Taking pride in community first step toward change in Weston
Youth pledge to help make future bright
Weston, as a community, needs to come together to create an identity to make residents proud to call the area home through long term planning. 
Those were the goals identified by the UrbanArts Community Arts Council at an intimate meeting Wednesday, July 23 at the Y-Arts Community Arts Space on John Street, where community leader Keith Sweeney discussed community building and ways of bringing ideas to fruition.
"You need to figure out what community is," he said. "Is community businesses, the people, houses? Community is all of those things. When something is yours you take pride in it. The community is able to deteriorate because people aren't taking pride. The 10 per cent who don't love the community take over the 90 per cent who love the community but won't fight for it."
Sweeney, the first guest speaker of the UrbanArts Dreambuilding Speaker's Series, noted many movements, including feminism and civil rights, started when a small group of people shared ideas with others.
"A lot of the time we get caught up in 'I can't do this, I can't change the world,'" he said. "But you can change your part of the world. If you want something done you have to do it yourself."
Natasha Segal, program manager of the UrbanArts Dreambuilding Speaker's Series, said the goal of the meeting was for Weston youth to create a set of goals and work toward implementing them.
"The youth are quite eager to take ownership of the community," she said, adding more anti-violence initiatives, arts programs and youth gathering spots are needed. "It could be a great place."
The group identified weaknesses within the Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue neighbourhood, namely violence, litter, inadequate services, poor reputation and a lack of recreational space.
The youth plan to meet with local politicians and hold workshops with police for the groups to better know one another, work together to improve the area and organize community clean-up days.
Shakoorah Craigg, Dreambuilding community leader, said young people are looked down upon.
"People are committing crimes but I believe it's related to drugs," said the 17-year-old. "We want less violence. (My vision of Weston) looks bright, not run down, where you see people working together and everyone isn't locked up in their house."
