City of Rochester
News Release
(October 9, 2009) - Mayor Robert J. Duffy today joined the Rev. James J. Cherry of Aenon Baptist Church; Isobel Goldman of the Jewish Community Federation; Dr. Muhammad Shafiq of Nazareth College; and Anne-Marie Brogan from St. Mary’s Church to announce that the One City, Many Faiths, One Hope interfaith conference will take place at the Hyatt Regency hotel downtown, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Wed., Oct. 14. Rev. Dr. Prince J. Singh, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester will be the keynote speaker.
As part of the City’s Voice of the Customer initiative, the One City, Many Faiths, One Hope conference will promote dialogue among interfaith programs to gain a better understanding of the community’s needs and identify areas where City resources can provide the most support while promoting the interfaith community as a vital voice within the city. There will be 16 workshop discussion groups broken down by the following quality-of-life topics: public safety, neighborhood and business development, education and customer services.
• Under the topic of public safety, groups will discuss such topics as crime prevention and reduction; jail ministry and reentry; and Rochester’s responses to violence.
• Education topics will include adult literacy; partnerships to promote literacy; programs to enhance educational initiatives and job preparation and readiness.
• Neighborhood and business development topics to be discussed will include building a greater community through affordable housing; business development within the faith community; and organizing and promoting healthy communities.
• Customer service topics will include faith-based efforts to promote health care services; addressing poverty; community pride; and empowering community organizations to serve.
Workshops will be moderated by community leaders from the faith and public service communities and 24 non-profit service providers have been invited to set up exhibits to provide information about their programs.
For more information, contact Andrew Turner, Chief of Customer Satisfaction at 428-7226 or www.cityofrochester.gov.
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News Media: For more information, contact Andrew Turner at 428-7226.