Rhode Island Foundation marks TogetherRI a “positive” move to engage community

RESULTS OF THE $150,000 TogetherRI community engagement effort hosted by the Rhode Island Foundation between March and May were publicized Thursday in a 100-plus page report compiled by the University of Rhode Island. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND FOUNDATION
RESULTS OF THE $150,000 TogetherRI community engagement effort hosted by the Rhode Island Foundation between March and May were publicized Thursday in a 100-plus page report compiled by the University of Rhode Island. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND FOUNDATION

PROVIDENCE – Nearly 1,300 individuals attended the 20 TogetherRI meetings hosted by the Rhode Island Foundation over six weeks in the spring designed for community members to meet and discuss, in-person, local current events.

The program, which cost the foundation roughly $150,000, was a success, said Rhode Island Foundation President and CEO Neil D. Steinberg in an interview with PBN Thursday.

Steinberg, who attended all 20 of the meetings, said he witnessed “participatory democracy rather than the polarized anarchy we seem to have at other venues.”

While he would not commit to another program of equal size, Steinberg said the topics broached by the attendees – which included the size of the state, natural resources, public education, transportation challenges, housing issues, jobs and social services among others – will help to inform the foundation’s actions moving forward.

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The act of engaging with the community, in person, and listening to their thoughts on the matters of the day, he said, “supported, validated, accelerated … a permanent change” in how the foundation will engage with the public over years to come.

One result of the 20 meetings was a 100-plus page report compiled by the University of Rhode Island outlining the demographics of attendees, breakdown of attendees by meeting location, analyses of the discussion topics and information on how attendees learned of the meetings, among additional data.

NEIL D. STEINBERG, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, told the Providence Business News Thursday the $150,000 Together RI initiative which saw community members discuss current events and challenges in person was "worth the investment." / PBN FILE PHOTO/PHOTO BY MICHAEL SALERNO
NEIL D. STEINBERG, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, told the Providence Business News Thursday the $150,000 Together RI initiative, which saw community members discuss current events and challenges in person, was worth the investment. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

Meetings were held from March through May at either 6:00-7:30 on weekday evenings or 9:00-10:30 a.m. on Saturdays, which, said Steinberg may have had an impact on the availability of young, working professionals or those with families.

In addition, the URI data shows nearly all attendees (99 percent) reported meeting someone new.

Seventy-two percent said their participation in TogetherRI has given them a better perspective on their community.

When the program was initiated in March, Steinberg said the impetus lay in an increasingly digital environment in which neighbors were strangers to one another.

“It was worth the investment,” said Steinberg.

“We are a funder of nonprofits, this got us to hear about the people they work for,” he added.

For the Rhode Island Foundation, said Steinberg, the meetings were “morale boosters.” Rhode Island Foundation staff, in addition to Steinberg, worked at each of the meetings to help take count, distribute meals and clean up afterward.

If the foundation were to commit to “similar efforts,” said Steinberg, next time he would “engage community groups more” in order to see a larger turnout.

He also hopes the effort put forth by the foundation spurs communities across the state to host their own meetups to discuss the topics that impact their day-to-day lives and come up with solutions generated by the people who are affected the most.

Demographics
According to the URI report, more women than men – 60.8 percent versus 32.85 percent – attended the meetings, with 6.34 percent preferring not to identify.

TogetherRI participants gathered at the Elmwood Community Center in Providence on May 5. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND FOUNDATION
TogetherRI participants gathered at the Elmwood Community Center in Providence on May 5. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND FOUNDATION

The majority of attendees – 78.2 percent – identified as white. The second highest group which chose to identify themselves were Hispanic/Latino (4.3 percent) followed by black (3.1 percent), multiracial and other were both 2.1 percent, Asian (1.0 percent) and Native American (0.2 percent).

Steinberg said attendance ranged in size from 22 on the low end to roughly 100, with people seated in groups over eight sharing a family-served meal, at each meeting. Their ages ranged from six months to a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor, he added.

The largest group of attendees at the meetings were aged 65 or older (35.3 percent), followed by 55- to 64-year-olds (25.5 percent), 45- to 54-year-olds (15.5 percent), 30 to 44 (11.9 percent), 18 to 29 (4.6 percent) and those younger than 18 (1 percent).

Emily Gowdey-Backus is a staff writer for PBN. You can follow her on Twitter @FlashGowdey or contact her via email, gowdey-backus@pbn.com.

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