Wednesday, 25 January 2012 16:27

The Liberty Village Residents Association (LVRA) was initiated by Liberty Village resident Todd Hofley when he moved to a condo in the area and found that the connection of the community within Liberty Village was strong, but he noticed a lack of outlet to create and project a voice for the community.

When Hofley decided to create and outlet for the collective voice of his community, he was met with a response far greater than anticipated. The most recent meeting was packed to the ceiling, and in a short time, the Facebook page created for the association reached nearly 200 people. Hofely started the association by first targeting the Facebook group dedicated to the occupants in his building. He sent a note mentioning the anticipated meeting of residents in the area. The first meeting was not advertised at all beyond the minimal social media outreach, and drew in about 20 people from three or four nearby condo buildings. In November, the group managed to post flyers in the area, alerting the neighbourhood to the efforts in place. This second meeting brought approximately 45 people, substantially filling the room to near capacity.

The LVRA is comprised of four committees within the association.

The first committee is designated to design and business development. This committee is responsible for being a liaison with the Business Improvement Area and ensuring there is design cohesiveness between the east and west end of Liberty Village.

The second committee is responsible for community events. This committee will look towards planning events based around voluntary involvements and entertainment such as community wide yard sales, or movie nights in the park.

A third committee captures social media and branding, and will be in charge of getting and keeping the group connected on Twitter, Facebook and just generally producing an ongoing and up to date online presence.

The fourth and final committee is a neighbourhood planning committee that will be involved with and monitor developments within Liberty Village. It will stay in touch with the City and represent the communal opinion and concerns of LVRA at area design meeting.

Hofely hopes and expects the future of LVRA to become a solid association that will meet every two or three months, while maintaining a progressive and strong online presence.Most people view condos as private gated communities, with little to no involvement with the actual community in which their condo stands. Hofley has noticed that this is not the case for Liberty Village – there is a strong sense of community as a whole and the people involved are enthusiastic and engaged. Hofely hopes, and has only been proven correct so far, that the Liberty Village Residents Association will become a strong people based core of the community, only further accentuating the fact that Liberty Village is a close knit neighbourhood.

You can become more a part of your community if you`d like to express ideas or opinions about the LVRA, or would like to get involved to connect with the group via: Facebook: Liberty Village Residents Association, Twitter: @libertyresident or Email: libertyresidents@gmail.com.

Emily Karpazis