News site to help with waste reduction priorities: Swinson
Monday, November 29, 2004 - Roderick Benns
The City of Peterborough’s Waste Management Officer, Virginia Swinson, is hopeful that bringing a new storytelling approach to her department’s activities will inspire new perspectives and create positive outcomes.

Swinson is referring to The Grassroots Review, a news site viewed as a community development opportunity by its partners in Peterborough. It is a cross-sectoral approach that aims to create dialogue and community linkages to bring about social change in key areas.

Peacefulcommunities.ca, the site it is replacing as a community change tool, will become a part of the larger Grassroots Review movement by becoming a section on the news site.

The Grassroots Review is made up of many community partners from different areas, such as the peace-building and violence prevention focus of peacefulcommunities.ca, transportation, the environment and other sustainable living subjects.

Swinson says she wanted something "new and dynamic, something that would capture people's interest more than the stale standard print ads or television commercials that repeat the same message over and over."

"I think it will be helpful because it will be interesting, it will be current, and it will be just one part of a larger package of interrelated subject matters that will appeal to viewers and keep them coming back," says Swinson.

The waste reduction officer says she is also hoping the efficiency factor – the fact that the stories are written by Axiom News journalists – will save her department a great deal of time and communications.

Swinson can see good outcomes coming from the concerted storytelling focus, and she knows of a few areas where she would like to concentrate, such as waste diversion.

"I want to make waste diversion current again, as it was back in the early '90s. That requires putting a new slant on it all, telling people things they don't already know and haven't heard 100 times already," she says.

Swinson notes that having "a new voice, new writing styles and new perspectives on the issues" will really help her department create some success stories around waste diversion and other areas of interest.

There are "many areas where we need advancement, awareness, and education," notes Swinson.

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