Together We Can Conversation Series: Building Belonging (Missoula)

Together We Can Conversation Series: Building Belonging
Missoula Public Library Cooper Room
Tuesday, May 20, 2025 | 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Community Meal and ASL Interpretation Provided

Join the Missoula CommUnity Network for the first installment of the Together We Can Conversation Series. This inaugural session, Building Belonging, will bring Missoula-area residents, organizations, and businesses together for a community meal, panel discussion, and dialogue. Building Belonging will focus on cultivating and enhancing opportunities for all in Missoula. Learn about current community efforts, hear from your neighbors, and share from your own experience. Let’s grow connections, collaborations, and relationships to help make Missoula a more welcoming place for everyone who calls this valley home!

Who is the Missoula CommUnity Network?

The Together We Can Conversation Series is hosted for the Missoula community by a collective of organizations that recognize how factors like housing, education, healthcare, infrastructure, and social connection shape our well-being. Join us as we begin the process to listen and act with residents to develop a CommUnity Action Plan that will align efforts, resources, and expertise to improve access, opportunity and livability for all Missoulians.

Participating Organizations
United Way of Missoula County
YWCA of Missoula
Empower Montana
Destination Missoula
University of Montana
Missoula Food Bank & Community Center
Missoula Public Health
Missoula Invest Health
The Converge Foundation
Missoula Aging Services
Common Good Missoula
Missoula Public Library
City of Missoula
Missoula County

What to expect:

• A free community meal catered by Zeera (Pakistani Food Truck)
• Real-world examples from speakers who build belonging in their everyday work
  • Dave Wall and Denise Juneau, CommUnity Action Plan Co-Chairs
  • SJ Howell (Catalyst MT and Legislator)
  • Michael Rohd (Co-Lab for Civic Imagination)
  • Chris Young-Greer (Missoula YWCA)
• Learn about your neighbors through an interactive group activity
• Participate in small-group conversations about what it means to live and thrive in Missoula, and how we can do better together
• Discover ways to get involved and options for next steps

All* are welcome and to help us plan accordingly, please RSVP HERE by May 2

* We are not able to provide childcare.

* If you are able, please bring non-perishable donations for Missoula Food Bank & Community Center!

Questions? Email Alex Lawson, Director of Organizational Culture, University of Montana, alexa.lawson@mso.umt.edu.