Trib covers MIM’s Community Conversations

A local group is looking to learn more about the unmet needs of residents in Monroeville and surrounding areas.

Local officials and religious leaders began holding community conversations as an offshoot of the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium — a coalition of about 19 member groups in Monroeville and nearby communities — earlier this year.

Rabbi Barbara Symons, president of the ministerium, said the ministerium began holding discussions in January.

Last year, the group held free monthly dinners at local houses of worship for people served at local food pantries.

These meetings convene about every six weeks, drawing local officials and residents.

Earlier this year, the group held a role-playing simulation at the Monroeville Convention Center after people in the discussions identified poverty as one of the needs in the area.

Symons said there are still groups she’d like to bring to the discussion.

“We are hoping at the next Oct. 30 meeting that some of the managers of the local apartment houses here in Monroeville will come so that they can help us better understand the needs of their clients, their renters and that together we can work to help those people whether it is something about transportation, whether it is on some other level,” Symons said.

The next community conversation is scheduled for Oct. 30 at 9 a.m. at Temple David, 4415 Northern Pike.