Community summit unites Uniondale voices

The Greater Uniondale Area Action Coalition, or GUAAC, is a core advocacy group for the Uniondale community, and the organization’s recent annual summit allowed other local groups and residents to voice their concerns and share their progress. 

The community gathered in the Little Theatre at Uniondale High School on Sept. 21 to discuss issues in Uniondale and how to address them.

“What we’ve tried to do is annually have a meeting that kind of reaffirms that our priorities are what they are, and that the strategies that we’re using to approach each of the priorities is either working or a work in progress, and that we’ll continue with it,” Jeannine Maynard, GUAAC co-coordinator, said.

A key topic of this year’s summit was voting literacy and engagement. 

“We found one of the barriers to voting was that many people knew the candidates for one or another race, but didn’t know all of the candidates for all of the races,” Maynard said.

Laika Jerome, a Hofstra University Center for Civic Engagement Fellow, gave an extensive presentation on the upcoming elections for this year in connection with GUAAC’s campaign to “Get Out the Vote 2024.” The purpose was to educate attendees on the importance of voting and inform them of relevant information to make their voting decisions. 

The voter guide presentation explained the registration process for voting, a breakdown of the different positions, including Senator and Representative, and a summary of each of the candidates running in the November 2024 election and what they stand for. A PDF version of the information can be available upon request.

“This is a beginning introduction (with) sources that people can go and do a deeper dive if they want to,” Maynard said.

Another popular discussion was the parking of food trucks along Jerusalem Avenue, Uniondale Avenue, and other local streets.

“It’s disturbing to many of the residents and businesses, and so there was consensus that the community wants more code enforcement and wants to see what it can do to reduce that impact to the community,” Maynard said.

Monique Darrisaw-Akil, school district superintendent, presented an update on the progress of the 2024-2025 school year so far. Other groups were represented at the summit, including Uniondale Community Council, Nostrand Gardens Civic Association, Uniondale Community Land Trust, Uniondale Empowerment Resource Center, and more.

“Each organization can do their own thing and have their own priorities, but we like to make sure that everything that we are concerned about gets covered by somebody somewhere,” Maynard said. “This is our way of organizing, to make sure that the things that are most important to our neighborhood are covered.”

GUAAC was started over 15 years ago when members of the Uniondale community came together to address the problems around them, including the housing crisis, lack of available green space, and funding issues, according to the GUAAC website.

The organization has eight key principles that structure their advocacy work. These principles are:

•Strengthen communication and organizational infrastructure

•Have a greater voice in town and county government decision making

•Engage and empower youth

•Address housing issues

•Support locally-owned businesses that enhance quality of life

•Make the community safer

•Beautify Uniondale

•Protect school district quality, transparency, and oversight

To contact GUAAC for the vote guide or with any questions or concerns, visit GUAAC.org.