FYI -COP ONI Community Leaders Dialog Event

[Mark Dilley]

It's Community Converge and Emerge, People! 

Community Leaders Dialog Announcement 

You are invited to participate in an unusual, citywide gathering—the “Community Leaders

Dialogue”—on Saturday, June 4, 2011.

WHO SHOULD COME? This is an inclusive dialog.  Anyone who wants to help people have a greater voice in shaping their community and in local decision making should be there. This includes people active in their neighborhood associations, communities of color, neighborhood business districts, and immigrants and refugee communities.

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS NOTICE TO YOUR CONTACT LISTS!

WHY IS THIS EVENT HAPPENING? Community members long have said they'd like more

opportunities to gather and meet other community leaders from across the city and across

different communities. They've said they want to have a chance to share their experiences,

identify common interests and concerns, and learn from others. They've also said the event

should give them lots of opportunity talk to each other about things they want to talk about

versus mostly listening to pre-set workshops and speakers.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT THE EVENT? The event is structured to give you the maximum 

opportunity to talk with and get to know other community leaders/activists and to talk about issues that are important to you. In the morning, participants will meet and talk with each other in a series of small group discussions, followed by short presentations on a few innovative projects across the city. Lunch will give people a chance to follow-up on the discussions they started in the morning. In the afternoon, participants will be able to participate in a couple rounds of break out sessions on a wide variety of discussion topics set by the participants.

WHO’S SPONSORING THIS EVENT? The City of Portland Office of Neighborhood involvement has joined with many organizations active in Portland’s community engagement system to co-sponsor this event. Concordia University is a co-sponsor and is providing its facilities for the event.