Outreach

A Community Center not only reflects the community at whose heart it sits, it strengthens that community.  A Community Center is a year-round, intergenerational gathering place and activity center.  A Community Center is a locus for a wide variety of activities – health and fitness, social services, learning, eating, socializing, creating, playing, participating.  A Community Center enriches the community by fostering organizational collaboration and by housing an array of programs, for all ages.

At its heart, the Community Center is a home for the Lincoln Council on Aging & Human Services and the Parks & Recreation Department, both of which do much more than most people realize, and both of which run constrained programs in their current homes.  The Community Center also provides a base for 25 other community organizations whose work is critical to the quality of life in Lincoln.  But the vision of a Community Center on the Lincoln School campus is of a building that exists not only to serve important organizational needs and to optimize programming, though those might be adequate reasons for building a new building, it is also of a building that will attract residents of all ages to gather for coffee and meetings and informal activities.

Lincoln has a sense of community – we have impromptu encounters at the transfer station and at Donelan’s, we have annual events like the Scarecrow Classic, the Girl Scouts Pancake Breakfast, the July 4 parade, and we have Town Meeting.  But the everyday contribution of a Community Center to the life of the community and to the sense of community can be far greater, and the possibilities are exciting – because the number of people using the Center will be so much higher, because the range of activities will be much greater, because the opportunities for intergenerational interaction will expand, because the provision of social services will be improved and the organizations providing those services will be more robust.

On Wednesday, November 30, the residents of Lincoln will assemble at a Special Town Meeting to decide whether to spend up to $325,000 for the development of preliminary schematic design options for a new Community Center, which would be built on the Hartwell campus at the Lincoln Schools.  Prior to the Special Town Meeting, residents will have the opportunity to get a high-level overview of Community Center planning at the State of the Town Meeting – the Community Center will be on the agenda for the first session, on Monday, November 14.  (Register for both sessions here:  https://www.lincolntown.org/1372/2022-State-of-the-Town.)  Additionally, interested residents are encouraged to attend the next meeting of the Community Center Building Committee (CCBC), at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 16.  Ongoing information about the Community Center and about opportunities to learn and participate will be on the CCBC website: https://lincolncommunitycenter.com/.

Before the State of the Town Meeting, the CCBC will share a series of posts that outline some facts, history and values that can help foster informed debate and clarify important decisions.  The specific posts will address a series of basic questions:

• The vision: what is a Community Center, and why would Lincoln want to build one?
• What is the CCBC – which stakeholders are represented, what are its tasks, and how can others participate?
• Why would Lincoln build a new Community Center rather than use existing buildings?
• Why would the Community Center be on the Hartwell campus?
• What is the recent history of official discussion of a Community Center in Lincoln – what questions have previous committees asked and what answers has Lincoln given to those questions?

The CCBC recognizes that Lincoln residents will also have many important questions about the expected costs of the project – for the initial phase and for the entire project, for the town as a whole and for each household, for construction and for operation.  The CCBC will attempt to provide all the relevant information on costs and financing, with input and guidance from the Finance Committee, following an open CCBC meeting on Monday, November 14.

The CCBC is aiming for maximum transparency, welcomes all input and questions, and will make every effort to solicit, hear, and address the priorities, values and concerns of Lincoln residents.