Area community leaders and neighborhood activists got an all-day primer Jan. 23 on how to help residents make the most of urban living.

"An urban region is only as strong as the individual community organizations," said panelist Karenthia Barber, president of Professional Development Associates and of the Ednor Gardens-Lakeside Civic Association.

Barber was one of five panelists at the Greater Homewood Community Corp.'s third annual Neighborhood Institute at The Barclay School in Charles Village.

The institute was part networking session and part how-to seminar to make community groups more effective.

It was also part pep talk for city living.

"Who loves city life?" Anna Custer, executive director of Live Baltimore, exhorted the audience. Live Baltimore promotes home-buying and renting in the city.

Joining Custer and Barber on the panel were Bill Henry, Baltimore City Council member who represents the York Road corridor; developer Donald Manekin, who with his son, Thibault, redeveloped the old U.S. Census building as afforable housing for public school teachers; and Michael Sarbanes, the Baltimore public school system's executive director of partnerships, communications and community development.

The panel moderator, attorney Dana Moore, is the interim chair of the Baltimore ethics board and past president of the Charles Village Civic Association.

The institute also featured workshops on topics including using technology to benefit neighborhoods, making communities more transit-friendly and conducive to walking and biking, working with volunteers, partnering with police, training block captains, advocating for public schools, and marketing neighborhoods.

The purpose of the institute wasn't only to celebrate urban living but "to make sure you connect with each other," said Karen Stokes, exectuive director of Greater Homewood, in her opening remarks.

Panelists had plenty of advice.

Custer urged neighborhood groups to create Facebook pages as a marketing tool, and to fill out the next 10-year U.S. Census data forms that will be mailed to all residents starting in March. She said every person counted in the Census means more federal dollars for the city.

Henry urged the institute audience to push for the change they want to see.

He reached back 2,000 years to paraphrase a quote from Plato's "Republic."

"People who think they are too smart to be governed end up being governed by people dumber than them," he said.

Manekin said it is important for developers to listen to the concerns communities have about projects.

Manekin said he and his son wanted to do the Miller's Court project "for the community," and early on attended meetings of the community associations in Charles Village and Remington to take the communities' pulse.

"It's all about listening," he said.

Sarbanes, who lost to Rawlings-Blake in the 2008 race for City Council president, urged communities to get involved in their local schools.

"If the school is not healthy, it's not good for the psyche of the community," Sarbanes said.

And Sarbanes said the community and parents should have a vision of what they want their schools to be.

"Imagining a great school is like imagining a great neighborhood," he said.

But Henry said, "Some neighborhoods have never accepted their schools."

Stokes, of Greater Homewood, said her organization is trying to counter a perception in some communities that their local schools are subpar. The choice of holding the institute at the Barclay School was symbolic, Stokes said, because the organization recently received a Goldsecker Foundation grant to help market Barclay and Margaret Brent Elementary, the two zoned public schools for Charles Village.

During a question-and-answer period, the panelists were asked what they see as the biggest threat to communities.

For Sarbanes it would be lack of imagination.

For Manekin it would be not acting or following through on initiatives.

"To aim and never pull the trigger is the worst thing you can do," Manekin said.

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