Vanastra Visit!

Hello Everyone! Hello Village of Vanastra! Hello Huron East and beyond!

We are five University of Guelph graduate students, who are looking forward to working with the Village of Vanastra and the Vanastra Revival Team this semester. We are also looking forward to working with you!
We are (from left to right): Shelby, Wil, Scott, and Mike. Ben could not make it for our first visit but you will see him soon!

Let's get you up to speed. This past year has been exciting for the Village of Vanastra; a successful Business Retention & Expansion Initiative earlier this year has community leaders, building owners and existing entrepreneurs excited about future growth and business development opportunities. The BR + E report outlines six priority areas that will especially help make Vanastra a community worth living, working, and investing in. These priority areas include:

• Improve appearance of the community
• Improve and have more effective signage
• Better marketing of the area
• Community Identity and Unity
• Small business support
• Heritage development

Our goal is to take these focus areas and help develop the next steps in the Village of Vanastra's community revitalization strategy.

Our primary objective as students, as part of our Community Engagement course, is to engage with you. What sort of community revitalization initiatives would make the best fit in the Village of Vanastra? What are Vanastra's strong qualities that can further be developed? What are some of the things the community is lacking? What sort of actions do you think would resonate with you and the community? We want to know what you think. 

It's time to put Vanastra on the map!

So keep in touch. We will be posting here throughout the semester so that you can see what we are up to.

Remember: We will be holding a public meeting to gather community input in late November/early December for anybody who wants to attend. In the meantime, check back here for information regarding our Facebook page and how to contact us with suggestions, concerns, etc. Put your thinking caps on!