Board of Aldermen 11-26-2019 Page 4
looking at and making decisions about and communicating further with the students about some
improvements that they think might be made.
The green points are those positive areas where they felt that they could walk safely or could access
their recreation and places for leisure safely. So there are probably about 50 data points, we had about
15 students that we worked with. So we collected a lot of information that helped and form the
signature projects that you'll be hearing about in just a little bit.
All of the photos and formed the signature projects and the action steps that we are proposing that the
Boys & Girls Club work with the City on and | do want to acknowledge several of the Department Heads
that we’ve communicated with, some of them only briefly, wno have been super-supportive about how
to implement some of the suggestions that the students have come up with. Many of the suggestions
were around beautification and the students felt very positive and supportive and were very pleased
with how much beauty there is in the City, so there were a lot of pictures of flowers as a result. Each
student was asked to choose out of their 40 or 50 photos that they took, one photo that represented the
positive aspects of the City and one photo that represented where they thought improvements could be
made. So this is an example of where they thought improvements could be made and safety in the
trails by having the trails have a clean surface.
Again beautification and managing graffiti in the City was one thing that was pointed out. They thought
the Bike Share program was fantastic and that it was well used. One theme that seemed to emerge
was trash, concern about trash and keeping the City beautiful. We did meet this afternoon with the
students and with Nick from the Parks & Recreation Department so there is going to be an action step
of including some of the Boys & Girls Club Members in the regular monthly clean-ups that take place at
Mine Falls Park.
Art & Sculpture was one of the things that the students thought was a positive aspect. Again more
flowers, they seemed to really like the color and the flowers and how it makes the City look beautiful
and they want to see more of that. There was a concern about homelessness; so there seemed to be
some interest in taking some action about that somehow and supporting the City’s efforts on the
homelessness issue. Again, trash was a theme.
| want to point out the quality of these photos, as | am sure you’ve seen in the other photos, but it is just
fantastic what the students come up with. With very little instruction they were able to focus and write
these captions that were | think very effective. So again, more flowers, more trash, more flowers. This
was an interesting point of view where the perception of the student was that roads are narrow so
people getting out of the cars when they’ve been parked might have some concerns as the cars were
driving by them.
So that is a summary, that’s kind of an example of the photographs; all of the photographs are located
in the report that you received as well. So one of the points of this project was to have exhibits, similar
to the PhotoVoice that has already been done. So we did have exhibits at the Nashua Public Library
and a reception for the students as well as here in the City Hall Rotunda, so we want to acknowledge
Donna Graham’s support in helping us achieve the City Hall Rotunda Exhibit which was up for just
about a month which was fantastic. So that got a lot of exposure. We are going to be having further
meetings. The students will be having further meetings at the Boys & Girls Club with the Library
Director. One of the suggestions was a pop-up library, the students wanted to see more libraries in the
City. The Library Director has been very supportive in talking about bringing the pop-up program to the
Boys & Girls Club to meet that need. Both the Police Department and the Public Health Department
Community Services have been very supportive about meeting those students. Those meetings have
not taken place yet, but we are going to be facilitating those in the future.
Tonight's presentation was intended to have the students which is part of the point of them
communicating their vision to you all. They are certainly open and Shea down at the Boys & Girls Club
