600 Attend Building ONE America Summit in DC, Keynote Address from Valerie Jarrett
More than 600 participants, including over 150 members of the New Jersey Regional Coalition, attended the “Building One America” national conference in Washington, D.C., on September 17 and 18, 2009. The two-day “National Summit on Regional Opportunity” was designed to bring before the federal government successful, proven regional policies, programs, and strategies to combat concentrated poverty, residential and school segregation, and sprawl.
At left, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, with NJRC President Rev. R. Lenton Buffalo, Jr. seated behind her.
Watch video highlights of the event here.
The audience of over 600 at Lincoln Park United Methodist Church heard keynote addresses from: Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama; Deputy HUD Secretary Ron Sims and Assistant HUD Secretary John Trasvina; Congressional Representatives Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Rush Holt (D-NJ), and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR); with comprehensive policy analysis sessions by Prof. john powell, Myron Orfield, and David Rusk. Summit speakers included clergy leaders and mayors from Youngstown, Ohio, Baltimore, Marland, Norristown, and Landsdowne, Pennsylvania.
NJRC President Rev. R. L. Buffalo, and NJRC leaders Rev. Robert Hargrove, Rev. Charles Stephens, Bishop John Gandy, Rev. John Scotland, Marlene Lao-Collins, Nicole Plett, and Paul Bellan-Boyer also addressed the Summit. For more information including powerpoint presentations presented by national experts powell, Rusk and Orfield, click on "resources" at www.buildingoneamerica.org.
Pictured to the left: Fifteen members of the NJRC “Building One America” delegation, including six clergy members, visited the offices of New Jersey’s senators and the entire New Jersey congressional delegation on Friday, September 18. Invitations to attend future "Building One New Jersey" summit meetings in their home state during Spring 2010 were extended to: Senator Robert Menendez, Senator Frank Lautenberg, and all 13 of New Jersey’s House Members.
