The Stand Speaks to candidates Thomas Seals and Howie Hawkins running for the 4th District in Syracuse, which encompasses downtown, University Hill, the near East Side and the South Side. Residents can vote for either candidate and others on Tuesday, Nov. 3, during the general election.

In the back of a local youth center on the South Side of Syracuse, a 20-year-old woman is making a positive impact on the lives of girls hoping to entertain the crowd at their next public event. While talking with Sadiyqah Nixon, head coach of the step team dubbed “Mary Nelson’s Ladies” (M.N.L ), she gives details of her past, …

It’s any entrepreneur’s dream to take a business idea, passion or invention and turn it into something great. The Syracuse Community Test Kitchen (COMTEK) located within the South Side Innovation Center building (SSIC) at 2610 S. Salina St., helps food entrepreneurs all over Syracuse do exactly that by teaching the skills and values needed to turn a small business into …

Syracuse’s three mayoral candidates participated in a question and answer forum Thursday, Oct. 22, at the Most Holy Rosary Church on Bellevue Avenue. Otis Jennings, Stephanie Miner and Steve Kimatian, were all on hand to answer questions posed by the event’s organizers, Syracuse United Neighbors (SUN).

The 21st annual Peace Studies Conference, a project of the Central New York Peace Studies Consortium, will be held all day Saturday, Nov. 14, at Le Moyne College. The program theme is “Youth, Drugs, Violence, and Gangs: Global, National and Local Challenges.” The conference will provide a venue for discussion of youth and gang violence and will share peacemaking tools and …

This month’s Journalism Workshops on Producing a Personality Piece were taught by Gina Chen, a veteran newspaper journalist who is studying for a communications Ph.D at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Dozens of South Side residents attended the Common Council Candidate Forum at the Beauchamp Branch Library Tuesday, Oct. 13. The event, arranged by The Southside Coalition and Syracuse United Neighbors, gave community members a chance to hear the candidates answer questions related to the area.  It was also a chance for residents to speak up and have their voices heard. …

Today I received an e-mail from Mary Nelson, who is well-known in the community for her annual Youth Day Barbecue and Backpack Giveaway and most recently for her youth center. She is in search of funding to keep her programs going.

When Marcelle Haddix received the news of 20-month-year-old Imani Jennings’ death, she understood that a tragedy had befallen the community: a toddler was repeatedly abused and later beaten to death by her teenage mother’s 15-year-old-boyfriend. Yet, the one thing she couldn’t understand was why community members had failed to support Jennings or her mother long before the toddler’s death. Haddix, …