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COMMUNITY
Council members looking to engage Spanish-speaking community
BY MELISSA WEINMAN
melissaweinman@reporternewspapers.net
MELISSSA WEINMAN
From left, Councilman Joe Gebbia, Councilman Jim Eyre,
Maria Duarte and Irma Walker meet for breakfast to discuss
ways to engage Brookhaven’s Spanish-speaking residents.
Some Brookhaven officials are look
ing for help in finding ways to connect
with the city’s large Spanish-speaking
community.
Councilman Joe Gebbia, who rep
resents Brookhaven’s southernmost dis
trict encompassing much of the Buford
Highway corridor, is working to orga
nize an advisory council that will serve
as liaison to the Latino community.
Many Latinos, who make up about 30
percent of Brookhaven’s population, live
along Buford Highway.
Gebbia, along with Councilman Jim
Eyre, met with residents on Feb. 15 for
an early morning cup of coffee to discuss
the direction the committee should take.
They met with Irma Walker, the
program coordinator for the Hispan
ic Health Coalition of Georgia; Maria
Duarte, a spokeswoman for Spanish lan
guage news channel Azteca Atlanta; and
Kim Gokce, a leader of the Cross Keys
Foundation, which supports Cross Keys
High School.
“We need help understanding the
community,” Eyre said. “We also need
help from an advisory committee to un
derstand who the leaders are and who
we need to get involved.”
Gebbia and Eyre said they hope the
committee can come up with outreach
initiatives that can introduce the new
city to the large immigrant population.
At a recent council meeting, council
members delayed a vote to begin “code
compliance sweeps” of apartment build
ings and businesses along Buford High
way. The intent of the “sweeps” will be
to identify buildings that are not up to
code or businesses that are not operating
with proper licenses.
Gebbia and Eyre said they want to
make sure many residents’ first inter
action with the city isn’t negative. “We
want to put our foot forward in a very
positive way,” Gebbia said.
Eyre said educating people about
the city’s ordinances will be important.
“We want to get out in front of that and
make sure the community understands
why we’re doing it,” Eyre said.
The city is now looking to begin its
code enforcement efforts on Buford
Highway this summer, Gebbia said.
“We have time. We want to make
sure we get this right,” Gebbia said.
Duarte, the Azteca Atlanta spokes
woman, said she would begin work on a
media plan to involve radio stations, TV
stations and newspapers. Duarte also rec
ommended translating as many city ma
terials as possible into Spanish to make
the Latino community feel included in
the new city.
“They may know enough English to
run their small business, but they may
not have the vocabulary to understand
the ordinances,” Duarte said.
Walker said in addition to media,
schools and churches are good institu
tions to work through.
“Radio is huge in our community.
The schools, the churches, that’s where
they feel safe,” Walker said.
Gebbia is planning to reach out to
parents at Woodward Elementary, which
has a large number of Latino students.
“The key is creating a better level of
communication and trust,” Gebbia said.
“We don’t want to come in with any pre
conceived concept of what that is.”
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