Last December, the Burnside Gorge Business Improvement Association (BIA) organizing committee was awarded a My Great Neighbourhood Grant in the category of community recovery and resiliency projects. The community must match the funding through combined volunteer labour, donated services, donated materials and other funds raised. The $5,000 grant, received from the City of Victoria, will be used to support the formation of the Burnside Gorge BIA, by enabling us to develop a website, surveys, branding, and other tools for engagement.
Where We Have Been
Over the last several months, the organizing committee has received invaluable coaching from representatives of the City of Victoria, City of Vancouver, BC Housing and the former Executive Director of the DVBA, Ken Kelly. The committee has also received a copy of the City’s assessment roll to help identify key properties and businesses in the Burnside Gorge area. The last few months have been spent fine tuning our logo and branding, establishing our first survey, and preparing to launch our website.
Where We Are Now
Our initial survey is now live and ready for input from the business community. The survey is available to all local businesses within the boundaries of Burnside Gorge and the responses will be used to identify the priorities for our BIA in order to ensure that the needs of the community are the focus of projects undertaken by our organization.
Engagement is a critical part of our next phase and it is extremely important that we hear from as many businesses in as many sectors and industries as possible from all areas of Burnside Gorge. Please share this survey with all of your neighbouring businesses. The information collected in this survey will be used to find a common vision from which we can move forward together. Once all of the survey data has been compiled, work will begin on creating the BIA’s business plan.
A dream of this magnitude takes a lot of great people to build. We need your help! The committee is looking for representatives from businesses in light industrial, retail and food/beverage areas to help promote the BIA and engage the community. Please join us in building Burnside Gorge back better and stronger!
Where We Are Going
After the business plan has been established, there will be opportunity for further engagement and feedback from the business community. The idea is not to push an agenda into the community, but rather to build consensus for a common vision that we can all embrace. That’s when the real work begins of campaigning for support. The business plan will be modified as necessary until we achieve the consensus required to bring this dream into reality. The future looks bright for Burnside Gorge. Good things grow here!
