Registration Still Open for Watch Parties on Race Relations

The UC College of Evening and Continuing Education's (CECE) registration division is taking calls from members of the community who are interested in joining watch parties for a public forum on race relations in Cincinnati. The forum, Common Ground: Working for Change will take place Sept. 6, 8-9 p.m. and will be broadcast on WCPO and WCET TV, WVXU, WIZF and WDBZ radio, and other media outlets. The watch parties are scheduled at five locations across Cincinnati and will run from 7-10 p.m. Refreshments will be provided.

The forum is an initiative of CincinnatiCAN, the task force organized by Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken to explore opportunities to improve race relations in the city. The broadcast will be moderated by Eric Ellis, president of the Integrity Development Corporation. The consulting firm has provided diversity training across the country.

Ellis is a regular participant in the University of Cincinnati's Managing Diversity in the Workplace Conference each October. For the forum, Ellis requested that the CECE Institute for Managing Diversity in the Workplace provide background news articles on race relations in Cincinnati, following the April riots downtown. The CECE registration division is gathering general registration information from those who are interested in attending the watch parties. A facilitator will be at each of the five gatherings to encourage discussion among the groups watching the broadcast forum. The watch parties will be held at the Clifton YMCA, the Delhi Township Public Library, the YMCA downtown, the Hyde Park Public Library and the Madisonville YMCA.

To register for one of the watch party locations, call the CECE registration division at (513) 556-6369. Community and civic organizations also are organizing watch parties, and those locations are publicized on the CincinnatiCAN website.