Diana Dorn Jones is the executive director of United South Broadway Corporation and for several years has been a most effective community activist in the South Broadway area. She continues to be the constant force that has successfully unified communities and community leaders to stand in the way of those who look to promote laws and actions detrimental to community progress.
Diana grew up in the South Broadway area and has an undying love for the neighborhoods. For the past 18 years, she has played a major role in the progress and development in the area. She is quick to tell you that she is just one of the many individuals who are dedicated to positive change for the area.
She constantly praises her staff and other community leaders for making positive changes for the area neighborhoods. But almost everyone in the South Broadway area will tell you that Diana has been the key player in organizing and the developing efforts to promote community development for the area.
Sometimes it takes an entire village to create change but at times all you need is to plug in is Diana Dorn Jones when you want to organize a community to address issues. Diana and her community development organization, United South Broadway, is currently partnering with the Marguerite Casey Foundation to empower and enrich the voice of local communities.
"The United South Broadway Corporation is receiving funding from the Marguerite Casey Foundation to do movement building, which is a major part of what we do at United South Broadway Corporation. The town hall, we are having today, is designed to create a platform for the people's agenda to end poverty in America. We recognize that we need to organize and collaborate to send a united voice to Washington about the conditions of impoverished families in America. One family can speak up about something, and maybe be ignored but when 10 thousand families speak about this issue from across the country, Washington, in particular, the Congress has to take notice of the disconnect that they have with people on the ground," says Diana.
The town hall that Diana referred to was the community town hall that was held at the South Broadway Cultural Center in April. The well attended community forum provided individuals from communities an opportunity to discuss and document issues related to their concerns. Immigration, fair wages, employment, health care and housing, which Diana identified as being a big issue on the agenda, were only a few of the issues that were highlighted in the community breakout groups.
"We need to tell our elected officials that what you're doing right now, elected official in Washington, DC, is disconnected from what's happening on the ground every single day and making a difference in the survival of families. Right now there is a huge disparity in the gap that continues to expand, between the rich and poor in America. We used to have a middle-class but the housing crisis and the health care crisis has virtually wiped out the middle class in America, and the line now is drawn between the haves and the have-nots, and that really is not acceptable," said Diana.
According to Diana, the town halls similar to the one held in Albuquerque will be going on all over the country. Each organization hosting a town hall will take a hundred individuals from each town hall to one of three regional conferences that are being planned for Los Angeles, Detroit and Birmingham, Alabama. The Marguerite Casey Foundation will be financing the trips for these families and a live video feed will be going out throughout neighborhoods around the country. "We're going to come together and create a larger platform by region that we will then take to Washington and make a testimony before Congress about ending poverty in this country," added Diana.
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