The New Westminster Community Development Society may be gone, but its legacy continues to carry on in the Royal City.
The society, which offered a number of community and economic development initiatives before it ceased to exist, has provided funding to a number of initiatives designed to enhance economic opportunities in the downtown and help make Columbia Street a vital and financially viable place in the city.
Enzo Guerriero, a trustee with the society, recently presented the City of New Westminster with a $37,800 cheque. That followed on an earlier gift of $40,000.
"We are designating it for a public art program," said Guerriero, a New Westminster resident. "The first one was to create eight mosaic projects on Columbia to capture the historical events that have happened on Columbia over the last 100 years."
Guerriero said part of the goal is to create an economic engine that would promote tourism in the city. As people walk Columbia Street from Sixth Street to Eight Street, they will be able to learn about aspects of its history through the mosaics.
"We have identified the themes. We have identified the artist," he said. "Now it is a matter of starting to put that to work."
Guerriero said it's hoped that the mosaics would be in place in time for the Royal City Show and Shine this summer.
Bruce Walthner and Ann Wilson, who worked on mosaic projects on 12th Street and East Columbia Street, have been hired to work on this project. They'll do some research and develop concepts for the eight mosaics, which would include themes like the Great Fire and the Golden Mile.
"Columbia Street was the most expensive real estate in British Columbia at one time," Guerriero said. "That is why it was called the Golden Mile."
With mosaics located in three different areas of the city, Guerriero said the city would have the potential to market New Westminster's mosaics and use them as an inspiration for other projects, which is in keeping with the New Westminster Community Development Society's goal of providing economic opportunities in the city.
"Since we are no longer able to do that ourselves, we are looking for a project that has the basic philosophy," Guerriero said.
The exact outcome of the latest donation of $37,800 has yet to be determined, but it will go toward an initiative that enriches opportunities around the city's future civic centre and enhances the mosaic project, possibly through partnerships with other organizations. Guerriero noted that the New Westminster Police Service and the Chinese Benevolent Association have both expressed interest in creating mosaics in the downtown.
The New Westminster Community Development Society was a non-profit group that sought to enhance individual growth, community development and economic progress. It offered employment readiness and career development programs, counselling, literacy support and asset-building strategies for lower income earners.
"We relied almost totally on federal grants," Guerriero said. "Over the years, priorities for funding changed. More and more funding was directed at training. There are other organizations in New Westminster that have that mandate."
The society's trustees have been dispersing assets and hope to create a legacy for the society by contributing to economic opportunities in the city.
"We were fortunate that we had equity, we had our own building," Guerriero said of two spaces in a building at 713 Columbia St. "We sold them. We are using the funds to seed projects."
The society has also provided a bursary at Douglas College that helps a single parent living in New Westminster to enhance their education. It has also provided funding to New Westminster residents who have some mental health challenges and need financial assistance in order to remove various barriers prohibiting them from finding employment.
"It's done by existing organizations," Guerriero said. "The funds are enabling them to carry on the work of the society."
The New Westminster Community Development Society has also provided funding to I's on the Street, which allows local social services agencies to employ people with mental health issues and those who are homeless to clean up downtown sidewalks.
