Antrim is making moves toward becoming the first municipality in the state to establish a community services and care planning board, or a community board.
Kristen Vance McCormick and Gordon Allen made why Antrim should be the first to have a community board at a gathering of about 14 people at the First Presbyterian Church of Antrim Thursday.
“Let’s not have to have a crisis for us to come together,” Allen said to the group.
He added that the community has already voiced a motivation to act on forming such a board during a gathering back in October for the town to discuss grief and suicide prevention.
“We all want to do something, but there’s no mechanism. This is a mechanism,” he said.
He added a number of resident have an interest in mentoring teens.
“Imagine if we had that built in systematically,” he said.
New Hampshire towns have been allowed to establish such boards since 2008, but no towns have opted to form one yet.
Allen said community boards take on the same role as land use planning boards or conservation commissions within town government, but their primary directive is for the social well being of the town.
McCormick and Allen said such a board is a new mechanism town governments can use to discover and mobilize “invisible” local assets and insure the town is accessing state services and supports that residents need.
RSA 678, which permits community boards, states a critical need for the “continuous assessment of the community service needs of all residents and the development of local plans … to enhance public health, prosperity, quality of life, safety, and the general welfare of all citizens.”
Allen and McCormick said the legislation was penned by several state agencies and nonprofit organizations, and said that community fixtures such as the Grapevine and library in Antrim support the concept and see it as a way to further their missions.
“It lends a structure, a mechanism we need — that used to exist in Antrim,” McCormick said, when towns were more self-contained and certain neighborhood social structures were stronger.
“If you discover all the resources already in town,” he said, a board can connect and match assets to deliver better community services.
“You can make the town a more welcoming, friendly, connected place,” he said.
A community board would first assess the assets of individuals, groups, and organizations in town, and then mobilize and optimize those assets for the good of the community.
“It’s almost like a dating service,” Allen said, as the board could match people with similar passions.
Antrim has a stronger volunteer base than other surrounding communities, McCormick said, which makes it a great candidate for it being first in the state.
A community board would be sustained like any other town government entity, they said, and its mission is directly concerned with strengthening both its own sustainability as an entity as well as other beneficial community organizations.
Allen said he hopes to bring a proposal to establish the board before the Antrim Select Board in eight or nine months.
Between now and then, Allen and McCormick said they seek to create a steering committee to lead the planning process for the board, facilitating kitchen table discussions to build awareness of the concept and gather input form residents, beginning a community assets inventory to document the skills and talents of all residents, groups, formal and informal networks, and local institutions.
They are seeking funds to cover the costs of the planning process.
For more information, contact Allen at wgordonallen@gmail.com or 603-588-2742 or McCormick at kristenkmccormick@gmail.com or 603-446-7754.