15th Transatlantic Forum

August 26-29, 2010, New York

"Enhancing Social Cohesion in Urban Development: Breaking New Ground for Vibrant Communities."

The topic of the 15th Transatlantic Forum was "Enhancing Social Cohesion in Urban Development: Breaking New Ground for Vibrant Communities." In the city of New York, we looked at different aspects of urbanization and its challenges in the light of increasing social segregation and declining public funds for building and sustaining public infrastructure.

The conference topic was addressed and examined in panel discussions, highlighting examples of public-private partnerships and new models of grassroots citizenship. Both aspects contribute to creating a vibrant and inclusive urban environment. Speakers included Michael Gecan, representative of the Industrial Areas Foundation, who for decades has championed community organizing as an instrument of active citizen participation, and activist Angela Glover Blackwell, founder of the think and do tank Policy Link, which focuses on economic and social equity. In addition to the local focus on New York, the participants met with United Nations representatives to discuss the issue of urbanization from a global perspective.

The discussions were complemented by visits to exemplary social projects such as Make the Road by Walking, a service center for the predominantly Spanish-speaking community in the immigrant neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn, representing their interests in employment, education, and other issues, or The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, which teaches entrepreneurship to young people from low-income communities, thus promoting academic success, personal initiative, and positive perspectives for the future. All organizations confront the negative effects of urban development in New York head-on in schools, social services, and civic initiatives and work towards improving social development also in marginalized neighborhoods. The participants also met with selected social projects in one-day workshops, providing intensive coaching in order to enable them to promote social cohesion even more successfully.

Documents

Report (pdf - 0.53 MB)
Program (pdf - 0.06 MB)
Reading 1 (pdf - 0.03 MB)
Reading 2 (pdf - 0.05 MB)
Reading 3 (pdf - 0.06 MB)
Reading 4 (pdf - 0.34 MB)
Reading 5 (pdf - 0.19 MB)

Speakers

Stephanie Dua

Chief Executive Officer, Fund For Public Schools, New York

Link to document (pdf - 0.03 MB)

Ben Hecht

President and Chief Executive Officer, Living Cities

Link to document (pdf - 0.04 MB)

Maria Gotsch

President and Chief Executive Officer, New York City Investment Fund

Link to document (pdf - 0.03 MB)

Lee Stuart

Executive Director, New Yorkers for Parks

Angela Glover Blackwell

Founder and President, PolicyLink

Link to document (pdf - 0.04 MB)

Michael Gecan

Senior Organizer, Industrial Areas Foundation

Link to document (pdf - 0.03 MB)

Adam Freed

Deputy Director, Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, City of New York

Link to document (pdf - 0.03 MB)

Hania Zlotnik

Director of the Population Division, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs

Link to document (pdf - 0.03 MB)

Richenda Van Leeuwen

Senior Director of Energy and Climate, United nations Foundation

Link to document (pdf - 0.04 MB)

Tomicah Tillemann

Speechwriter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Policy Planning Staff, U.S. Department of State

Link to document (pdf - 0.04 MB)

Lisa Fisher

Associate Urban Planner, AECOM

Link to document (pdf - 0.02 MB)

Peter Wittig

Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations

Link to document (pdf - 0.03 MB)

Richard Sennett

Bemis Professor of Social Sciences, Academic Governor, The London School of Economics and Politics London, United Kingdom; Professor of Sociology, New York University