MANSFIELD — The founder and CEO of the North End Community Improvement Collaborative will still be steering economic vitality and development in Mansfield, but now from the west side … of the country.
Deanna West-Torrence has announced her move to San Diego to be closer to her daughter Maya and son-in-law Josh.
“I’m still going to be working at NECIC in my same capacity, but just telecommuting,” she said. “I have two navy chiefs in my family — my daughter and my son-in-law — and my 5-year-old grandson who are requesting my presence.”
West-Torrence said her grandson Evan is turning 5 at the end of March, so she will fly out March 15 to be there in time for his birthday.
“He told me I could stay 100 days and then I have to go somewhere else,” she laughed.
West-Torrence discussed her move, the future of NECIC and her mentorship philosophy in a podcast with city editor Carl Hunnell and business reporter Grace McCormick. Listen at the link below.
West-Torrence said she expects to come back to Mansfield somewhat regularly to meet with her board and visit family, but she doesn’t expect to move back full-time.
“I will probably not move back, but we’ll see,” she said. “I moved in 2014 to South Carolina, and since I came back, we’ve grown so much. We started the staffing agency, the farm — a lot has happened.”
West-Torrence previously served on Mansfield City Council, Mansfield City Schools board of education, Neighborhood Youth Corps, the Community Health Access Project and Ocie Hill Neighborhood Center.
The Malabar High School alumna said operations manager Tionna Perdue will be the in-house “point person” for NECIC while she’s in California. NECIC has 12 staff members and 12 people on its board of directors.
What does this mean for the community impact center?
West-Torrence said NECIC has plenty of capable people to advocate for the organization’s causes.
“There are voices — there’s more than just mine,” she said. “I will still be paying very close attention and I still very much intend to be involved in the community, but just from a distance.”
The 2023 Chairman’s award-winner founded NECIC with a group of community leaders in 2007 to support North End economic development, civic engagement and community revitalization.
The nonprofit’s mission is to engage residents in shaping the neighborhood’s future for sustainable development. The organization serves residents from Park Avenue West north to Poth Road and Bowman Street.
“There’s been investment in the Imagination District, in Kingwood Center — those are in NECIC’s footprint,” West-Torrence said. “Our contention has been to take it a step further to where the people who live there are benefiting from it.”
NECIC proposed a community impact center on Springmill Street in 2022, requesting American Rescue Plan Act funds from City Council and the Richland County commissioners.
ARPA deadlines require municipalities to allocate funds by the end of this year — and for the funds to be expended by the end of 2026.
“We have had a lot of local support, in the millions of dollars,” she said. “It is a huge project and I think the community has a hard time — they think that $16 million is a big number for that neighborhood.”
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NECIC to continue asset-based development
Through NECIC’s most recent economic development plan, the nonprofit partnered with the Richland County Land Bank to demolish 430 blighted houses in the area.
“We actually have a neighborhood that is ripe for development,” West-Torrence said. “We have more open land than anywhere else in the city at this point due to the demolition we’ve completed, and it was done in a way that was very good.”
West-Torrence said working remotely will give her the chance to write more grants for NECIC and hopefully be more accessible to her staff. She plans to work on Eastern Standard Time despite the 3-hour time difference.
“I’ll live with two folks in the Navy who leave the house at 5:30 in the morning, so everyone is up,” she said. “During Christmas break, I was there for two weeks and the house was bustling at 4:30.”
West-Torrence started NECIC when she was 37 years old. She said the organization has always been dedicated to asset-based training, which focuses on the strengths communities and individuals have to invest in social benefits.
“The youth hold the key to optimism,” she said. “No one wants to hear the world’s going to hell in a handbasket when it’s your start.
“We old folks still have a lot of value. I definitely know there’s value I still bring, but I don’t need to sit in the room to bring it.
“People need to see that it’s more than Deanna. I think that’s really important.”