Enlarge Glenda Manning (left) and Yolanda Bynum talk about challenges in education.

Posted: October 30th, 2009 Greg Lacour

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After the screening of the Crossroads Charlotte movie, with its four visions of what Charlotte might be like in 2015, Brian Foreman asked the group at the Park Road YWCA which one they thought best reflected the Charlotte they knew.

“The Beat Goes On,” said one, referring to the segment about a still-prosperous but stagnant city.

“Fortress Charlotte,” said another, referring to the segment about a crime-ridden, economically depressed dystopia.

Vikkii Graham resolved the disparity.

“It depends on what side of Charlotte we’re talking about,” said Graham, a community volunteer. “I don’t feel like we have a unified Charlotte.”

Which, of course, was the point. The Oct. 29 discussion at the YWCA, “Beyond Festival In the Park,” was the latest in a series of conversations with Charlotte residents about the challenges facing the city and how ordinary people can help make things better.

About 10 people gathered in the Y’s auditorium for pizza and the movie, followed by a general group discussion, then a more intimate session with the group divided into two smaller ones.

Much of the discussion in both sessions centered on changing the mindset of too many in the city, the invisible walls that separate communities from communities and individuals from individuals.

Glenda Manning, a YWCA employee who lives in the Hidden Valley neighborhood, related a story about meeting a woman she’d never seen before in Hidden Valley. The woman told her she was living at a transitional home for women who’d just been released from prison.

After she got over her shock, Manning said, she told her husband, who responded, “These women are our neighbors.” He was right. Manning and some of her fellow Hidden Valley residents welcomed the women into their neighborhood.

“It challenged me as a Christian,” Manning said. “We are going to have to learn to take care of each other rather than say, ‘I got mine, now you go and get yours.’ ”

The group agreed that a good small-scale solution would be to do more volunteer work. Organizer Jatrine Bentsi-Enchill reminded them that the organization lists a number of community projects on its Initiatives page.

Yolanda Bynum, a colleague of Manning’s, said she’s doing volunteer work in the Grier Heights neighborhood: “It’s a lot about being better stewards of our community.”

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