Maryvale on the Move

Maryvale on the Move (MTM), the community partnership supported by a four-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) grant as part of its Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities initiative, continues to break new ground by tapping into motivated and skilled Maryvale residents backed by a network of four community partners – Golden Gate Community Center, Rehoboth Community Development Corporation, the Amigos Center of Wesley Community Center and Vecinos Unidos Siempre – and three resource partners – Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Arizona Community Foundation (ACF), ASU Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family. SLHI provides overall coordination and support for the leadership team, collaborates with the project director and facilitates connections with the broader community.

In FY2012 the Maryvale on the Move collaborative:

• Activated and more deeply engaged citizens in visioning a healthier, more sustainable Maryvale Village Core Plan. The plan provides a frank and qualified assessment of current village core conditions, an outline of the community engagement process, design guidelines that define standards for future work, and recommendations for future policy making. The Phoenix City Council approved the plan in February.
• Distributed, promoted and engaged stakeholders in findings and recommendations from Maryvale’s Nutrition Environment Measures Survey (NEMS). The final report painted such a compelling picture of Maryvale’s food desert circumstances that it garnered numerous media stories and interviews, and those in turn helped to attract stakeholder engagement in solutions – including the attraction of grocers offering both economic support and healthy eating options.
• Fully engaged in the master planning of Cielito Park, a beloved community asset in need of tender loving care. Thanks to MTM’s connections and active citizens, key community members are driving the steering committee responsible for oversight of the new park plan that is being funded by the 2006 Bond Program. They’ll work using input from over 100 surrounding neighborhood surveys conducted entirely by volunteers, including many from Vecinos Unidos Siempre.
• Established a key partnership role assisting in the City of Phoenix’s community gardens policy development. Barriers that make little sense in the context of local healthy food production and distribution are being addressed and in many cases dissolved thanks to the city’s openness to dialogue on how to help citizens live healthier lives through policy. Next up: the community garden policy group will continue working on policy issues around farmers’ markets.

From the lots and streets of Maryvale to Phoenix City Hall and beyond, residents’ voices are being heard while Maryvale’s environment is being transformed by the people it most affects. While only time will tell how this will all play out, signs – and, more importantly the people involved – are for the most part pointing in the right direction.