TroyCorps
This is an army of volunteers who help to make troy to be a better place. In my embodiment, there are two factions to the TroyCorps: Builders and Monitors. The TroyCorps program would have to be heavily endorsed by City Hall as there is quite a lot of organization to make it successful. Further, this program would not be free, even if the labor is volunteer. There are materials and equipment costs, insurance and so forth, however the benefits of such a program could truly be spectacular.
All TroyCorps members get a jacket (its purple in my head), and some sort of benefits to city events (recognition, TroyCorp-only events like white water rafting, a ride of Capt JP or whatever, whatever sort of donations that can be rung out of city businesses, or just a plaque). The jacket is important for this reason:
TroyCorps Monitors:
These folks simply help the police. They are more like security folks than anything else. They provide a presence. They absolutely do not interfere with anything, they just act as eyes and ears. Before going out on rounds, each group of 2 or more Monitors are given a cell phone and a digital camera. They just look for bad stuff or help with people who need help, or give directions. They provide a friendly face of troy for people who live here or visit.
If they witness bad things, they take a picture and call the police without interfering at all. These folks are NOT like the Guardian Angels, they do not get involved, they do not restrain or anything. However they are given basic self-defense classes (of the type the police give to women for free). They are also given first aid training and basic knowledge of the laws concerning the community. The jackets let them be identified easily so people can come to them if they need help, for directions or just to say hi!
Its true, that the members of the TroyCorps Monitors would have to have to be screened and when they are given cell phones and digital camera, they would have to leave some collateral.
Note: I realize that the jackets can make them a target for something. Specifically, it would be known that each group is carrying a digital camera. So something would have to be worked out there.
TroyCorps Builders:
This is a group more like habitat for humanity. This website would work well integrating with this group. The TroyCorps Builders could actually perform the work for the highest ranking ideas on this site. Basically, if the city can provide basic materials, these folks provide the labor (usually this is the most important part). There is on the job training for the builders so that people can learn new trades while volunteering for this. They can build playgrounds, dog parks, new retaining walls, lighted walkways or whatever.They could also fight the annual worm infestation in the park (although this year was pretty free of worms), perform major clean up in areas and so forth. They would obviously be managed by someone who knows what they are doing.
This is the basic idea, the roles and responsibilities of the TroyCorps could be hammered out a little better in this forum.
There could be multiple TroyCorps substations through the city: downtown, lansingburgh, southtroy etc. Once again this is a great way to make the communities more cohesive and get people to take more ownership of the city and make it part of their lives.
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This is an army of volunteers who help to make troy to be a better place. In my embodiment, there are two factions to the TroyCorps: Builders and Monitors. The TroyCorps program would have to be heavily endorsed by City Hall as there is quite a lot of organization to make it successful. Further, this program would not be free, even if the labor is volunteer. There are materials and equipment costs, insurance and so forth, however the benefits of such a program could truly be spectacular.
All TroyCorps members get a jacket (its purple in my head), and some sort of benefits to city events (recognition, TroyCorp-only events like white water rafting, a ride of Capt JP or whatever, whatever sort of donations that can be rung out of city businesses, or just a plaque). The jacket is important for this reason:
TroyCorps Monitors:
These folks simply help the police. They are more like security folks than anything else. They provide a presence. They absolutely do not interfere with anything, they just act as eyes and ears. Before going out on rounds, each group of 2 or more Monitors are given a cell phone and a digital camera. They just look for bad stuff or help with people who need help, or give directions. They provide a friendly face of troy for people who live here or visit.
If they witness bad things, they take a picture and call the police without interfering at all. These folks are NOT like the Guardian Angels, they do not get involved, they do not restrain or anything. However they are given basic self-defense classes (of the type the police give to women for free). They are also given first aid training and basic knowledge of the laws concerning the community. The jackets let them be identified easily so people can come to them if they need help, for directions or just to say hi!
Its true, that the members of the TroyCorps Monitors would have to have to be screened and when they are given cell phones and digital camera, they would have to leave some collateral.
Note: I realize that the jackets can make them a target for something. Specifically, it would be known that each group is carrying a digital camera. So something would have to be worked out there.
TroyCorps Builders:
This is a group more like habitat for humanity. This website would work well integrating with this group. The TroyCorps Builders could actually perform the work for the highest ranking ideas on this site. Basically, if the city can provide basic materials, these folks provide the labor (usually this is the most important part). There is on the job training for the builders so that people can learn new trades while volunteering for this. They can build playgrounds, dog parks, new retaining walls, lighted walkways or whatever.They could also fight the annual worm infestation in the park (although this year was pretty free of worms), perform major clean up in areas and so forth. They would obviously be managed by someone who knows what they are doing.
This is the basic idea, the roles and responsibilities of the TroyCorps could be hammered out a little better in this forum.
There could be multiple TroyCorps substations through the city: downtown, lansingburgh, southtroy etc. Once again this is a great way to make the communities more cohesive and get people to take more ownership of the city and make it part of their lives.
10 Comments
Tell a friend
Start a project!
Comments