Erie City Council makes a push to get more people involved in changes they want to see throughout the city.

A big part of their efforts to do so will be taking their council meetings to the road this summer calling it the City Council Neighborhoods Tour.

Council will function the same way it would as if it were in City Hall but they hope it will be a much less intimidating and a much more personal experience.

Erie City Council is hitting the road, city council will be having evening meetings elsewhere for three months.

The first will be at the Booker T. Washington Center on June 19, a second at the Martin Luther King Center on July 17 and a third will be at the JFK Center on August 21.

“We’ve got some fresh, new council members and some fresh new ideas being brought into it. This is something that we engaged at the end of my presidency last year, and now we have a chance to implement it. I think we’re really excited to engage with the community as a council,” said Chuck Nelson, Erie City Council member.

It’s a move council says will hopefully make them more accessible and approachable to the public and a representative from one of the locations council is headed to couldn’t agree more.

“I think it’s a fabulous idea it’s important that the city council members who are making decisions for our city and our neighborhoods come out to the community and meet people where they are,” said Shantel Hilliard, executive director, Booker T. Washington Center.

Hilliard added that engaging with the youth is going to be crucial as well at these meetings, city council even setting time aside to volunteer with various organizations teaching the youth about the importance of getting involved.

“We have a schedule of working with some youth that councilman troop is putting together at these various community centers, and we’re going to be doing some canvassing to make sure there’s good community engagement leading up to these events so everybody gets to be heard,” said Nelson.

Councilman Mel Witherspoon said people he’s spoken also believe it’s an initiative that is long overdue, but Hilliard is just glad it’s set in stone.

“We know it should’ve been done a little bit earlier, but we have people that are on council now that had the foresight to say, ‘hey we’re missing the boat,’” said Hilliard. “I think this is an important step of meeting people who have generally been kind of left out in some of those decisions that have been made throughout the city in dealing with the most people who are at risk so they can voice their concerns.”

Council said if this goes well, they’re hoping to do this every summer, and expand where they go.