May 1, 2007

Dear presenters and participants at the National Inner City Conference April 19-21,

It is our pleasure to write this sincere and heart felt thank you to all who helped to make the Conference such a resounding success.

The Conference was the work of so many people who worked long and hard but it was you, the presenters and participants, who brought it to life. That is, the participants from across the country, the parents from inner city schools, the people from community agencies, as well as staff from the Ministry, school boards, inner city schools and universities.

Of course the inner city student performances and the student greeters and thankers from Pathways to Education added to our experience in meaningful and significant ways. The school and community visits gave us a real sense of what is going on in schools across the city.

Stephen Lewis and Pedro Noguera brought us the connections between the local and the global and both gave us great inspiration in our work.

Many people told us that what so wonderful for them was just being together with people involved in the same kind of work and with similar kinds of perspectives on the work. They had said that it had been a long, long time since they felt so inspired by others and connected to others in this inner city educational work. What a wonderful beginning!!

The Action Plan is one concrete outcome of the Conference and draft copies will be sent out shortly to all Conference participants for their feedback. We will also discuss the plans for making the Action Plan into a vehicle for advocacy and change around inner city issues.

We look forward to continuing this work with all of you and have plans for staying in touch and sharing ideas and successful strategies for moving things forward.

Again thank you all for your commitment to this important work for social justice in our schools and communities.

And please remember: