By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — The Robertson Family Foundation has awarded the city $140,000 to create a new organization to head up the transformation of the West End neighborhood.
City Planning Director Joe Morris announced the two-year grant Tuesday at the City Council meeting.
The money will pay to hire someone to serve as administrator of the West End Transformation Plan, which the city, Salisbury Housing Authority and a community task force recently shipped off to the federal government in hopes of landing an $18 million grant.
Even if the plan doesn’t win a federal Choice Neighborhoods grant, the West End transformation will move forward and needs someone to oversee, monitor and measure the success of the plan, Morris said.
Eventually, the new organization would be located in the West End neighborhood to provide the “social entrepreneurship” needed within the community, he said.
Initially, the new hire would be considered an employee of the Salisbury Community Development Corporation, which will contribute $5,000 per year in in-kind services to adminstration of the plan.
The Salisbury Housing Authority will contribute $15,000 annually and the city $10,000 as well to help establish the new organization, for a total of $100,000 per year with the Robertson grant.
“This is the missing link,” Morris said.
By addressing all aspects of life including education, health care, housing, recreation and more, the transformation plan hopes to mimic the success of Purpose Built Communities, which reversed neighborhood decline in Atlanta’s East Lake neighborhood, Morris said.
Salisbury hopes to use the West End to learn how to implement the process throughout the city, he said.
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.