Last May NeighborSpace announced that it had plans underway for a new program, “The POP Project” or “Portals for Our Partners,” a way to foster engagement and cohesion in the communities where there are NeighborSpace sites.

Owing to the generosity of the Quality of Life Giving Circle, NeighborSpace received a grant to fund the development of a website template and to use it to develop a website for a community partner. That partner is the Powhatan Farms Improvement Association (PFIA), the NeighborSpace stewardship partner at Powhatan Park in Lochearn.

Over the last year, NeighborSpace partnered with PFIA, meeting regularly (virtually, of course, during these strange times) to set the plan in motion and level the tech-playing field.

During these meetings, many discussions took place with respect to best practices for pages of content, a color scheme, and use of other integrative tools that will streamline many existing PFIA processes. In addition to the new website, PFIA gained access to the full range of Google Workspace tools, including Google Meet for virtual meetings, along with training on how to use the various software packages.

In August 2021, after all of the hours of discussion, research and data gathering and entry, the new PFIA website went live.

Now, moving forward, the Powhatan Farms community has a central online location to look for resources specific to their neighborhood, a calendar of events, blog posts, history of the community, a page specific to Powhatan Park, and even a place to pay their dues.

PFIA President, Aaron Barnett says “Thanks to the valiant efforts of Ms. Tanya Neal and Barbara Hopkins of NeighborSpace of Baltimore County, we would like to proudly announce that the Powhatan Farms Improvement Association website is up and running so please feel free to drop by and join our warm hospitable community at  www.powhatanfarms.org .”

Website Master, Tonya Neal, noted that PFIA received their first email list sign-up through the form on the site. “This is GREAT because we’ve been trying for years to get the community to provide us with their email addresses so that we can communicate with them electronically. Well, it looks like we might just be able to accomplish this goal via the website.”