Making Tracy better

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Dec 31, 2006

TEAMWORK is essential for any organization to grow.

In the city of Tracy, we pride ourselves on our team effort to serve the residents.

We also enjoy working with community partners to give residents more than we could possibly achieve on our own.

By joining our resources with outside organizations, the city can spread its resources more efficiently.

For example, the city is collaborating with the following agencies on different programs: The Arts Leadership Alliance, the Downtown Tracy Business Improvement Association, the San Joaquin County Red Cross and Tracy Unified School District.

There are various ways a partnership can benefit the public. Depending on the agreement, we can share the cost of running a program, add additional staffing or research future projects.

The Grand Theatre is a wonderful example of the city partnering with a nonprofit organization.

This effort is helping to restore a Tracy landmark. The Arts Leadership Alliance is the city's exclusive nonprofit partner on the project, raising $1 million for the capital campaign and ongoing programming support for future years.

It would have been tougher to revamp the Grand Theatre without the Alliance's dedication to the project.

The Downtown Tracy Business Improvement Alliance is teaming up with the city to help rejuvenate the downtown and reintroduce the public to the positive changes that are taking place.

The city and association are working to turn the downtown into a destination for residents. By working together, we are moving toward achieving that goal.

The city understands that a tragedy can strike at any moment.

A car accident, a fire or worse can leave a family in need of assistance. Our emergency responders are ready to react at a moment's notice, but it takes the special work of the San Joaquin Chapter of the American Red Cross to help the victims begin to pick up the pieces afterwards.

Red Cross volunteers arealways ready to help during an emergency. Now, a partnership with the city will speed up their response time. We are pleased the Red Cross has taken up our offer to open an office downtown in the city fire administration building. This new facility will also offer the Red Cross space to hold classes such as CPR for the general public.

It is important that we always strive to give Tracy a better future. Making sure our children have a safe environment in which to grow up is one way to protect that future. We are pleased to partner with the Tracy Unified School District.

As public agencies, we rely on tax dollars to fulfill the needs for our children. By combining our resources, we can make our money go farther. Our Parks and Community Services Department is working to find new ways to team up with Tracy Unified to ensure our kids stay busy before, during and after school.

Our Recreation on Campus programs provides children with opportunities to improve academic performance, enhance social skills, and increase physical fitness in a fun and safe environment on their campus after school. Our human resources department teams up with the school district for career fairs and finding part time jobs for eager students.

Our police department puts school resource officers on campus to protect our kids from dangerous outside influences, and work as mediators if there is a conflict. We also are strong partners in the school district's DARE program.

Police officers are known for suppressing crime when it happens, but the department works hard at intervention as well.

Officers are always looking for ways to be proactive and help empower residents.

This proactive approach is seen in one of the city's largest partnerships between the police department and neighborhood watch groups.

Officers work with 128 different neighborhood watch groups in Tracy. That number continues to grow on an average of two new neighborhood groups forming each month, as residents work together to help police protect their homes.

The city of Tracy is always looking to find and build more partnerships with public, private and nonprofit organizations.

We find the best way to improve the quality of life in Tracy is to find partners who are equally dedicated to work for the greater good. So if your organization is looking to make a positive impact during 2007, let's talk about how we can work together.

Dan Hobbs is the city manager of Tracy.