Last week, the South Bend Neighborhood Resources Connection held its second annual Neighborhoods United Summit.
This year’s summit lasted a full week, rather than one day. Community members and local leaders met for a series of virtual panels from Monday to Thursday.
There were conversations about crime, COVID-19 and housing, but Neighborhood Resources Connection Executive Director Grant Carlile says all conversations turned to one topic: trust.
“The crime discussion moved to trust amongst groups. The domestic violence, the trust among service providers and the people who need them. The homeless and the city," Carlile said. "There’s all these trust issues.”
In breakout sessions, participants and panelists developed action items to foster that trust — for example, meeting with housing developers to talk about affordable housing, or connecting with workforce developers to talk about unemployment.
Carlile said now that the summit is over, his organization can plan programming around those issues and connect with other organizations that are working to improve them.
Contact Gemma atgdicarlo@wvpe.orgor follow her on Twitter at@gemma_dicarlo
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