Editor’s note: For background, read our Oct. 9 article “City of Colorado Springs to dissolve Westside Community Center Working Committee.”
On the Westside, we value community involvement and volunteerism. We believe people should have a say in the public spaces that serve them. That’s why the proposed dissolution of the Westside Community Center Working Committee deserves careful reconsideration.
The Westside Community Center is thriving because community members have been true partners in its success. The Working Committee provides residents a meaningful seat at the table to actively shape the center’s vision, operation, and future.
Walk into the center any day and you’ll see what this partnership has built. Community volunteers teach art, music, and exercise classes. Pickleball players have organized leagues. Table tennis enthusiasts and crafters gather regularly. This is a community bringing a center to life.
Parks leadership believes transitioning to a Friends of the Westside Community Center model would better serve ongoing engagement. A Friends group may indeed be a good model to consider. But dissolving the Working Committee before that alternative exists—and before it has a meaningful, binding agreement with the City—is premature.
The low rejection rate that Parks cites isn’t evidence the committee is unnecessary. It’s evidence the partnership is working. When community members have genuine input from the beginning, there’s alignment. That’s what co-creation looks like.
In 2022, when the previous operator left, residents organized and saved the center. But they wanted more than a saved building – they wanted partnership. The Working Committee gave them that. Now the community is being told that partnership might end without being consulted about the decision.
The Organization of Westside Neighbors is forming the Westside Community Builders committee to develop into a Friends organization. But building an effective organization and establishing a meaningful agreement with the City takes time.
Until that work is complete, dissolving the Working Committee risks undoing the very partnership that has made the center successful. The Parks Advisory Board votes Nov. 13 at 7:30 a.m.. I urge them to continue the Working Committee for at least another year – time enough to build a proper transition.
Colorado Springs is better when community members are genuine partners in public spaces. The Westside Community Center proves it. Let’s not dismantle a working model before we’ve built its replacement.
Justin Trudeau
Chair, Westside Community Center Working Committee
President, Organization of Westside Neighbors Colorado Springs
