Shelina Gordon hopes the PATH process will empower Gottingen’s African Nova Scotian residents to have greater influence over public policies affecting their community.

Gottingen residents make north end matter

African Nova Scotians want greater say in neighbourhood changes

Shelina Gordon, born and raised in the Gottingen area, says she is fearful that her neighbourhood’s strong sense of community is in danger of being lost if no social supports are put in place to support the neighbourhood as is.

“I am completely fine with a changing neighbourhood,” she says, “however, change has to incorporate the people, and the opinions of the people, that live in the neighbourhood.”

Gordon has seen Gottingen transform in many ways since she was a child. Most recently, she cites shifts in the real estate market and the changing demographics of what have historically been considered black areas as having altered the dynamic of the neighbourhood.These areas include the southern portions of Cornwallis, Creighton, Maynard and Falkland streets.

While these changes bring economic benefits to the north end as a whole, she says, the impact on the area’s African Nova Scotian community has not been as positive.

This is because the voice and opinions of the community are not being heard, she says, and these residents do not have a platform to directly influence public policy or policy makers.

“Although public policy is ideally supporting the interests of the neighbourhood, I don’t think that the opinions of the community are really being incorporated into that policy,” she says.

“I think real change would be affected through social policy, public policy and housing strategies. There has been some talk with the new Nova Scotia housing strategy in terms of mixed model housing, but I think there need to be more social support systems in place.”

Gordon says many causes contribute to the disenfranchisement felt by residents. For instance, the demographic is not largely represented in the legislature and popular media tend to focus on the community when negative events, such as crime and violence, take place.

Within the community, she says many residents may not know the process towards having their voice heard. For example, they may not know their rights or know where to mobilize around issues such as unemployment, underemployment or housing.

In the hope of finding a new avenue for the community to have a greater say in local policies and to combat a lingering sense of apathy among residents, Gordon turned her focus to a recent initiative: the North End Matters project.

North End Matters

Ingrid Waldron is an assistant professor at Dalhousie University’s School of Nursing. She is also the principal researcher behind the North End Matters project.

Ingrid Waldron has spent the last three years developing North End Matters, a multi-phase project aimed at empowering African Nova Scotians to influence and promote healthy public policy at a grassroots level.

The project aims to deliver change in the form of a Community Health Impact Assessment Tool (CHIAT). The CHIAT is a tool kit  designed to help engage, educate and empower the community by giving its members the resources necessary to influence public policy and decision makers.

“(The CHIAT) gives people a say in decisions that impact their lives,” says Waldron. “So if any new program or policy initiative comes into the north end … the community gets a voice. The CHIAT gives people a chance to say how they feel about it. It also engages and brings people together to articulate the voice of the community. That in itself is powerful.”

Shelina Gordon recently joined the North End  Matters group and was hired on by Waldron as an assistant researcher.

“I think having a community-driven perspective is essential to the success and vibrancy of the community,” Gordon says. “This project is unique in the fact that it does do that. It’s not a project where the research is being done and the community is not being incorporated into it.”

Community feedback is fed into the CHIAT through what is known as the PATH process.

The CHIAT is not intended to influence a specific policy or issue, such as neighbourhood gentrification. Rather, the tool will provide the platform for residents to express their views, share personal experiences and communicate with others about issues affecting their community.

The CHIAT will ultimately only have an impact if residents choose to embrace it. Residents will still need to approach policy makers about issues they feel are important, something they may have been reluctant to do in the past.

Waldron says she’s aware of the challenges that lie ahead in the final stages of the project, admitting that the CHIAT is only as good as the community that uses it. As a consequence, the previous phase of the project was devoted entirely to getting the message out to the community.

This included a public screening of the film The North End: In Search of a New Beginning, as well as the creation of an online talk show series. Both of these are based on a 2010 research study Waldron conducted as the first phase of the project.

The original research report studied both the African Nova Scotian and aboriginal communities in the north end. However, the CHIAT will only serve to help African Nova Scotian residents because the theory behind the PATH process stipulates that the CHIAT needs to focus on the specific needs of a particular community in order to be effective.

The North End Matters project is currently recruiting community members to take part in the PATH process. The CHIAT is tentatively expected to be released next year.

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