Fireside Five-Oh
Living Room Conversations
Thanks go out to our friends in the Eken Park Neighborhood for hosting the first of what we hope will be many more Fireside Five-Oh neighborhood conversations.
We are pleased to announce the launch of this project, another opportunity for officers and citizens to make meaningful connections. The fireside chats are designed to be a more informal way to nurture important relationships. A resident may graciously agree to host an event in their home. The host is asked to invite eight to twelve friends, family and neighbors. A police officer or two, someone who typically works in that neighborhood, is also invited. With light refreshments provided by the guest officers the stage is set for a living room conversation lasting roughly 90 minutes.
The conversation is unscripted and determined by the interests of all the guests. Some subjects brought up at our Eken Park event were concerns about the interactions of police with youth, drug abuse, the frequency of police calls and parking issues. Perhaps more importantly, we had the chance to learn a little about each other on a personal level.
As we go forward, we'd like to invite others to host a Fireside Five-Oh in their home. At this time the project is limited to North District residents. It is our hope that these conversations will begin popping up all over the city. As I'm sure the guests in Eken Park will attest, the conversation was great and the snacks were pretty darn good too. If you are interested in hosting, please contact me to set a date and time.
Neighborhood Resource Officer
David J Dexheimer
ddexheimer@cityofmadison.com