The April 30th “Finding Our Frontlines” program in Fayetteville was a great success. I had about 15 participants show up to this event. I was so impressed by the leadership in the room from almost everyone who attended. The program was well organized and the presentation that was shown kept us on target throughout the entire event.

I was overjoyed to see everyone get extremely involved throughout the program. They asked questions, spoke about the issues that they were concerned about, and spoke up when they either did not understand or just wanted to know more about a topic.

The part that stood out to me the most was when we broke up into the facilitated discussion groups. Folks were open about their private lives and issues and were passionate about their concerns. One lady, Jamie, got teary-eyed when she spoke about how hard it was for her to take care of her family, maintain a job and also deal with racial issues in her everyday life. I was touched by her story and I understood where she was coming from. Another great part of the group discussion was how everyone was respectful of each other and engaged in the conversation.

Monique Jackson is the Field Organizer for Fayetteville. She can be reached at Monique@nclcv.org.