PHOTO ESSAY

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s Civic Summit Draws a Crowd to BU

Event at Howard Thurman Center brought together more than 200 residents, civic leaders, and nonprofit advocates from across Boston

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (right) speaking during in a fireside chat moderated by Jeneé Osterheldt, Boston Globe deputy managing editor, during Civic Summit 2024: Community Over Everything, hosted by the Mayor’s Office of Civic Organizing on January 13. The daylong event was held at Boston University’s Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground.

More than 200 Boston residents, civic leaders, and representatives from local nonprofits gathered at Boston University’s Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground on January 13 for a Civic Summit organized by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. 

The goal of the Saturday summit, titled Community Over Everything, was to help inspire and empower attendees as they seek to find innovative solutions to the challenges facing the city’s various communities.

The summit included a fireside chat with Wu facilitated by Jeneé Osterheldt, Boston Globe deputy managing editor and founder of A Beautiful Resistance. Summit sessions covered learning to fund projects, training the next generation of local leaders, leveraging social media for community impact, and how to empower communities for a greener future. Guests also had opportunities to network throughout the day.

Panelists included M. Lee Pelton, president and CEO of the Boston Foundation, Oliver Sellers-Garcia, Boston’s Green New Deal director, Kristen McCosh, Boston’s disability commissioner, and BU’s own Brianna Bourne (CAS’24), a Boston Public Schools graduate and former president of BU’s Students of Caribbean Ancestry, who was a member of the panel Becoming a Civic Leader: Training the Next Generation of Leaders. 

“The idea of civic organizing is that we’re not just sitting back in City Hall disconnected from communities and waiting for what comes in, wherever it may come from, and trying to judge frequency and how to prioritize that,” Wu said during her fireside chat. “We are actually hopefully building that direct connection and two-way relationship and ownership of city services, where we can together understand how to get the resources where they need to go. And the only way that can happen with true equity across the city is for all of our neighborhoods to be in fellowship and co-ownership together.” 

Kenneth Freeman, BU president ad interim, said the setting for the summit was particularly appropriate. “The Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, with its mission to connect people through creative shared experiences, is a fitting venue for this forum. We’re pleased to play a part in facilitating conversations reflecting diverse viewpoints and experiences as we work to build a more inclusive and vibrant community.”

The Civic Summit drew more than 200 residents, civic leaders, and nonprofit advocates. Panel sessions addressed a range of issues, from how to empower communities for a greener future to leveraging social media for community impact.

Brandon Chambers, a Consensus Building Institute associate, and Elizabeth Cooper, Consensus Building Institute senior associate, speaking at one of the sessions.

Among the Civic Summit’s numerous networking opportunities were a breakfast, a luncheon, and a tea.

Oliver Sellers-Garcia (left), Boston’s first Green New Deal director and a cabinet-level senior advisor to Mayor Wu, was part of a fireside chat moderated by Jaye Meakem, community engagement manager for Boston Harbor Now. Titled Sustainable Cities: Empowering Communities for a Greener Future, it focused on the crucial role of federal funding in climate change initiatives and provided guidance to civic leaders on how to access such funding.

Mayor Wu and attendees during a break in the daylong civic summit.