The Southwest Area Neighborhood Coalition (SWAN) was founded on November 22, 2005 by Virginia Wallace Keogh. Virginia felt the need to establish a community organization to address the ongoing crime, drug and code enforcement issues and concerns that plagued the residents that reside along the Nations Ford Road corridor. Several other community leaders expressed they were experiencing the same problems and needed to come together to make sure our voices were heard. With the urging and advice from Ms. Dorothy Waddy, who was the president of the West Boulevard Coalition, Virginia sent correspondence to eleven community leaders in the area requesting a meeting to discuss our concerns.
Our first meeting was held at Silver Mount Baptist Church. All eleven community leaders, representing these communities (British Woods, Foxboro, McDowell Meadows, Olde Whitehall, Ramblewood, Windsong Trails, Colony Acres, Montclaire South, McDowell Farms, Pine Valley and Yorkmont) attended and were eager to get involved. We elected officers, discussed our issues, concerns, and planned our agenda for the next meeting, which included our then City Council Representative, Warren Turner. Warren spoke with us regarding the process as to how to get the attention of City Council, the County Board of Commissioners, School Board officials as well as developers and other agencies of relevance. We created vision and mission statements and eventually by word of mouth our organization grew to fourteen communities. The Charlotte Observer published an article featuring SWAN in September 2006.
Today we are nine communities strong and are still committed to being the change that we want to see in our communities and the surrounding areas. We continue to strive to become one of the safest and best communities in the city of Charlotte.