ROANOKE, Va. – Neighborhood leaders from across the state are in the Star City learning how to make their communities better places.
The 20th annual Virginia Statewide Neighborhood Conference is in full swing at the Hotel Roanoke. It's a place to collaborate and share ideas about what works best and where they can improve.
This year's event even featured a special part focused on young adults. Estelle H. McCadden, of Roanoke, started the conference in 2000 and never thought it would grow to be this large, traveling to different Virginia cities each year, but says it's a must because neighborhoods are the backbone of the state.
"I always tell Roanoke City Council, neighborhoods are the fabric of the city because it's made up of the citizens and the citizens are the ones that basically run the city to a certain extent because we give you the ideas and the issues that we need," McCadden said.
The conference wraps Saturday with an awards luncheon. Next year's conference is in Fredericksburg.