By Anne Levin

Celebrating its 40th anniversary during the pandemic in 2021, Isles, the Trenton-based community development organization, came up with the idea for a week-long series of free webinars, workshops, and panels focused on timely topics such as environmental concerns, violence prevention, and building community. The Virtual Forum was such a success — attracting more than 650 participants from New Jersey and beyond — that it has become an annual event.

This year’s Virtual Forum takes place Monday to Thursday, May 20-23, with sessions from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The focus is Environmental Health on day one, Building Wealth on day two, Transportation and Mobility on day three, and Innovative Approaches to Violence Prevention on the final day. Each webinar is followed by a discussion.

“When we started, we really wanted to make sure we were sharing best practices and having a place for dialogue,” said Laura Fenster Rothschild, managing director of Isles’ Johnson Center for Learning and Impact. “We started off that first year just talking about what some of the hot topics were at the time. Last year, we talked about justice, and in 2022 it was equity and sustainability. This year, we’re thinking about the different areas that small cities need to tackle in order to make progress.”

The opening day will include a session titled “Maternal Health, Lead, and Racial Disparities,” with a nurse who is an expert in maternal health among the participants. Elyse Pivnick, senior director, environmental health at Isles, and Brian Buckley, executive director of labs and facilities at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) at Rutgers University, will lead the discussion about research revealing that exposure to lead is a factor in health disparities into adulthood. They will also talk about raising awareness and improving healthcare protocols to better serve women and families during prenatal and postpartum periods.

The webinar on building wealth includes “Micro by Mighty: Supporting Entrepreneurship in the U.S.” The focus is on challenges faced by women, people of color, immigrants, and those of limited resources when trying to start a small business. On day three, “The Future of Public Transit in New Jersey” looks at the current state of affairs for transit in New Jersey, and how to make it better at connecting residents to employment, economic, and cultural opportunities.

On the final day, “Building Resilience: The role of Healthcare Providers in Community-based Violence Intervention” is the topic. “We’re bringing practitioners together to share best practices and approaches to addressing community-based violence,” reads a press release on the event. “Healthcare providers play a crucial role in fostering resilience and promoting interventions that go beyond traditional healthcare settings, creating safer and healthier communities.”

Participants in past Virtual Forums have included a cross-section of people, and Rothschild expects a similar mix this time. “We get everyone from legislative officials to individuals from universities, nonprofits, and grassroots organizations,” she said. “And that’s the goal: to create a space where folks from different sectors can dialogue together and think about how community voices are centered. We want to make sure we are really doing what residents of those cities want and need.”

There is no deadline to sign up for the forum. Participants can attend all or any of the events. To register and get a complete schedule, visit isles.org.