What are Community Conversations?
WMHT's Community Conversations are localized, small-group discussions where participants identify what they want for their community, what needs to change to reach those goals, and the challenges they face in moving change forward. WMHT’s role as co-facilitator is to assist with developing opportunities for this type of dialogue to occur and to better serve our evolving communities by informing our work with the diverse viewpoints, aspirations, and challenges that are shared.
For more information about community conversations, contact the WMHT Education Department or call (518) 880-3400.
Meet Past Participants
Meet the organizations and individuals from around our region who have shared their aspirations for their communities.
Community:
Delaware Avenue Neighborhood in Albany
Community Conversation co-facilitator:
Community Conversation co-facilitator:
Dahlia Herring,
Team Coordinator
Capital Region Refugee Roundtable
(518) 434-6335
dmazengia@nycap.rr.com
About the community:
This community conversation was sponsored by the Delaware Avenue Neighborhood Association (DANA), the Albany Office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI Albany) and the Capital Region Refugee Roundtable.
The Delaware Avenue Neighborhood Association is organized to protect and improve Delaware Avenue’s friendly, vibrant, diverse, walkable and convenient neighborhood.
USCRI Albany is dedicated to helping refugees build new lives in the Capital Region.
The Capital Region Refugee Roundtable is a group of volunteers and organizational representatives working to develop supportive programs and to build a welcoming community for refugees in New York State’s Capital Region.
People who attended the Community Conversation included people from Burma, Iraq, and Nepal and representatives from the library, a church, a local business and two schools.
Learn more about the community:
• USCRI Albany
• Delaware Avenue Neighborhood Association
• Capital Region Refugee Roundtable, contact Dahlia Herring
Themes from the conversation:
• Diversity, friendliness, safety, multi-lingual/cultural welcoming activities, connecting to resources in the neighborhood.
Community:
The members of AVillage…, Inc.
Community Conversation co-facilitator:
Willie White, Executive Director, AVillage…, Inc.
(518)-859-4305 or AVILLAGE5@aol.com
About the community:
AVillage…, Inc. is a grass roots group working to improve, enrich and empower the lives of children and families in Albany communiti
es. AVillage strives to work with other community organizations to bring more resources and events to the people of the South End neighborhood.
Learn more about the community:
Visit AVillage..., Inc. online.
Themes from the conversation:
• Improving quality of life for the South End neighborhood,
• Improving opportunities for the community’s youth
• Connecting the community and young people to their history and the history of the neighborhood & its residents
• The need to share the story of the neighborhood and the work of AVillage
Additional information & Media:
• April 4, 2012, Morning Edition: NPR - Activist Puts Albany Neighborhood on the Bus Map
• AVillage Works
• African American Cultural Center of the Capital Region, Inc.
• Vacant Lot Project
Community:
Frontline Student Support Professionals working in Albany
Community Conversation co-facilitator:
Richard Smith, M.A. - Click here for Richard Smith's Biography
About the community:
Participants in the conversation are student support professionals engaged in the direct provision of services and/or administration of support programs for at-risk youth.
Sample of programs represented by participants:
• Albany Gang Prevention Program
• Girls Incorporated of the Greater Capital Region
• Liberty Partnerships Rising Stars Program, University at Albany
• MODEL, Inc.
• Too Deep Entertainment
• Albany County Juvenile Community Accountability Board (JCAB)
Themes from the conversation:
• Create meaningful work experiences for youth
• Educate more individuals to become involved with kids, more role models, less role players
• Improve quality of life for students by fostering and teaching skills in self-sufficiency, empowering them to take ownership of their future
• Accept responsibility over the problems and opportunities we have and be more accountable to our communities
• Go “outside the box” to support youth instead of implementing outdated interventions