SPOKANE, Wash. — Every neighborhood in Spokane has a neighborhood council, but not everybody knows about it or knows what the council can do for them.
Neighborhood councils can help accomplish many things, such as hosting community events, organizing clean-ups and being the communication between the people and the city. The communication can look like helping people put in place things like crosswalks and signs all over the neighborhood.
“We put in a couple of stop signs over on Up River Drive because that’s just been a really rough area for speeding,” said Tyler Tamoush, the community assembly representative for the Minnehaha Neighborhood Council.
All of that is possible because of the volunteers on the council.
“You feel like somebody is actually hearing you. I think a lot of people really want to be heard,” said community assembly representative for the Hillyard Neighborhood Council Laura Johnson.
One class is helping teach volunteers how to be the best leaders they can be.
“One of the things I learned was being in other people’s shoes and seeing what they had in their neighborhoods,” Johnson said. “The good things and the bad things and then understanding that I’m not the only one going through it.”
Spokane Neighborhood Leadership Academy is a free five-month program that teaches participants how to be leaders and how to navigate the Spokane City structures and processes.
“It’s a great way to just kind of learn different tools that you can possibly utilize for your neighborhood councils and even the community assembly,” said Tamoush.
It also teaches these leaders how they can get other people in their neighborhood involved.
“Go to your neighborhood council, get involved, make suggestions, volunteer for events,” said Tamoush. “It’s really important to bring people together as a community.”
You can find more information about signing up for the Leadership Academy here. To find information on when your neighborhood council meets next, click here.
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