Members of Community Voices Heard (from l to r): Loretta Manning, LeNeice Little, Kristina Manning, Susan Smith, Jenny Loeb and Gloria Paley.
By Nancy Peckenham
Members of Community Voices Heard, a national grassroots organizing group that opened a chapter in Newburgh three years ago, came back from two national events with new ideas and new energy they say will help enpower residents to improve things in their neighborhoods.
On Tuesday, Susan Smith, Loretta Manning and Brenda McPhail held a public meeting to talk about what they learned when they attended the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit in June. Susan Smith talked about a concept called “participatory budgeting,” in which a city leader can seek direct input from his or her constituents on how a budget is spent. Loretta Manning described a group of young unemployed men in Detroit who want to make a difference in their neighborhoods by repairing people’s houses and creating a support system to keep their minds away from doing drugs or gang activities.
City leaders were among those in attendance at the presentation.
City councilwoman Regina Angelo and acting city manager Richard Herbek sat in the front row through most of the presentation, including when the women spoke about how these ideas could be applied in Newburgh.
“If you see trash, pick it up,” Manning said, “we need to hold our neighborhood kids responsible.”
The CVH members also talked about their participation in a rally last Saturday in Washington, D.C. called One Nation, in which progressive leaders talked about building unity nationwide.
The group finished its presentation with an update on the bill it is lobbying the city to adopt that would require construction work in Newburgh that is supported by federal, state or local sources to hire a specific percentage of city residents. CVH is also pushing for a hiring and training center that would help develop a trained workforce to be hired under this bill. Both ideas proposals have been introduced to city council and negotiations on them occurred over the summer, according to CVH organizer Jenny Loeb.
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