Setting Objectives Achieving Results – African American Parent Network (SOAR-AAPN) will be hosting a virtual town hall for the city of New Albany on June 10 with the objective of creating a more inclusive community.
Put together in partnership with the city of New Albany and its Inclusion Diversity & Equity Action (IDEA) Committee, New Albany-Plain Local Schools, Pride New Albany and the New Albany Community Foundation, the meeting is an effort to bring the community together to discuss diversity as well as ways to make everyone’s surroundings more inclusive.
The meeting will run from 7-8 p.m. There will be a panel of six city leaders: Sloan Spalding, mayor; Marlene Brisk, councilwoman and IDEA committee representative; Greg Jones, police chief; John McClelland, school board president; Everett Gallagher, Community Foundation chair of the Board of Trustees; and Cherie Nelson, Chamber of Commerce executive director. The panelists will respond to questions and comments from community members, and anything not answered in the hour will be answered on the city of New Albany website at a to-be-determined date.
SOAR-AAPN President Charm London will give welcoming remarks, and Benjamin Reid, manager of the New Albany branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, will oversee discussion.
Registration is free, and you can sign up here.
Earlier in the day, there will be two events that can act as motivators for the town hall: “Let’s Start the Conversation about Race,” a training session about preparing yourself for discussions about race, from 9-10 a.m., and the IDEA Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m. More information about these meetings can be found here.
This inclusive town hall meeting is furthering diversity and inclusion conversations which the city and community of New Albany has been encouraging through programs like NAPLS’s Community Well-Being Forum Series, the NACF’s lecture series and more.
Bre Offenberger is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
