By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — The city’s final of four Community Action Planning Sessions will be held Sunday at J.F. Hurley YMCA.

The sessions are designed to bring residents and city leaders together to come up with ideas to improve public safety and community relationships.

The sessions have been facilitated by Brenda Anderson, CEO of the Galilee Agency, a Charlotte-based organizational development and human resources consulting firm.

Salisbury residents, in partnership with the city, Rowan County and the Rowan-Salisbury Schools, will tackle four focus areas at this last planning session, which will be from 10 a.m. to noon.  Child care will be provided.

The Saturday session will address:

• Improved public safety and its relationship with residents.

• Opportunities for children.

• Improved community relations.

• Workforce development.

Residents are encouraged to attend to help develop the vision of a “healthier community that provides a livable environment which is safer, with higher educational achievement, stronger workforce and employment opportunities and better relationships between the community, the city and law enforcement,” officials said in a statement.

The vision and focus areas were developed over a two-month period of work sessions featuring more than 20 community stakeholders from organizations including workforce development, religious institutions, the Salisbury Police Department, Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, Livingstone and Catawba colleges, and the Salisbury-Rowan NAACP.

While community stakeholders will serve as facilitators for this effort, residents will do the bulk of the work with the goal of creating an achievable, measurable road map for success in each of the four areas.

“Our residents have repeatedly shared with City Council and staff members that they want effective action plans to address the challenges in the city of Salisbury, not just another meeting,” said City Manager Lane Bailey.

“These work sessions will allow residents to work together on these important issues facing our community and develop the strategic action plan on how we are going to overcome them. A project of this significance cannot solely rely on one person or entity to lead. Working together and holding each other accountable for the successes is what will move Salisbury forward,” Bailey said.

After Saturday’s session, each focus area will be assigned to community leaders who will be responsible for further development, implementation, measurement and reports to the stakeholder group.

Contact reporter Shavonne Walker at 704-797-4253.