studentperspective midcityspeaks

          The community engagement event this past weekend was surprisingly a success.  For the past few weeks we have been in the community and meeting members that live there just trying to find out more about the culture and the history of the area.  Up until the event I have to say that I was not too confident as to what the event would turn out to be.  We had gotten a few confirmed guests to say they were coming but I did not know what word had gotten out in the community.  On the day of the event, we set up at the site, moved the boards, and got ready for the people that we thought were not going to come.  Around 12:30 people got out of church and stopped by for some of the free food that was offered.  The food was gone in about twenty minutes.  They were all gone in about an hour but it was still interesting to see the different people that were there.

            I learned a god bit about the community during the past few weeks.   Learned about the people there, the houses, and the community itself.  We learned about the concerns that they had as well as what they liked about the area.   Some of the concerns that they had were definitely worth listening to.  The one thing that stuck out amongst all of the members of the area was a safe place for the children to play.  The children do not have any place to go to after school and the parents can not find any place to take them where they can keep an eye out for their kids. 

            I think that safety and community are the most important things for the area.  The more people feel unsafe about the area the less people will want to live there and respect the neighborhood.  I think that more events and more parks in the area would greatly benefit the community and their involvement.