Organizational Meetings

Benjamin Trnka 

One of the most interesting points during this week was attending the block club and other organizational meetings this week. I first went to the 71st and Ingleside block club meeting and was pleasantly surprised to see how officially the meeting was run, and how much on top of their game the 4 elderly ladies leading the meeting were. 

I was glad to see how much personal involvement they had with the community - including advocacy in the local courts, attendance of beat meetings and ward meetings, and from what I understood, one, a great relationship with the local Aldermans as well. They were equally enthusiastic in supporting our project ideas, and had many connections to local residents and other community leadership. 

In the second meeting I attended: SOBNO - The South Oakwood Brookhaven Neighborhood Organization - I met a group of equally enthusiastic and involved elderly women. I was glad to see that this time around, as well, GCYC had sent a staff member to keep the community updated on events. In terms of keeping good communication between the center and the community, this seemed to be a great first step.