Report: Community Conversation 1/20/2023

cc_lights_489x489_circle.pngCommunity Involvement Summary

The first town-wide One Hillsborough community conversation was held on 20th of January 2023 at the Hillsborough municipal building, in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Listed below is the excerpt related to Community Involvement. The full report covering all topics and Post-It boards in pdf format is also  available for download.

 

 

Community Involvement Post-It boardGoing well

Community

  • Good kids
  • People care for one another and willing to make things better
  • Residents support each other in crisis
  • Community has become extremely diverse
  • DEI initiatives; the HHS Student Diversity Initiative
  • YMCA - more cool things than I realized

Communication

  • Appreciation for Community Calendar and Mayor’s Newsletter

Public involvement

  • Events like this One Hillsborough event

Roads and Transportation

  • Route 206 bypass

Needs improvement

Communication

  • Not enough public involvement/engagement with:
    • Mayor’s newsletter
    • Community calendar
    • Hillsborough Happenings
    • Faith based organizations’ events and calendars
  • Youth voice 
  • Facebook community forum drives severe mis-perception
  • No real local newspaper (Beacon or online news very spotty) like Montgomery
  • Neutral central online forum/bulletin-board for upcoming events and news. Maybe One Hillsborough?

 Diversity

  • People with color and other backgrounds in events and representation in committees etc.
  • Community event to celebrate Diwali
  • Less bias -- more acceptance

Social / mental health

  • Loneliness and lack of a third place to socialize (not work or home)
  • Attention / awareness of our spiritual nature
  • People might lack the language to talk about their struggle
  • Online forums too divisive
  • Support for domestic violence victims? Safe and Sound Rep: “the more we can get the community together, the more we can do and build trust”

Questions

  1. People are missing community, esp. the marginalized and under-represented. Who can improve this aside from individuals? 
  2. Could there be a real community center? Is the Y in this role?
  3. Do we need more services as the community is growing? Soup kitchen? Meals-on-wheels? Township has some of this.
  4. How do we get to our younger population?

Full report

The Full report covering all topics and Post-It boards in pdf format is also available for download.