Enlarge Discussion leader Laurence Maher introduces the "Eye To Eye" segment at the November meeting.

Posted: February 25th, 2010 Greg Lacour

In November, Crossroads Charlotte hosted a conversation at International House that drew about 60 Charlotteans of varying ethnic and national backgrounds. It touched off an energetic discussion about the role of immigrants in the community, whether Charlotte’s doing enough to assimilate them and whether they’re doing enough to assimilate.

But none of the organizers expected or wanted the conversation to be the only step. Now, a few months later, comes the follow-up: More Than Talk, a three-part facilitated session that will result in the creation of a community project or projects.

The options are wide open provided the project touches in some way on the six “driving forces” the group identified in November: education; the economy; allocation of community resources; civil engagement and leadership; changing demographics; and land use and development.

“That’s the endgame. In order to get there, we’ve got to make sure the participants are really grounded in the driving forces and the core Crossroads Charlotte concepts,” said Jatrine Bentsi-Enchill, a consultant working with Crossroads. “What we hope … is that it’s an initiative that, when Crossroads Charlotte has gone away, it’ll still be going.”

The three parts will be held at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1000 E. Morehead St., from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on

• Thursday, March 18
• Monday, April 12
• Thursday, April 29

Want to attend? RSVP via email to Annetta Foard (afoard@communitybuildinginitiative.org) by March 12.

Although Crossroads has started as many as 40 individual initiatives, this will be among the first that community members will drive. Crossroads simply will help guide it. It’s up to participants to put it into action. When that’ll be depends on what comes out of the sessions. “We’d love to see an initiative that could be implemented within six months,” Bentsi-Enchill said. “But you really don’t know until you see the initiative.”

A group of six people who attended the November conversation have already begun a kind of micro-initiative on their own. They met that night and decided to start getting together for breakfast or lunch once a month to discuss current events, immigration issues and themselves.

They’re still doing it, and most of them plan to attend the More Than Talk sessions, said LaWana Mayfield, the circle’s unofficial leader. “I’m going to be a part of all three. I’ve already cleared my schedule,” Mayfield said. “That meeting at International House, if that hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t know each other. I’m definitely thankful for the fact that Crossroads Charlotte had that community discussion.”

Which, of course, makes Bentsi-Enchill beam. “That’s just amazing. That’s social capital-building right there,” she said. “We love that.

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