Tenaya, SPCC Board President
One evening, in 2004, Tenaya Wright on her way home from her job found the Squire Park Community Council Newsletter on her doorstep. She read about the upcoming community council meeting and was curious to see who would be there. So, on the next Saturday morning, with her 10-year-old twins, she walked to the Langston Hughes theater.
Tenaya says now that, though important topics were being discussed, “there was no one like me attending the meeting or putting forth a point of view from a single parent, a person of color, a person in a low income bracket, or a person who is a Section 8 tenant, all of which I am. I was surprised.”
Knowing that many Central District families are like hers, in one way or another, she made the commitment to attend and take part in the community council meeting. She found her input and involvement welcome. “I was encouraged to be forthcoming and honest about how I felt about neighborhood plans and ideas and how they would affect me and my family,” she says. “I always hope I’m able to represent a part of the community that does not always feel this support and encouragement, but I’m happy when others like me show up.”
Now, four years later, Tenaya is the President of Squire Park Community Council and an active participant in many other neighborhood groups and meetings.
She says, “I would like to encourage more families that are like mine, in whatever way that may be, to attend local neighborhood meetings, to speak up and tell us how the community can better support and represent your family and to bring issues to the table that may be overlooked.”
—Bill Zosel