OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Gina Paradis, second from right at table, the director of the Chautauqua County Land Bank, explains the Hands-On Neighborhoods program Monday at a meeting of the Dunkirk Common Council’s Economic Development Committee. At right is Natalie Luczkowiak, chair of the committee.

A program whose goal is “nurturing neighborhoods, building community” will set up in Dunkirk.

“The Hands On Neighborhoods program was developed to create pride in place, to encourage community members to become more active in their community,” said Gina Paradis, director of the Chautauqua County Land Bank.

Speaking this month at a meeting of the Dunkirk Common Council’s Economic Development Committee, Paradis said the program was successfully rolled out in Jamestown last year.

Due to the COVID-19 protocols then in place, “we kind of reined it in and made it strictly a cleanup program.” Nevertheless, some 300 volunteers managed cleanup efforts in seven Jamestown neighborhoods, she said.

Hands On Neighborhoods intends cleanup efforts in Dunkirk this summer, though Paradis admitted seven events “was a little arduous to pull off” so there will be fewer. She proposed two events in Dunkirk, in June and in September.

It’s hoped that neighborhood groups will ultimately carry out their own efforts. Hands on Neighborhoods wants them “to use our guidance to organize their own neighborhood cleanups,” Paradis said.

There is a “Community Cleanup Resource Guide” available for such efforts. “A grass roots organization wants to do cleanup, we can hand them this packet and here’s what they need,” she said. “Basically, it’s a cleanup event in a box. We can hand it off and say, ‘You can do this.'”

Hands on Neighborhoods is looking to coordinate its Dunkirk efforts with local partners such as churches, non-profit organizations, and schools. “We try to use this to not only make the city look better but to have the neighbors feel more neighborly,” Paradis said.

She added, “It gives us another option to connect people and get into some of the distressed neighborhoods in a positive way.”

Paradis stressed that volunteers do not trespass, staying on the shoulders. “We don’t go on people’s lawns,” she said. “We’re very conscientious about respecting people’s property.”

Hands On Neighborhoods has plans for a homeowner mentorship program, a tool lending truck groups can use for cleanup efforts, and another program called “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design.”