Esperanza was proud to participate on the city wide initiative of The Philadelphia Foundation, On The Table Philly, last Tuesday and host various rounds of conversations throughout the day which included the participation of the President and CEO of the Philadelphia Foundation Pedro Ramos as well as several members of the The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and On the Table Philly.
“I think getting new people to the table and talking about creating solutions is a good start,” Esperanza Executive Vice President & Chief of Staff Danny Cortés said. “I think people got creative about way that they might look at engaging conversations within their own communities and talk about being agents of change.”
Danny Cortés
The conversations included members from all parts of the spectrum including Hispanic faith leaders, Esperanza Academy students, youth development leaders, latino artists and filmmakers and Hunting Park business leaders.
“We were able to raise a lot of important issues with various members of our community and gather some valuable insights into how we can continue to make our neighborhood a place people want to live and thrive,” Esperanza Vice President of Development Tina Barber said.
Referring to the conversations with Hispanic faith leaders, Pastor Gilbert Alfaro from Front Street Community Church said: “It was an awesome opportunity to be able to talk about realistic issues that are happening within our neighborhood. Not only focusing on negativity that we already know exists but realistic goals of things we can actually do to help our neighborhood and our families.”
Piloted in Philadelphia for the first time by The Philadelphia Foundation and the Knight Foundation, On the Table Philly brings residents together in small groups for mealtime conversation about how to make their communities better places to live, work and play. The initiative was designed to engage residents in an open dialogue and inspire new solutions to strengthen communities.
Esperanza looks forward to continuing on strengthening Hispanic communities through inclusive dialogue and conversation.
