Triad community-building
Thursday's No. 2 editorial.
Two recent efforts in the Triad show a creative use of regionalism in building community.
First, there’s “Live United,” the regional 2008 campaign of seven Triad United Way agencies.
Instead of devising separate promotional campaigns, the United Ways of Greater Greensboro and Greater High Point joined with their counterparts in Alamance, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth and Rockingham counties in one campaign. It follows the lead of the national United Way in using its “Live United” focus and its three-pronged call to “Give. Advocate. Volunteer.” Besides being a better way to brand the United Way throughout the Triad, the effort also serves a practical function: It saves the agencies money on promotion.
The effort also is a call to do more in the Triad than just give. By supporting advocacy and volunteerism, the campaign encourages donors to engage themselves in their communities, whether it’s through voting or by helping at the local soup kitchen.
Encouraging community involvement is also key to a second regional effort now under way: the Piedmont Triad Initiative for Community Arts. Salem College and the arts councils of Greater Greensboro, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County and High Point want to “improve life through art.” Initiative supporters have been holding meetings to provide and gather information on the concept. They also are creating an online registry of Triad arts endeavors that already are doing good. One group mentioned on their blog (pticommunity
arts.wordpress.com) is the Winston-Salem Youth Arts Institute. It helps talented young people lacking support to develop writing and film skills and advance themselves.
In this city, it would seem the Greensboro Public Library’s “One City, One Book” events and UNCG’s public history projects, such as “Hear’s My Story: Senior Voices in Greensboro,” are registry contenders. And how about the artistic/ecological actions at the Elsewhere Collective?
The idea of using art for the public good isn’t new in Greensboro. Still, the Triad initiative is a welcome way to expand upon a worthy endeavor.
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