The concept of the Westside Coalition was the brainchild of Tiffany Sandberg, a 2004 graduate of Westside Leadership Institute and current Salt Lake City school district board member (2019). In 2005, she attended a three day national resident leadership training as a representative of NeighborWorks Salt Lake and was inspired by the many leaders she met from different parts of the country and the skills she learned in the many workshops she attended. She returned with a vision of Salt Lake’s Westside community councils coming together to speak as one voice. As a leader with Fairpark Community council, she often felt the community council’s recommendations to Salt Lake City would have greater impact if neighboring community councils were on the same page or could come together as Westside leaders to build consensus on issues that impacted the neighborhoods.
In early 2006, in partnership with NeighborWorks Salt Lake she hosted the first gathering of Westside community councils. The quarterly meetings focused on common issues affecting respective neighborhoods and collaborative solutions, action steps and timelines. The Westside Coalition was instrumental in engaging the west side neighborhoods in the design elements of Trax rail system and influencing the line to rebuild North Temple viaduct instead of building a new viaduct that would turn on 600 West to 200 North. Tiffany was recognized nationally with NeighborWorks America’s Dorothy Richardson Award for her collaborative efforts to unite the various neighborhoods and NeighborWorks was awarded $5000 to support community council engagement efforts such as Night Out Agains Crime, Rose Park Festival, etc.
The Westside Coalition was formalized as a recognized not-for-profit entity in 2018.
There was general recognition that an organization that could engage in local cross-cutting issues impacting the Westside as a whole was needed as the individual charters of the six Westside Community Councils were limiting in this regard. The Westside Coalition was developed to address many of the issues shared by the communities and to present a unified front on issues that might affect only some but have larger consequences for all. The Westside Coalition unifies the voice and the resources of the Westside.