A dozen neighborhoods in the Johnstown area say it’s important for them to work together to solve their problems.

Their initiative will help to spread resources, and improve communities.

“We’ve come together as the United Neighborhoods of Greater Johnstown to create leverage and to help meet goals,” co-founder Marc McCall explains.

They also want to create accountability in neighborhoods.  Earlier this year, the United Neighborhoods of Greater Johnstown formed.  According to McCall, their mission is to communicate their challenges with each other, politicians, and to create pride in the area again, “We’ll identify the challenges.  We want to spend 5 percent of the time on the challenges and the other 95 percent on finding the solutions.”

This group does not just center on the city of Johnstown and its neighborhoods.  It includes boroughs and townships outside the city like Westmont.

“I think we all have similar problems at different degrees.”

The group says different neighborhoods in the Johnstown area have different experiences and can help others achieve their goals.

“Some of the neighborhoods have cameras in them and there’s a couple neighborhoods that don’t,” co-founder Justin Maser says.  “Right now our one major goal is to help the neighborhoods that don’t have cameras, get the cameras that they need.”

They’re making a special call to folks who are homeowners in the area to get involved and share resources.

“To get the best return on your investment, you need to have some input on your environment,” the third co-founder Rev. Sylvia King tells us.

“There are a lot of resources out here.  I just think that most people don’t know where to turn whenever they want to do something,” Maser adds.

Moving forward, King says the association plans to have a forum in March, where people can send in questions and concerns, “What we will do is present those questions to the leadership of this region and give them the opportunity to answer those questions.”

The group meets every other Thursday at Christ Centered Community Church in Johnstown.

Their next meeting will be January 12.