LEWISVILLE — On a Saturday morning, in one single space, a multitude of community members and leaders from different neighboring cities came together to recognize the strengths of one another’s areas to make one big collaborative effort.
The City of Lewisville hosted the second annual Tri-City Neighborhood Summit at Thrive Lewisville with neighboring cities, Coppell and Flower Mound. The event was organized for residents from each city to learn more about their surrounding communities.
Lewisville Mayor TJ Gilmore, Coppell Mayor Wes Mays and Flower Mound Mayor Derek France attended. Each gave an opening speech, talking about the importance of cooperation between each city.
“We live in a really divided world where everything creates anger and is designed to do that, and break us apart,” Gilmore said. “It’s designed to reinforce our differences, which are our strengths. We as a community have to stop that by finding what tools are available from our cities, our neighbors and our friends, so that we can get engaged, and create the community that we all want to live in.”
Coppell community development project coordinator Katie Crawford and Lewisville grants specialist Bryan McBreen put the event together to increase socialization between the neighboring cities.
“We thought it was a great idea to bring together neighbors from a whole region versus just a city,” Crawford said. “We hope we are giving community members the opportunity to meet some of their neighbors and learn something from one another.”
The event consisted of four sessions informing attendees about different aspects of community improvement through vaster community involvement.
The first two sessions occurred simultaneously. “Discover the Gifts” was led by The Hopeful Neighborhood Project director of community programming Jennifer Prophete which was about the importance of garnering appreciation for special community elements. “How to Have Difficult Conversations” was led by Taylor Olson Adkins Sralla & Elam attorney Eric Ransleben about conducting successful conversations with their neighbors.
“I hope people can walk away from the session with an empowered mindset shift and realize there’s a lot of things in their neighborhoods that they can build on and rather not have a ‘just fix-it’ nature,” Prophete said. “With all the sorts of gifts and organizations there are in cities, I want them to have the ideas of how to bring all those things together, and do something creative that makes the neighborhood a better place than it already is.”
The final two sessions also occurred simultaneously. “Imagine the Possibilities” led by Prophete, assessed the well-being of the cities’ neighborhoods through the Neighborhood Well-Being Survey and Well-Being Window Assessment and a Neighborhood Leadership Panel to hear advice from veteran neighborhood and homeowner’s association leaders.
For Lewisville resident Jose Olmos, attending the Tri-City Neighborhood Summit was to acquire more knowledge about the other neighboring cities to have a well-rounded idea of North Texas.
“My church is in Coppell, my son goes to Lewisville High School and I frequently visit Flower Mound,” Olmos said. “I wanted to learn more about these places as they are a daily part of my life.”
Next year, the next summit will be held at Flower Mound with a location and date to be determined.
“The neat thing about this event is that we let our volunteers set their own direction and learn what is available from their neighboring cities,” Mays said. “We let them collaborate for the greater good and determine what they want for their community.”
Follow @CHSCampusNews and @sahasrachak24 on X.
