Communication key to local community

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, April 19, 2006

FERRIDAY &8212; Like any healthy relationship, the key to community development is effective communication, Kerry Everitt told the Ferriday Leadership Conference Thursday.

The fourth meeting in the 10-week development series helped attendees understand the ways and means of constructing productive dialogue.

&8220;You have to believe the community can come together to make change, but you have to be intentional about what you want and how to go about getting it,&8221; she said. &8220;Communication is the way to do it.&8221;

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To figure these things out, members discussed their feelings about how the citizens of the town communicate at present, which everyone present could use some work.

Racial, political, generational and attitudinal factors were all cited as impediments to good communication among the town&8217;s residents.

The group also agreed that current stories about the community didn&8217;t tell the whole picture of Ferriday&8217;s history.

Everitt is a consultant with Strategics Group, a firm in

St. Francisville, La.

&8220;We need to recognize there are different ways to communicate with different people and you can&8217;t use the same way and assume they&8217;ll get the message,&8221; Everitt said.

Next Thursday&8217;s class will be led by LSU AgCenter professor Karen Overstreet, who will construct a time line of Ferriday&8217;s history to better understand how the past impacts the present and future.

The second half of the series will be devoted to identifying an area of concern with an eye toward forming and setting in motion a plan of action.