BUILDING COMMUNITY
Forum works to promote inclusion
Event-goers worked on community building at the most recent Troy 100 forum by practicing ways to promote inclusion.
The Troy 100 forum, held Monday night at Bush Memorial Hall in downtown Troy, is a biannual gathering for all members of the Troy community.
On Monday, the forum focus was community building. Representatives from the Troy based The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group, which hosts the forum, led the approximately 75 eventgoers through an interactive lesson about conscious actions for inclusion such as leaning into discomfort, listening as an ally, sharing others’ perspectives and stating your intent and intensity.
These four keys are supposed to make interactions more efficient and more inclusive, explained Francesca LoPorto Brandow, who helps run the forums.
This system, implemented by Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group’s corporate clients around the globe, has proven to be successful for shifting cultures and improving companies’ bottom lines.
Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group CEO and lead strategist Fred Miller said it’s critical in current times for communities like Troy to have people engaged,
supporting one another and working together to make a better city.
“The Troy 100 forum is a town hall, town square that allows people to come together and really see the abundance of goodness and the abundance of opportunity that we have when we all come together on the common purpose of making Troy the best city it can be and making Troy a community that we all can be proud of,” Miller said. “Troy 100 forum has been doing that for years now, and I think what we did on Monday was really to help teach the community some tools that would help in our community, that would allow us not only to be a little more civil with one another, but to have ways of interacting that show our support and appreciation for each other.”
LoPorto Brandow added, “The purpose is to make sure our community is strong so that we can welcome others but that we can also sustain whatever changes that we need to go through as a community.”
All attendees received a copy of the book “Opening Doors to Teamwork & Collaboration: 4 Keys That Change Everything” by Miller and Judy Katz to take home after the forum.
The next Troy 100 Forum is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Monday, May 21, 2018 at Bush Memorial Hall in Troy.