Neighborhood Summit a Huge Success: September 14, 2009

Nearly 500 metro Atlanta neighborhood and community leaders, activists and members gathered on September 12 to attend the first annual Regional Neighborhood Summit. The one-day event, presented by the Civic League for Regional Atlanta, was aimed at bringing together neighbors from across the region to discuss issues of mutual interest and importance.

Click here to view photos from the event.

Attendees were welcomed by remarks from Charles Walker, Board member and Lesley Grady, Board Chair of the Civic League. Grady, who serves as Senior Vice President of Community Partnership at the Foundation presented an overview of the day and challenged attendees to use their time to connect and learn from one another. Workshops offered that day covered a variety of topics including, shaping a vision for your community, advancing neighborhoods with technology, creating civic organizations that last and lobbying and advocacy.

One highlight of the summit was the polling session where participants were able to vote on the issues of most importance in their communities, now and looking into the future. Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of Policy Link, served as keynote speaker and shared that every problem faced has a local solution. Sharing these good ideas and learning from one another is the key. Closing out the day was a county commissioner panel discussion centered on opportunities and benefits of working together as a region.

Attendee feedback shows that the inaugural event was a success and the opportunity available to improve the event in years to come:

 “I think the Summit was a great success this year for its first year ever. There were so many people and there was a lot of energy. I got a chance to meet people who are interested in the kinds of things that I’m interested in. Lots of possibilities for partnering with people, lots of ideas generated.”

“The one thing that I enjoyed, if I have to pick one, was the networking, the meeting of the people who are really working in the community. Not necessarily the decision makers, but the soldiers, because that’s what I think I am. I am not a general, I’m a soldier so it’s always nice to meet with fellow soldiers. One improvement that I suggest is to purposefully involve the disabled community. Often, people don’t think that we have other issues besides our own disabilities; but being active community members is a part of our lives.”

“I really enjoyed myself. The sessions offered very informative information that I can take back to my community. I will definitely recommend this event, and I will come back again next year. Our guest speaker was excellent.”

“I thought the Summit was very good. We talked about a lot of issues except for one that I think should have been brought up more than anything else — poverty. If we centered our discussion on poverty, everything else would fall in line. If people could afford health insurance, we wouldn’t have an issue with Grady losing so much money. If there weren’t so many people living in poverty, the crime rate wouldn’t be as high as it is. I hope we can focus more on poverty next year.”
Event coverage:

The building blocks for the Atlanta region begins with all our neighborhoods
SaportaReport.com, 9/14/09

Neighborhood Summit brings metro citizens, concerns, together
WABE, 9/11/09