Community Came Together on October 7th to Imagine a More Welcoming Brockville and Area

BROCKVILLE – More than 100 people from across Brockville and area came together this evening for a World Café focused on a simple but important question: What can we do together to create a more welcoming community where everyone feels they belong?

Held at the Brockville Memorial Centre, the World Café: Imagining a More Welcoming Brockville and Area brought residents, families, community organizations, businesses, newcomers and community leaders together for an evening of conversation, listening to one another and sharing ideas.

The event was organized through a collaboration of community partners, including Brockville and District Association for Community Involvement (BDACI), Wall Street United Church, the Young Professionals Network, Rotary Brockville, and the St Lawrence Rideau Immigration Partnership.

This evening was very different. Instead of a traditional conference with panel discussion, participants moved through facilitated table conversations, creating opportunities to meet people they may not otherwise encounter, share their experiences and consider what belonging looks like in everyday community life from their own lens.

The evening also featured Dr. Al Condeluci, an internationally recognized speaker, author and advocate whose work focuses on community, social capital, relationships and belonging. His reflections helped set the stage for the conversations that followed.

“This evening was really about bringing people together and making space for conversation,” said Naomi McNeill, Board Member of the Brockville and District Association for Community Involvement. “A welcoming community is something we create together. It happens through relationships, by being curious about one another’s experiences, and looking for the ways, we can make room for one another. It was wonderful to see so many people willing to come together and be part of that conversation.”

The World Café was grounded in the belief that communities already hold many of the relationships, experiences and ideas needed to create positive change. The purpose of the evening was not to arrive at one single answer, but to create space for people to consider what might be possible when community members imagine the future together.

The ideas and themes emerging from the conversations will be gathered and shared following the event, providing an opportunity for the community to continue the conversation beyond the evening itself.

“This was a beginning, not an ending,” said McNeill. “The real value will be in what we do with what we heard and how we continue to build on the connections made tonight.”