City officials want to promote unity and understanding among neighbors to create safer and more welcoming communities. To help with this goal, the city is bringing back the Community Builders Conference on June 29, after a five-year break. The conference will include sessions focused on creating block clubs, welcoming new immigrant neighbors and understanding different cultures, and knowing how to talk to and listen to youth.
Angela Shute-Woodson, director of the Community Relations Board, which is organizing the event, said the COVID-19 pandemic isolated people even further, and neighbors don’t know each other the way they used to.
Shute-Woodson grew up and raised her son in a community with a block club on East 118th Street and Imperial Avenue, near Luke Easter Park on Cleveland’s East Side. It was a close-knit community.
“It was … being a part of something where we could celebrate, uplift, but also look out for each other, welcome new people to the street,” Shute-Woodson said. “I remember helping a family. They had just moved from a whole different state, and we were all helping them unload their trucks to move into their new home. You just don’t see that anymore. So we’re hoping to get some of that back.”
The conference will include a session on community policing and how to form a block club or strengthen an existing one. It will also include information on how to build gardens and engage neighbors.
With the recent influx of immigrants in the area, another session will focus on cultural sensitivity. The goal is for residents to learn about different cultures and find ways to welcome new neighbors.
Joe Cimperman, president and CEO of Global Cleveland, recently estimated that about 5,000 immigrants settled in Cleveland last year. (The link is to notes from a Cleveland City Council meeting compiled by Documenter Karima McCree-Wilson.)
There will also be resources and information on city services in languages such as French and Swahili for new Cleveland residents, Shute-Woodson said.
‘Youth are getting tired of being talked at’
A third session will focus on how to communicate with youth.
Youth sometimes ask for help without directly saying, “I need help,” Shute-Woodson said.
“Youth are getting tired of being talked at,” she said. “They want to be talked with. And so we’re trying to use that workshop to uplift, for [adults] to really just hear from some youth but also learn how to be listeners of them.”
Seniors especially have said they’re afraid of youth in their neighborhood, based on what they see on the news, said Tammy Hanna, project director of the Community Relations Board. The session will include a discussion on how seniors can embrace youth and not be afraid to interact with them.
Hanna said she hopes business owners attend the event to get to know their neighbors and feel more a part of the communities they serve.
The event includes free continental breakfast, free boxed lunch and free parking at the Willard Park Garage behind City Hall.
The Community Builders Conference: Gather Cleveland will be held Saturday, June 29, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cleveland Public Auditorium, 500 Lakeside Ave. (Free parking will be available at the Willard Park Garage across the street from the venue.) The event includes free continental breakfast and boxed lunch. Organizers are asking people to register so they can plan the meals for the event. To attend, register at this link or call 216-664-2693.
