Riverside Front Porch Community

In the summer of 2000, Greater Miami Neighborhoods submitted an application to the Office of Urban Opportunity to receive a designation of "Front Porch Florida Community" for the area of Riverside, a sub-neighborhoods of East Little Havana. The designation was awarded to the neighborhood with the following boundaries:

Front Porch Florida is a grass roots, bottom-up revitalization initiative that focuses on the family and empowers residents to define and resolve neighborhood problems. The solutions for changing the neighborhood are to come from the community, not government. This mission of this initiative is:

• To encourage and support Florida's urban citizens in their effort to preserve core neighborhood values and to assist them in identifying and strengthening their existing community assets.

• To foster an atmosphere of cooperation and understanding in neighborhoods which empowers neighbors to create an oasis of help within their communities through committed local activism.
  
  

• To work as an agent of facilitation by uniting individuals; neighborhoods; and public and private resources as collaborative partners with a common goal of re-claiming Florida's urban communities.
  
  
• To promote and celebrate neighborhoods that have successfully revitalized themselves as role models and shining examples of what all Florida urban communities aspire to become.
  
  The Riverside Front Porch Revitalization Council is the directing body that contributes and actively participates in the implementation of the Front Porch Florida Initiative in the Riverside Community. The Council consists of 15 members; 5 residents residing in the community; 5 businesses located in the community; 5 organizational representatives from agencies serving the community. There is also an Advisory Committee comprised of other interested parties working in the community who assist the Council in the identification of community needs and opportunities. Greater Miami Neighborhoods is one of the agency members of the Revitalization Council.
  
  The Riverside Front Porch Community has developed an Action Plan that identifies community priorities. Priorities in the Riverside Action Plan include: education, human services, housing, public safety and economic development.
  
  
  Click Here for Riverside Front Porch Community of East Little Havana Annual Report 2004-2005


For more information on the Front Porch Initiative please link to www.myflorida.com/portal/Government/learn/frontporch.

Riverside Front Porch Community Council Members

Salvadora Briones
Resident

Pablo Canton
Administrator
City of Miami East Little Havana Neighborhood Enhancement Team Office

Raúl Camaliche
Kiwanis Club of Little Havana

Sergio Fiallo
Executive DirectorDr. Rafael A. Peñalver Clinic

Jackie Knowles
Executive Director
Regis House

Flor Morales
Resident

Jorge Morales
Resident

Rosa Pizzi
Executive Director
Abriendo Puertas of East Little Havana, Inc.

Kathy Rodríguez,
Council Chairperson
Assistant Vice-President
Greater Miami Neighborhoods, Inc.

Frank Veloso
Owner
Los Guireños Gas Station