tackle them."