(PRLEAP.COM) The Englewood Community Center Planning Initiative (ECCPI) in Bergen County, New Jersey, was initially proposed by four Englewood residents. They were concerned that the development of a “community center” for the city risked being controlled by developers, investors, and politicians in order to benefit themselves rather than the public-at-large. Instead, they would like the center to be planned by the citizens who will use it.

The original four-member Steering Committee has as of December 13, 2006 formed a citizen’s design group of over 20 individuals representing Englewood’s diversity. The design group’s work, under the Committee’s direction, will be based on comprehensive research and on ideas presented by the citizenry at a series of public meetings in the first quarter of 2007.

Members of the Committee have no financial, professional, or personal stake in the project other than wanting to help citizens create the best possible community center for themselves. They want to ensure that the final product, whatever it turns out to be, functions as a true center. This means that it must appeal to and work for all Englewood’s residents. The planners’ overarching goal is that the center provide ways for Englewood’s citizens to interact, to learn from each other, to recognize, and to celebrate their shared community.

ECCPI would like local government to promote such civic engagement, thereby encouraging citizens to invest themselves in the realization of a true Englewood community center.

For more information on this exciting project, go online at www.cccpi.net or e-mail mayadas@cccpi.net