On Saturday, September 12, the City of Fort Wayne’s Community Development Division will host its annual Inspire Neighborhoods Conference at Chapman’s Brewing Company in Electric Works.
The all-day event aims to inform residents interested in learning about innovative ways to improve their neighborhoods, and is made possible by sponsors. Registration is open until Monday, Sept. 1, and can be done on the City of Fort Wayne's website.
WBOI’s Zach Bernard sat down with City of Fort Wayne Neighborhood Planner Réna Bradley and one of the event’s keynote speakers — J.R. Jamison of The Facing Project — to discuss what attendees can expect.
Transcript
Zach Bernard: I'm joined in the studio by Fort Wayne neighborhood planner Réna Bradley, as well as host of The Facing Project and Inspire Conference keynote speaker J.R. Jamison over Zoom, thank you both for being here.
Réna Bradley: Thank you.
J.R. Jamison: Thank you so much for having us.
ZB: Réna, I'll start with you. In general, what can you tell us about the upcoming Inspire Neighborhoods Conference?
RB: Right on. So, the Inspire Neighborhood Conference is happening this year on September 12, at Electric Works. We're very excited. This will be our biggest, baddest conference ever for neighborhood association leaders and presidents and just those who care deeply about our neighborhoods and want to do good work in them.
We'll have 12 breakout sessions, including three workshops, and the theme of all of those is community wellness, resilience, health, etc. So whether it be your physical health — we'll hear from the YMCA — or your mental health — we'll hear from Alice Mohammed, she's one of our new speakers; she'll be talking a lot about resilience and self-care. Or even Sharon Tubbs, who has great stories about how you can integrate narrative and self-care into building broader community health.
That's kind of the crux of it. We will also have our neighborhood awards in the evening. So super excited about those to celebrate our neighborhood association leaders as well as our Neighborhood of the Year. So, one of those neighborhoods that's just being recognized for doing outstanding work in our community.
ZB: This is an annual event in Fort Wayne. What kind of planning goes into the months leading up to where we are now?
RB: My goodness, we start planning all the way, more or less, in October, November. So as soon as we finish one, we start on the next, rounding up our keynote speakers, but then also just getting everything in place to make sure that it goes smoothly. And it's something really fun for our association residents.
So this year we're excited. We have some cool surprises in store for our association leaders. There may or may not be a costume or two involved and some other local celebrities, but we're looking forward to making it truly live up to its name. You know, not just having inspiring content that equips people, but also things that are just plain fun to do and opportunities for people to network with one another and have a good time.
ZB: J.R., you host The Facing Project, which is distributed by Indiana Public Radio to NPR. You'll also be a keynote speaker at this year's conference. Why did you decide to participate in the event?
JRJ: The heart of the work I do is storytelling and connecting through stories, and that's often done at a neighborhood level. The work we do is very community centric. So you know, while we may be a national organization at The Facing Project, what our model does is ask neighbors or ask people in the local community to sit down together on a topic that they decide they want to have a conversation around, and using our model to have those deep discussions and conversations to really find the humanity in their own stories.
You know, when Réna reached out and asked me to be a keynote for this, it was a no-brainer, and I'm just down in Muncie too, where I live, so it's really not that far of a trip up to Fort Wayne.
ZB: Obviously, we don't want to give away your entire presentation, but what are some ideas and themes that you plan to bring to the conference?
JRJ: Yeah, I'll be talking about how to connect with others across divides during this current time that we're living in. Which really isn't just the current time; it's, you know, historical, but it's really being brought to the surface lately. And so I hope to share tips and tricks about how I've had conversations across divides, ways to authentically listen in a conversation with neighbors, and how to bring your own story to the surface, to have these conversations in a way, again, where we can see the empathy in each other and the humanity in each other as a way to have deep discussions.
ZB: I'll open this one up to both of you: When it's all said and done, what do you hope people take away from the event? We'll start with Réna.
RB: Right on. I mean, one, we hope that people will feel equipped, that they'll feel mobilized, but honestly, that they'll also feel connected to one another. Inspire is a really great space for our neighborhood association leaders, who often act, you know, in silos, in their own neighborhoods, by themselves or with their small groups. It's a great opportunity for them to connect with one another, really build those relationships, tap into each other's resources.
So we hope that they do that, that they leave with a few extra phone numbers and just leave knowing that we celebrate them. We deeply appreciate the work that they're doing in our neighborhoods, and that we as a city and as their fellow residents and neighbors, honestly, are here to help them get all the good work done.
I do want to mention that the Neighborhoods Conference is entirely free and open to the public, as long as they register at www.inspirefortwayne.com. And huge thanks and shout out to all our sponsors who helped make this event possible and helped make it free to our community, and gave us the ability to even provide meals and food. We appreciate them a ton. This wouldn't happen without them, and we hope everybody will come out and be inspired.
JRJ: I hope that people walk away with the courage to always tell their own story and to have the empathy to listen to others. Storytelling is often mining the most painful parts of our soul, but most of the time, we walk away with gems. So my goal is that people show up ready to talk about stories, talk about their lived experiences, and continue to have the courage to always share their authentic selves.
ZB: The Inspire Neighborhoods Conference is an all-day event at Chapman's Brewing Company in Electric Works. The conference takes place Saturday, Sept. 12, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. followed by an awards ceremony. Registration is open until Monday, Sept. 1. Réna Bradley and J.R. Jamison, thank you for your time today.
RB: Thank you so much, Zach.
JRJ: Thank you for having us.
