By Adriana Zuniga
03/09/18 07:17:pm
We held a Visioning Event on Saturday, November 4 2017 at the multipurpose room of STAR Academic High School. The objective of this event was to bring the community together to talk about how neighbors envision the future of this area, and see if green infrastructure can play a role in this vision.
This event was led by our partners from Tierra y Libertad Organization (TYLO). The agenda included a presentation by representatives of Kimlet Consulting Group who talked about their work on infrastructure assessment along 12th Ave. This presentation was followed by a talk by Luis Perales, the leader of TYLO, who described himself as a “transformative researcher” interested in helping people on the south side of Tucson. He talked about the importance of community work. He gave the example of the Rudy Garcia Park and how they applied for a place to have their children play baseball, but never happened until people got the matter into their own hands and just started playing in a field already set aside for this purpose. The City finally built the park and named it for a baseball player, but the community renamed it after Rudy Garcia, wo made things happen.
These presentations were followed by a group discussion about the challenges to do outreach, the lack of resources devoted to this type of work, and how it has become a bureaucratic transaction (checking boxes) in some organizations. We also discussed strategies to do engagement and what the future may look like when people who want to do things differently get to positions of authority. After this event, attendees enjoyed lunch at the school courtyards. Translation and babysitting services were provided.
