On Saturday, October 1, COMMUN1TY+, an initiative convened by United Community, conducted a Visioning Retreat, bringing together 41 resident leadership voices, community stakeholders and partners from Fairfax County government agencies to engage in a deep listening and community dialogue focused on creating equitable, systemic community change.
COMMUN1TY+ is an innovative, bottom-up initiative that endeavors to shift mindsets and the collective approach to align resources and strategy to improve equity in human service delivery systems and reduce disparities in health, safety, economic mobility, child and youth well-being, and neighborhood livability in the Mount Vernon/Route 1 corridor.
Fairfax County Supervisor Rodney Lusk welcomed those assembled, and he also led a tour of the new Workforce Innovation Skills Hub (WISH) at the Hybla Valley Community Center. The group also participated in a Sherpa community tour led by community members, Fairfax County partners and United Community staff.
Some of the outcomes and next steps from this gathering include:
- Identified community strengths, assets and opportunities and the associated impact to residents and neighborhoods.
- Established ‘Guiding Light’ statements to help steer each working groups’ collective activities and to capture how change is tracked and evaluated.
- Identified steering committee members comprised of COMMUN1TY+ participants nominated by each of the working groups. This group will work with United Community to steward the larger collective, identify and implement solutions and interventions.
