Transform Westside Summit January 6, 2017

The Atlanta Living Cities Grant Team – represented by City of Atlanta’s Terica Black Bashir; Georgia Institute of Technology’s Chris LeDantec; Living Cities Fellow & NPU-T Chair Terry Ross; and Historic Westside News co-managing editor Makeda Johnson – were our featured speakers for our Jan. 6 Transform Westside Summit.

In 2015, The City of Atlanta was awarded an 18-month, $100,000 Living Cities City Accelerator grant, from the Citi Foundation, which focused on community engagement in low-income neighborhoods.

The Mayor’s Office of Innovation Delivery & Performance, with its partners the Westside Future Fund, Atlanta Housing Authority’s Choice Neighborhood, Georgia Tech’s Participatory Publics Lab, and several Westside residents, was able to lead two important initiatives as a result of this grant.

• One was co-creating the #Atlanta Community Engagement Playbook with the purpose of broadening participation among communities and helping to formulate more effective, authentic community engagement between the City, its departments, and residents.
• The Office was also able to launch the Historic Westside News newspaper, providing an opportunity for not only more effective communication between residents and staff working on the Westside, but among the residents as well.

At the meeting, the team provided insight into the collaborative process and provided copies of both the playbook and the most recent issue of the newspaper.

The Westside Future Fund also offered Keitra Bates, owner of one of the Westside’s newest businesses, Marddy’s, time on the program for updates on the progress of her venture – a food incubator committed to preserving the local culinary culture of the rapidly changing Westside of Atlanta.

Special thank you to our Summit sponsor Chick-fil-A and to Brenda Moss Williams of Next Generation for leading our morning devotion.*

The Transform Westside Summit is held on the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month and is free and open to the public. Registration for future Summits is available on the main Events page of our website.

*Many in our community are driven by their spiritual faith to participate in the Westside revitalization effort. The time at the beginning of our meetings is an opportunity to share various inspirational reflections. While the speakers may articulate their personal faith, it is meant to be inclusive, inspiring and meaningful. All are welcome.