NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A new initiative in Nashville hopes to get a better understanding of what the future will look like for members of the LGBTQ community.
The Nashville Community Visioning Project is a process that gets input from residents, business owners and local agencies about the future of their community.
Leaders will collect information from three focus groups over the course of three months to answer five questions:
1. Where are we now?
2. Where are we going?
3. Where do we want to be?
4. How do we get there?
5. Are we getting here?
"This is a good opportunity for us to look towards the next 50 years, the next 10 years, and get an understanding of what the community needs," Phil Cobucci of the Nashville Pride told NewsChannel 5. "We have an immense amount of growth that's happening here in Nashville and as a result of that we have a lot of new people moving to town. This gives them an opportunity to say this is what I want for the future of the community that I'm going to call home."
The first phase starts with two large community conversations. The first event was invitation-only with about 60 people but the second event is open to the public and will take place on June 3rd at Thistle Farms.
The following phases will include conversations with smaller LGBTQ groups and a public survey. Anyone is able to participate.
The conversations across all phases of this project are going to run with a focus on privacy in mind.
The goal is to hear from 2,000 members of the LGBTQ community in Nashville.
The project should be completed by the end of August and will be presented to the Nashville Pride Board of Directors by September. Cobucci hopes that the results of the project will be a blueprint for city officials to learn from.
"Our hope is that every department within Metro government that works with LGBTQ people will have access to this study so that they can learn what the needs are, and also provided to organizations in the community that work with LGBTQ people to see where they can make changes in their organizations," Cobucci added.
Nashville Pride will also take place on Jun 22 and 23 at Public Square Park.
To learn more about the project, click on the link. Click here full a full list of pride events.
