During the pandemic, while filming the documentary
NEWPORT: In This Together,
I discovered that the majority of Newporters managed to pull together, rather than apart, when faced with the challenges of COVID-19. As I conducted over 200 video interviews for the film, I realized that there are many people working in nonprofits, businesses, and government doing great things for Newport, but they often don’t know each other. From this experience a new idea was born – RENEWport.
I started some informal meetings with nonprofits and other organizations to understand the work that is being done in the community, to figure out where gaps exist, and to find opportunities for connection and collaboration. I am excited that RENEWport officially became its own non-profit in 2024; Ellen Pinnock and I are its co-presidents.
RENEWport is still a new organization and people have been asking me: What is RENEWport? What do you do? Our mission is to activate the community to make Newport a city for all to thrive. We have been very active over the last couple years, and I want to share what we have been up to!
Some of our accomplishments to date: In the fall of 2023, we planted 38,000 daffodils in Miantonomi Park, the first field of daffodils in the North End. During the 2024/25 school year, we hosted two community dinners at Pell School, partnering with many community organizations to offer kid-friendly activities for the children and families to enjoy. We brought celebrated political scientist Robert Putnam to Newport in April – he met with high school and college students and gave a talk to a full-house crowd of 350+ at Salve. We created a searchable database of free and ongoing resources for Newport residents on our website. We hosted two World Café community conversations, and a wide range of elected officials have spoken at RENEWport meetings.
Looking forward, we will keep up the pace. We are excited to invite you to our third World Café at Emmanuel Church on Tuesday, Aug. 19 from 6:00 to 8:30 pm. All are welcome and your voice will make the conversation richer. In the upcoming school year, we will host two Pell community dinners, and will launch a volunteer greeter program at Pell – please let us know if you are interested in participating!
We hope you will join us at a RENEWport meeting next fall (we don’t meet over the summer). The meetings are held at Emmanuel Church from 10am-12pm. All are welcome.
I would love to talk with anyone in the community about the work we are doing! I can be reached at [email protected].
Susan Sipprelle
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