When more than 30 local organizations come together this month for a dialogue, plans will be discussed to put Toledo on the fast track to greater success.
The University of Toledo’s Peace Education Initiative, in partnership with a broad coalition of area organizations focusing on issues of peace, will host the Community Dialogue and Public Forum on Urban Revitalization Through the Lenses of Peace and Justice Wednesday, July 29, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Frederick Douglass Community Association, 1001 Indiana Ave.
Lunch, coffee and snacks will be provided at the free, public event.
Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson is scheduled to give opening remarks.
The day will kick off with a facilitated dialogue — open to anyone in the Toledo community — where an analysis of problems and ideas for transforming the city’s urban issues will be discussed. Ranging from economic justice to peace education, ecological justice to social justice, a whole gambit of topics will be up for discussion.
“The particular organizations we’re partnering with have either a mission or perspective through which they approach their work in communities that incorporates peace and justice,” said Dr. Tony Jenkins, director of the UT Peace Education Initiative.
Some of the organizations at the event will offer workshops and information about their group’s work. For example, Toledo Botanical Garden’s Toledo GROWs project — a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to the continued growth and success of community-based gardens in the city of Toledo and throughout northwest Ohio — will offer demonstrations on their work with youth to develop environmental stewardship and healthy eating habits.
A panel of speakers, including both international guests and local leaders, also will be invited to the event in the afternoon. One such panel member will be Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, founder, president and executive director of the Afghan Institute of Learning. The institute was established to provide teacher training to Afghan women, to support education for boys and girls, and to provide health education to women and children while under Taliban rule.
“We’ll be hearing stories from people at the international level, as well as our local community doing work in the [Frederick Douglass] neighborhood, which will create a bridge from the local to the global,” Jenkins said.
RSVPs for the forum are required and can be made at 419.530.2552 or info@i-i-p-e.org.
For more information, visit the event’s website here.
