Great Falls Citizens Association held a virtual town hall during which five neighbors of color provided short vignettes of their lives, sharing their personal experiences and commentaries on racism. A Q&A followed. The event was held Wednesday evening, Sept. 30, Rev. Livingstone Dore, Pastor, Great Falls United Methodist Church, Kimberly Greer, Principal, Langley High School, and residents Sujatha Hampton, Ph.D., Salima Singletary, and Matt Truong participated. Moderator Bill Canis, president of GFCA, said, “I know some of our panelists tonight are going to think are we crazy, why don’t we know all this stuff already? But we don’t and so I’m delighted that they’re here to have this kind of conversation.”

Seventy people tuned into the Zoom webinar, which remains available on the GFCA YouTube Channel. According to Peter Falcone, Co-chairman of the GFCA Communications Committee, he saw the town hall as part of an ongoing process to look for helpful ways to bolster communications and facilitate public-spirited discussions. “Engaging the community is an essential strategy in driving decision makers towards solutions benefiting Great Falls and its neighbors,” he said. “I would hope GFCA can continue efforts to bring interesting topics to our members and the community. In my view, a forum like this event promotes authentic community engagement and awareness and also supports our organization’s chartered purposes by strengthening efforts to build effective coalitions in our neighborhoods—the core strength of any community organization.”

Click here to read the full story in the Great Falls Connection, which includes highlights from the question and answer session that followed the presentations of each panelist.