Antioch Residents Push for “Positive Change”, Encourage Volunteerism and Getting Involved

A group of Antioch residents got together Saturday to host a forum to turn negativity into action by sharing how the community can better become part of the solution.

The event was held at the Antioch Library where attendees learned about social media pages to help connect them to positive happenings in the city while learning about volunteer opportunities.

Trine Gallegos urged folks not to shred the City of Antioch, but rather to cheer the city on. She also encouraged people not to be negative on social media highlighting an example.

“Not to push a hot button issue, but there is some talk about street name changes. A friend posted the reasons why it would not be a good idea. It was super clear why she thought not. She got pelted with smarty pants responses.,” explained Gallegos.

Instead, she encouraged folks to read the information and not go into the comments or just delete people off social media who are negative saying when you are around positive people its a domino effect.

“Go to a city council meeting, go to school board meetings, when you see and are involved in good things, its a fantastic domino effect. you do feel better and connected,” said Trine Gallegos. “If you clean up, go to coffee with the cops, go to the high school to help, you do feel better and are more connected.”

Beverly Knight, founder of the Facebook Page Empower Antioch Today, which is aimed at highlighting the positive of Antioch and volunteerism.

“Volunteering has changed my life. I have met so many wonderful people. Antioch has a huge amount of wonderful people who are working to make this a wonderful city,” said Knight. “I say to people who are hopeless, to just figure out what you can do and go do it.”

One of the easiest things to do for your community is to pick up litter. But getting involved comes in many forms such as coaching, mentoring, cleaning a park, and many other ways noting it also helps you understand processes

“Once you know how it works, it solves a lot of frustration,” explained Knight. “I used to be an angry person with what was going on, but I met people who explained how things work and was able to channel that anger energy into something positive.”

Lori Cook, she is the founder of the Facebook Group Cleaning Up Antioch, One Home at a Time.

“I don’t mean for the page to be negative, I want people to know what is going on in this city and how we can change it. Anybody can change it. If you go for a walk, take a bag with you right around where you are walking,” said Cook. “One little bag, you would be amazed if everyone picked up 1-bag each week or month. It’s a very simple thing to do. My goal is to get children to think about what garbage, littering and illegal dumping are doing to this city.”

She highlighted that Antioch is not the only place this is happening, but its happening in every community.

“My new philosophy is be the change you want to see,” said Cook. “If you want to get out there and complain, then I better see you in a week or month doing something. Don’t get out there and gripe about something and not do anything.”

Cook highlighted the city has great volunteers such as people who take care of their own parks.

“This is about cleaning up your neighborhood and then moving out a street further, and then maybe another street further after that,” said Cook.

She also noted Antioch has many issues to address, but with more people getting involved things will improve.

“We have major problems in this city. We have homeless, illegal dumping, and graffiti, these are major problems,” said Cook. “Some of this can be resolved with a larger code enforcement division and hopefully things will start moving.”

She highlighted that if the illegal dumping was cleaned up weekly instead of piling up over a months time, the City overall would not look so bad. She explained how when people see a pile of illegally dumped garbage, more people will add to the pile.

“You don’t have to dump, Republic Services will come twice a year to your home for a pickup,” said Cook. “Try and think city wide.”

She encourage folks to attend the monthly cleanup sponsored by the police department and many community groups.

Tina Price, Parents Connected, helps kids and parents connect to help prepare them for college.

“Our thing is to be really positive with the kids. We do SAT, ACT Prep, college tours and mentoring,” explained Price. “Our thing is trying to get the students to think positive and I think just being a parent, if kids are thinking about college and thinking how they can be better, they will be more positive in the community.”

She highlighted how Antioch was not seen as a college going community, but how students should begin to thinking about reaching further whether its junior college and then a four-year, you need to go and then come back and give back to the community.

She highlighted how students should know about volunteerism and the opportunities available.

Jo Loss of Volunteer Center of the East Bay also spoke at the event. Their website is www.volunteereastbay.org