Earth Day is Thursday April 22, 2010

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:45:20 +0000

EARTHA, Wrapper Jane, and Joe Ceci Visiting Colonel Walker School

Thank y0u to everyone who made the Earth Day 22 minute makeover such a great success!

There were over 400 people out picking up litter around Ward 9 and all over the city. Joe’s Clean Team visited schools, businesses and worked with teams to pick up garbage in parks, sidewalks and roadways throughout the day.

Thank you!

Letter to Minister Jablonski regarding cuts to agencies serving people with disabilities

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:43:51 +0000

ALDERMAN JOE CECI, MSW, RSW 2009 December 18

Honourable Mary Anne Jablonski,

Minister of Seniors and Community Support

#227 Legislature Building 10800-97 Avenue Edmonton, AB Canada T5K 2B6

RE: CUTS TO AGENCIES SERVING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Dear Honourable Mary Anne Jablonski:

Earlier today I attended an awareness raising rally, with hundreds of Calgarians, about the recent request for cuts from the persons with disabilities agencies.

If these cuts go through, I believe all Calgarians will be affected by increasing demand to access emergency medical services, public transportation, community policing, as well as impacting services like Access Calgary, FCSS and other city funded services.

I am very concerned that care for the most vulnerable populations in our city are already underfunded and now a further $3 million reduction will erode these critical services even deeper.

These are hard economic times for everyone, and particularly people with disabilities. I recognize the Government’s requirement to balance the budget, and implore you to reconsider this $3M reduction to PDD Agencies.

Is this not the time to utilize the Sustainability Fund within Heritage Trust Fund? This is the place the government could go to protect programs rather than cutting funds to our vulnerable population.

Yours truly,

ALDERMAN JOE CECI, MSW, RSW

joe.ceci@calgary.ca

cc: Honourable Ed Stelmach, Premier

Mayor David Bronconnier, City of Calgary

A good news story to mark the end of 2009!

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:23:34 +0000

Despite record cold winter temperatures, the homeless shelters are not over capacity. With the provision of additional transitional housing and a low vacancy rate, the homeless population are not warehoused in temporary emergency housing this year. The Province (finally) stepped up with funding for additional capacity and even better, communities are accepting a mix of housing which is resulting in fewer people seeking shelter every night. The recent opening of Alice Bissett Place in Inglewood is one example, which provides 114 units of affordable and supported housing for low-income Calgarians.
http://www.calgaryhomeless.com/users/news_view.asp?FolderID=2932&NewsID=96

Clean Team Summer

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:33:45 +0000

The summer went by quickly with Joe’s Clean Team out a few times both on Sundays and a couple of weekdays. Jorge at the Drop In Centre has recruited some volunteers who have been out with us a few times now. Just wanted to underline how positive an experience it is to be constructively engaged in a community development activity such as litter picking with clients of the Drop In Centre. They have opened my eyes up to what being homeless is about, but more importantly that they are “severely normal Albertans” who have come upon some hard times and little by little they are putting that behind them. I think the small words of thanks we all get from our fellow Calgarians for cleaning up the neighbourhoods and pathways gives us all a boost and let’s us know we are on the right track.

We even worked during the AIDS Walk for Life and participated in the Peace Pole ribbon cutting on September 20th.

The number of community volunteers is decreasing while the number of DI clients is increasing – so it would be great to have new volunteers join us!

It’s very gratifying and interesting way to spend an hour and a half.

Tuesday’s in August

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:44:07 +0000

Joe’s Clean Team worked with the Drop In Centre clients and volunteers. Three teams went out around the construction along the riverbank and Langevin Bridge, into Bridgeland and to the Bridgeland/Riverside LRT station and back along Memorial Dr. We noticed the empty garden beds in front of the ESSO and the Starbucks could use some plants – maybe a location for a community garden sponsored by the businesses!

many bags full

Joe’s Clean Team

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:38:49 +0000

Just added: Clean Team photo gallery

Community Clean Ups

“Remember the 1970s, and all the social marketing to remind people ‘DON’T BE A LITTERBUG’? Well in the intervening years, we seem to have forgotten that lesson and there’s not much stigma around being a litterbug now. More and more Calgarians comment to me that the city is dirtier, and that littering has reached dramatic proportions. My aim with Joe’s Clean Team, is to actually do something about it beyond complaining, and to restore a sense of pride and ownership of our city. I believe that if enough people take personal responsibility for keeping our city clean, it will serve as a deterrent to littering for other people and we will have a clean city in the long term.

While there is no denying that littering is a city-wide problem, as Alderman for Ward 9, I chose a central location from which the Clean Team ventures forth to pick up rubbish for 90 minutes spreading out in four directions.

The idea was brought to reality over two years ago with the help of the Volunteer Coordinators at the Calgary Drop In Centre. The Clean Team gets together with Drop In Centre clients to not only pick up litter together but to learn more about what it’s like to be homeless.

I am deeply concerned about the homeless in our city, and by involving Drop-In Centre clients who volunteer to work on Joe’s Clean Team, we have occasion to interact and make connections with each other. I learn what they’re up against, and they get involved with other members of the community. By engaging in worthy work together, I believe we build empathy and understanding for one another, and pick up a whole lot of rubbish into the bargain. We welcome all comers, and I promise you that it will be a very rewarding 90 minutes in all kinds of ways.

Join us by email clward9@calgary.ca

Almost all the Ward 9 communities organize a Community Cleanup.
Joe participates in each one and provides vests, gloves and litter pickers to volunteers.

Drop – In Centre Clean Ups

Bring your volunteer group, your friends and family for the community action event.
Work with clients from the Drop In Centre who help clean up the area.

For more information call Ward 9 Community Liaison Sharon Stevens at

268-5330 or email clward9@calgary.ca

Meet at the Drop In Centre 423 4 Ave S.E. Route maps, sgloves, bags and garbage picking tools are provided.

Routes are within 1 km of the Drop In Centre. Work with clients from the Drop In Centre who help clean up the area. After the clean up, join Joe and his crew at Broken City for snacks and refreshments.

Bring your volunteer group, your friends and family for the community action event. Call (403) 268-5330 for more information.

Every Day is Earth Day in Ward 9!

A BIG thankyou to all the individuals, teams, offices, schools, businesses who were out on Earth Day! No need to confine this to only one day – especially one that was so cold and snowy. Please don’t hesitate to make your own Earth Day event any day soon – pick a sunny day. Send in photos and stories.

Read Joe’s diary of Clean Team adventures:

ALL 2008 POSTS

FULL LIST OF POSTS

Make our communities safer

Wed, 06 May 2009 03:23:20 +0000

What we can all do to make our communities safer and better:

If you see crime happen, call the Calgary City Police. Serious crimes or crimes-in-progress should be reported to 9-1-1, but if you have a non-urgent report or concern, contact the Community Liaison Officer in the police district which serves your community (see http://www.calgarypolice.ca/districts/map.html for a map of police districts, and their phone numbers). The police department also supports a citizens’ on-line report system for less serious crimes. The police website has a crime map where you can see where crimes were reported in your neighbourhood and what kinds of crimes they were.

Bylaw violations can be reported by calling 3-1-1. Some Ward 9 communities have done Community Bylaw Sweeps together, where on an appointed day, residents wander the streets and alleys together with notepads, and make lists of bylaw violations (e.g. unpainted homes, graffiti, broken fences, garbage in yards, high grass, etc.). This is a very efficient way to collectively address problem properties in a neighbourhood. Please contact Bylaw Services in advance of your sweep, to advise them of your plans and to find out how best to communicate your list to them. For information on what constitute bylaw violations and contact information, please visit: http://content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Hall/Municipal+Government/Bylaws/Bylaw+Services.htm

Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN)

The provincial Safer Communities and Neighbourhood Act (SCAN) promotes community safety by cleaning up properties that negatively affect health, safety or security in a neighbourhood. SCAN allows Albertans to take back their neighbourhoods by reporting problem residences and buildings. SCAN will target properties used for illegal activities such as drugs, gangs, and prostitution, and will also hold property owners accountable for what takes place on their property. If there’s a suspicious property in your neighborhood, do not investigate it yourself or approach the occupants. Please call Alberta Sheriffs SCAN teams immediately, toll free at 1-866-960-SCAN (7226). A SCAN complaint form is also available on-line . Simply submit the form and a member of the SCAN team will contact you.

Community Clean-ups happen in many Ward 9 neighbourhoods – usually in the springtime. Check the link to your neighbourhood on this site to see when yours is happening. Community clean-ups are a great way to make a dramatic difference in how your community looks in just one day of collective effort. It’s a great way to meet other people in your neighbourhood too!

2009 Earth Day 20-Minute Makeover Round-Up

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:53:32 +0000

Earth Day – April 22nd, 2009 – is behind us now, and another couple hundred bio-degradable bags of garbage have been captured and corralled thanks to the efforts of many individuals and groups throughout Ward 9, and the city generally. I would like to extend a big thank you to all the people who got behind the 20-Minute Makeover in its second year, and came out in force to rid our streets of grime.

The weather was on our side more this year than last, fortunately, and the snow didn’t start falling until the afternoon. I was out with a few members of Joe’s Clean Team on International Avenue in Forest Lawn at 9:00 am where teams from Scotiabank, the Calgary Co-op and TD Bank joined us. The Earth Day mascot Eartha was with me again this year, doing her part to keep morale up. From there we moved on to Ground Effects Café in Milligan/Ogden, which served as a depot again this year, and then to the home of a nearby resident who wanted to organize some neighbours to clean up her street. The Colonel Walker School in Inglewood was our next stop, where we participated in an impromptu break-dancing class and Wrapper Jane got to show her stuff to some bonafide rappers. The kids out in the schoolyard were doing a bang-up job of cleaning up too.

Our next stop was the Arusha Centre, where Arusha staff along with staff of Cohos-Evamy Integrated Design also came out in force along 12th Ave. S.W. From there we headed east and met up with staff from the Nature Conservancy before hitting the Eco Fair in the City Hall Atrium, where all kinds of innovative green ideas were on display. Ramsay School was next, where the kids had done the 20-minute makeover on April 21st in anticipation of worsening weather, and no sooner had we visited all the classrooms there, than the white stuff did start to fly. Our final stop was at the Calgary Chinese Community Service Association, by which time the snow was coming down in huge, wet flakes. Undeterred by the weather, valiant volunteers from the CCCSA took us through the streets and alleyways of Chinatown to pick up garbage. It was a tremendous day of stamping out litter.

Last year we had a lot of fun and spent time with many groups on April 22nd, and distributed a lot of bags and gloves at various depots around Ward 9. This year it was so rewarding to see how many people had embraced the Earth Day 20-Minute Makeover and were making it their own, and really taking the initiative in their communities to spruce up their streets.

Reports are still rolling in, but here are some of the reports we have received:

A badge of honour goes to the City of Calgary’s own Parks and Recreation Department, along with Community and Neighbourhood Services who put together (count ‘em…) NINE teams involving 126 people to clean up at locations around the city during their morning break.

The good people from Momentum went out as a team of 11 and travelled from Max Bell to downtown, picking up 10 full bags of garbage in the course of their 20-Minute Makeover. They’ve even decided to go well beyond the call of duty and do a 20-minute makeover ONCE A MONTH!

Erin Woods School also had the foresight to move their efforts to April 21st, and so the student body there went out together to pick up around their school a day before Earth Day.

Judy Yip and her family heard about the Earth Day 20-Minute Makeover and decided to do their part by picking up two full bags of garbage along Country Hills Boulevard, and they plan to make it a regular family outing.

Foothills Mustard Seed residents along with staff and community volunteers numbering 45 set out together to collect FORTY BAGS OF GARBAGE on Earth Day. This is an unbelievable contribution… way to go team!

I’m also grateful to QR77, X92.9 FM, the CBC, Omni News, and S.E. Calgary News for publicizing the 20-Minute Makeover.

I couldn’t be more delighted with the way people mobilized and took Earth Day and the 20-Minute Makeover to heart and made it their own. My sincere thanks to all of you. Spring is going to look a lot better in Calgary thanks to your tremendous efforts.

May Clean Team Dates

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:42:42 +0000

Hello all Clean Teamers!

What a great Earth Day – as usual a challenge weather wise, but we were out in full force with many groups participating all over the City. It’s wonderful to see the 22 minute makeover really take off.

Our next clean team dates will all be at the Ward 9 Community Cleanups:

This Saturday April 26: Morning – Renfrew | Afternoon – Tuxedo Park
and then…
May 2 – Fairview
May 9 – Dover
May 16 – Southview
May 23 – Millican Ogden
May 30 – Ramsay

Please rsvp via email to clward9@calgary.ca if you are interested in participating in any of these.

And we’ll connect back with the Drop In centre clean ups in June. If anyone wants supplies for their own independent litter picking – just send me an email and we’ll help you out.

Thanks.
Sharon

Sunday April 13

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:29:16 +0000

A beautiful sunny day to meet up with 6 residents from Bridgeland Riverside and 6 members of Joe’s Clean Team including Eartha the 22 minute mascot! President for Bridgeland Riverside Community Association (BRCA) Lori Losowy challenged other communities to a 22 minute makeover. We worked for less than an hour and got one full bag each, working along the hillside above the Bridgeland Community Garden, along the pathway and onto the community playing fields. Thanks to BRCA for being the first Ward 9 community to sign on to the 22 minute makeover.