In October, Registered Neighborhood Organization University Park Neighbors Community Council elected Debbie Harrington president. Right off the bat Harrington has a simple and clear first goal.

“I would like to see more outreach in terms of community involvement; I would like to see more resident involvement in the things we do at UPCC.”

Harrington feels the organization looks internally for the heavy lifting required to run events, and she is worried about volunteer well being.

“Rather than asking at a meeting ‘which ones of us can be volunteers,’ for example with our upcoming Sing and Sleigh Bells which is the first Sunday in December, we need to try to get people in the community excited enough to volunteer and be a part of that. Otherwise you burn people out and you can’t get anyone to do anything.”

Aside from community participation, Harrington highlights communication as a hurdle UPCC is trying to clear.

She says “continuing with the ways we’ve reached out to people are non-electronic” is proving more difficult.

“We do a newsletter four times a year and every residential home receives this hand delivered to their door. We also produce a once-a-year directory which shares information about city resources."

Harrington says UPCC also issues a monthly email which is more current than the printed newsletter, and she worries her electronically challenged residents might be missing key information.

“The email is more robust in terms of content because we talk about what’s coming up, we report on issues of concern. So, those who are connected digitally receive better updates.”

Harrington asks her digitally connected UPCC residents to reach out to neighbors they suspect may not be receiving the emails so as to ensure all residents are connected.

By Profile presstime Sing and Sleigh Bells had been fully planned and staffed, but Harrington says help is always needed and appreciated.

Visit upcc.us/events for information. Interested in becoming a UPCC member? Email membership@upcc.us or call 619-549-4509.