Greetings from the board of the McCauley Community League. There are some significant conversations headed our way this fall, and we want to hear your voice.

Here are a few thoughts to consider as we enter the coming season. How is a community built? Is it designed by the City and laid out in infrastructure projects and new initiatives? Do we, the people who live here, simply expect the City to fix all our problems and make us a vibrant community? If there is a mess, do we get the City to come clean it up? Sure. Sometimes, and that’s not totally wrong. But if that’s all we do, then we’re just being consumers: passive, and expecting health, life, and safety to be handed to us on a silver platter.

We at the League believe it is people working and sharing life together that makes a community thrive. Playing together, eating together, sharing their stories and being heard and understood by those around us. But to build that kind of community takes people engaging with each other and working together. It’s not just going to be handed to us – we need to work towards it! If this kind of community is exciting to you, then please engage with us in the work of building it! 

The league board is on the cusp of approving a new proposal format that will enable you as neighbours to come to us with new ideas for events and programming to build community in McCauley. This process is meant to help dreams and ideas walk and talk. We are excited to see what our neighbours will bring to our table.

The City too is coming to the table very soon to talk about our future. A new set of conversations is being proposed concerning the five core neighbourhoods that received a moratorium on social housing a few years ago. An initial conversation is coming to McCauley on Monday, September 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the Ital-Canadian Seniors Association (9111 110 Ave.), so mark the day! The City wants to hear our ideas and hopes for McCauley. Please come out and welcome them so that we can properly begin this journey together.     

Following this meeting, in October or possibly November, the MCL board plans to host a conversation to reflect on this. As well, we will be hearing presentations and having a conversation on the Spatial Concentration of Poverty. Date, location, and format are still in the works, but we’ll be promoting it, so watch for us.

What else do we have on the go? Free Guitar lessons Monday night at the Boys and Girls Club at 8:00 p.m. Family events, including one we are working on for September/October. Ball hockey, skating, and other programming at the Rink. A soccer program for our kids, and some fresh ideas coming to the table. We’ve also seen a boom in partnerships and collaboration with partners in the neigbourhood. The Inner City BBQ was a great event this summer, and we received positive feedback around the effort made to care for the park and even our alleys afterward! But all of this work requires engagement from you. Don’t just sit around waiting for community to happen. Come join us and other neighbours in building it!

As always, feel free to contact us with ideas, concerns, questions, or if you’re interested in helping out. Check out our fresh new website for resources and for upcoming events: www.mccauleycl.com. Look us up on Facebook, or email us at mccauleycommunityleague2014@gmail.com. Or, you can stop by and visit us at our board meetings. We meet the first Tuesday of every month from 7-10 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club.