People coming together, building relationships, formulating new ideas and putting them into action. That was the theme behind a community development forum Wednesday night at Arlington's Central Public Library. Sponsored by the Community Role Models program, a county-funded initiative aimed at inspiring young adults to become active in social issues and volunteer work, the forum drew a crowd of more than 75 prospective civic activists.
"Government cannot just continue with business as usual," said County Board member Walter Tejada, who spearheaded the program's creation. "We have to create a forum where young people can participate. It is important that we engage the diversity of this community. Diversity is not just about race. It is about having different perspectives,"
The forum featured a panel discussion with voices from Arlington's government, business community and social services organizations. Jim Byers, director of marketing for Arlington's Office of Cultural Affairs, encouraged local youths to get involved in the county's arts scene as a way of building new collaborative ties.
"The arts hit on every level of community development," Byers said.
Byers said he learned about the powerful role of the arts in shaping a community through working with a group of young Latino jazz musicians. He also outlined several community-based opportunities for young people to use their expressive talents like the county's Arts Incubator, a program that offers performance or exhibition space to independent artists. The program requires that artists pay the county only about 10 percent of the money generated by their projects. Arlington, he added, hosts about 1,500 arts events each year.
"We've become a nexus, a mecca for arts groups," Byers said.
Community development is a term that has different meanings for everyone. To Roseanne Campbell, community resources coordinator for the Arlington Community Temporary Shelter (TACTS), it means helping those in need.
"Community development is about creating strong and healthy families," she said. "It means providing 200 people with gifts for the holidays when they otherwise wouldn't have them. It means responding to a phone call in the middle of the night from a woman or a family in trouble."
WITH 27 BEDS AND a high demand for volunteers, TACTS provides short-term housing for the homeless and victims of domestic violence. The shelter has operated in Arlington for more than 25 years. Although it has given vital assistance to countless families and individuals in that time, Campbell said much more needs to be done. Each year, she added, the shelter must turn away about 1,000 people due to a lack of space. Volunteers are an integral part of the shelter's continuing work.
"Whether you're going to be in Arlington for six months, a year or five, we need you," Campbell said.
To others, community development means empowering people to help themselves. Tara Miles said Arlington's Economic Development Office has a program that does just that, Biz Launch. It is focused on helping entrepreneurs develop small businesses in Arlington, and Miles said the program not only seeks to improve people's lives but also betters the local economy.
"It really takes a community to build a business," she said. "You always hear this saying that small business is a backbone, and it is. Small businesses are stable. They grow continually, and they stay in the community."
The program connects entrepreneurs with county-funded business advisers who help get their fledgling ideas off the ground.
"Even if a person, at the end of the day, doesn't start a business, they'll have the tools and the ability to do it."
Finding new solutions to one of Arlington's most pressing community issues, affordable housing, is what drives volunteers and activists with the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, according to spokeswoman Virginia Patton. The group runs nine apartment buildings in Arlington for low-income residents, with ongoing efforts to create more.
"Community development, I see it as a combination of human rights and human development," Patton said. "When people come together, when they partner with one another and collaborate, so many things can happen."
That sentiment was echoed by Palma Strand, a professor at Georgetown University and representative of the Arlington Forum, a civic organizing group.
"It's mostly about relationships," she said. "When people get together to get things done, that's community development."
Strand got involved in local issues as a PTA activist. She is also a co-author of a civic engagement study for Arlington County.
Along with the panel discussion, the crowd also had a chance to meet with leaders of various volunteer organizations like the Arlington Jaycee's, Leadership Arlington and the Hispanic Committee of Virginia.
"I've only just moved to Arlington, and when I heard about this, I thought it would be a good way to get involved in the community,” said Ed Hallen, 22, from Tennessee. "Ideally, I want to do something involved with children and education."
Bryan Simmons, 23, came looking for opportunities to teach.
"I graduated from the University of Maryland last May, but while I was there, I took some classes in teaching English as a Second Language and taught some students," he said. "It was very rewarding, and I'm hoping to get involved in another ESL program here, in Arlington."