Meeting Recap: Meaningful Engagement in Anacostia Park
Anacostia Park “Late Skate” June 22
Anacostia Park “Late Skate” June 22
On June 11, the Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative hosted an online meeting about its new initiative to build a cohort of organizations focused on meaningfully engaging Ward 7 and Ward 8 residents in Anacostia Park programming. Over 35 people participated in the meeting. You can watch a recording of the entire event here, and download the presentation slides here.
The Collaborative is dedicated to maximizing the value of Anacostia Park and other parts of the Anacostia River corridor for Ward 7 and 8 residents, and one of the most significant ways to make the corridor relevant to people’s lives is through events and activities. That’s why we are launching our Events, Programming and Outreach affinity group!
Participating organizations will work together with the National Park Service and local residents to build their capacity to establish more meaningful, authentic park engagement in Anacostia Park. The cohort will strengthen alliances between community organizations, schools, non-profits, businesses, and other stakeholders to identify shared community goals and accelerate partnerships that positively impact and enhance community and park health and ensure that future generations better connect, access, and enjoy Anacostia Park.
The Collaborative will be supporting this cohort on two tracks. Any interested organization is invited to share their events and programs on the Collaborative’s shared online calendar, and all interested practitioners are invited to attend quarterly capacity-building workshops. The first workshop will include a training by the National Council on Behavioral Health on the tenets of trauma-informed community engagement.
For organizations who are committed to authentically engaging Ward 7 and 8 residents through their work, a more focused cohort will be led by Akiima Price, community liaison to Anacostia Park. This group will work together in an online classroom to retool their curricula and design strategies to better connect with “hard to reach” communities. These groups will participate in monthly events held in Anacostia Park. Additionally, the Collaborative will hire 15 community members to help support, promote and manage these events.
If you are interested in participating in this focused cohort, please contact Akiima Price!
