Video: Wellness tree a signpost in rebirth of Louis Street

A little ceremony Wednesday on Louis Street highlighted a big transformation for an area of the city that used to have a bad reputation.

Louis Street made headlines in 2012 when a new policing model pioneered in Sudbury – known as Zone 30 – played a key role in a drastic decline in the number of emergency police calls in the neighbourhood – from several a day to a handful a month.

It was accomplished through increased engagement by police in the day-to-day life of residents. In turn, residents let officers know where the trouble spots were and who was doing what. The intelligence helped police make targeted arrests that brought calm to the area.

The next step was the creation of the Louis Street Association, a group of volunteers dedicated to encouraging community pride. Community gardens were created, and after-school programs gave kids a place to go and learn, rather than get into trouble.

Elizabeth Byard-Davis, a founder of the association, said Wednesday that the dedication of the neighbourhood's Community Wellness Tree is a visible expression by residents that they are proud of where they live and they want all of Greater Sudbury to take notice.

"We want the outside community to understand how much this community has changed over the years," Byard-Davis said. "It's a message of hope and inspiration, revitalization of the community, programs and projects that are helping our community move forward."

While Louis Street has made headlines for the right reasons in recent years, she said they still have to work to get the message out that things have changed.

"It is still a challenge — that stigma has been out there for so long," she said. "It's just a message of wellness that we want to share."

Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann said the neighbourhood is a perfect example of why she is so passionate about the city's Health Community Initiative Funds. She used parts of her $50,000 to support such initiatives as the after-school program in the area, and more recently got approval for two more grants — $1,300 for the association's activities, and $1,700 for Myths and Mirrors to conduct a summer mosaic arts program with young people.

"This is a continuation of the programs that have been implemented since 2009 on Louis Street, and as you can see just (the impact) looking around,” Landry-Altmann said at Wednesday's ceremony.

"You would never have seen this five years ago ... These kids are doing community cleanups, they're proud of where they live. And that was the objective.

"They live in an area that was, perhaps, not well regarded. But just look at the work they've done."

One of the HCI grants is to provide snacks for kids participating in programs.

"Right now, the volunteers are taking money out of their pockets to provide snacks to the kids, so that's where that (funding) is going," she said.

"You'll see the public art that we created last year, there's going to be a mural this year, you now have community gardens."

Greater Sudbury Deputy Police Chief Al Lekun said the success on Louis Street has contributed to the force's broader engagement with neighbourhoods in the city.

They've developed more partnerships with community groups and social service agencies as they work on the biggest change in policing in recent memory.

"It's a model we're working on throughout the community,” Lekun said.

"This a really good example of how we can work together with communities to help community members feel safe, No. 1, but to also take a level of ownership over how this community will function, how they relate to one another and create these events that bring communities together."

Whereas police have been traditionally viewed as the people who only arrive when something really bad has happened, Lekun said broader engagement has helped change that perception.

"We've been able to work together with the community, identify community leaders, support community leaders and neighbourhood residents and the kids,” he said. “We've been able to work together to create an environment where they're making the community safer. They've started projects, developed cohesiveness, brought residents together to help them understand the importance of this community and take pride in the Louis Street area."

"When we see the police here, we don't look at it like something's wrong,” agreed Byard-Davis. "Things are becoming a lot safer, a lot cleaner, and again with support from various other agencies — the police, Sudbury Housing — we're able to bring the community into the new millennium."