Residents of the St. Monica's Mission neighbourhood are being invited to a meeting next week on efforts to rejuvenate the area.

A press statement from area MP Ottiwell Simmons and Martha Dismont, members of the St. Monica's Mission Resource Group which has been leading efforts to clean up the neighbourhood and rid it of drug dealers, said the campaign had been reactivated.

"The Resource Group, made up of ... area residents, the Police, the Planning Department, and community and social service agencies, has held regular meetings in the past month at the headquarters of the National Drug Commission and have begun to implement specific action plans," the statement said.

"Three committees have been reactivated, including a committee made up primarily of residents, who will keep the Resource Team abreast of priority issues and concerns brought forward directly from the residents. Another committee is made up of members of the Resource Team and a Police Support unit that is charged with 'meeting and greeting and developing relationships with the residents from a non-enforcement approach'. The goal of this unit within the Police Service is to develop intelligence, in order to better coordinate with other units within the Police Service who are working to assist with the concerns in the St. Monica's Mission area."

It added that another committee consisting of social agency representatives had also been formed to identify social service needs for families and young people.

The meeting, to take place at 8 p.m. on November 14, at St. Monica's Mission Church Hall, is being held to report progress to the residents, "to gather further information from the residents on the needs of the area, and to discuss how the residents might want to be involved in the rejuvenation of the area".