Braveboy Seeks To Bring Every Voice to the Table Through Listening Tour

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROB ROBERTS

On a sunny early September morning, County Executive Aisha Braveboy stepped into the bustling miXt Food Hall in Brentwood, greeted by a diverse group of state and county officials, business leaders, and community members. It was the second stop on her countywide Elevate Prince George’s Listening Tour—a journey designed to do something both simple and profound: listen.

The tour, subtitled “Raising Every Voice, Advancing Every Community,” is Braveboy’s signature initiative to ensure the concerns of residents across Prince George’s County are not only heard but integrated into a broader vision for inclusive growth and long-term progress.

Building on Early Success

The September 3 kickoff event, which drew praise from residents and local leaders alike, offered a glimpse of how the listening tour could become a transformative platform for civic engagement. Community members filled the room, many eager to share pressing concerns about infrastructure, housing, small business vitality, and public safety.

Several residents remarked that it was the first time they had seen such a wide array of stakeholders—from state senators to municipal leaders—gathered in one place, not to deliver speeches but to take notes, exchange ideas, and commit to action. For Braveboy, the day reinforced a central belief: progress must start with listening.

That first session produced tangible outcomes. Teams catalogued short-term action items, ranging from traffic calming measures to improved coordination on sanitation, while also mapping long-term strategies for housing development and health services. “We want to leave each tour stop with both immediate wins and the foundation for strategic projects,” Braveboy explained.

A Countywide Vision

The listening tour reflects Braveboy’s governing philosophy of elevating communities through participation. Rather than approaching policy as a top-down exercise, she seeks to involve residents, elected officials, and local entrepreneurs in shaping priorities.

“The issues we face—whether it’s infrastructure, affordable housing, or economic development—are interconnected,” she noted. “That means our solutions must be collaborative, too. These tours are about harnessing the wisdom of our residents and stakeholders to create a county that works for everyone.”

By embedding the voices of everyday Prince Georgians into decision-making, Braveboy hopes to build trust, foster accountability, and ensure that no neighborhood feels left behind in the county’s ongoing transformation.

Spotlight on Sept. 5: District 47

The September 5 tour, hosted in District 47 with State Senator Malcolm Augustine, showcased the approach in action. According to the media schedule released by Braveboy’s office, the day unfolded across a series of vibrant community venues:

10:45 AM – miXt Food Hall, Brentwood: Braveboy convened Team 47—including Senator Augustine and Delegates Diana Fennell, Julian Ivey, and Deni Taveras—alongside county leaders from public safety, transportation, and social services. The discussion set the tone, focusing on immediate quality-of-life concerns.
11:15 AM – Gateway Arts Center: An open-press stop in the heart of Brentwood’s arts community allowed Braveboy to spotlight the cultural sector’s role in local economic growth.
11:35 AM – ideaPlexMD: A ribbon-cutting ceremony held just days earlier made this new business hub a symbolic stop. Braveboy emphasized the importance of nurturing small business ecosystems and ensuring county support flows to entrepreneurs.
12:45 PM – El Carbonero Restaurant, Hyattsville: Over lunch, the conversation turned to immigrant entrepreneurship and how restaurants anchor both culture and commerce in Prince George’s.
1:00 PM – Manuel’s Beauty Salon: The tour concluded at a salon that had received a Purple Line Impact Grant. For Braveboy, the visit was an opportunity to demonstrate how infrastructure investments can ripple into neighborhood businesses, creating resilience and opportunity.

Each location carried symbolism: food halls representing diversity and innovation, arts centers as engines of identity, small businesses as community anchors, and infrastructure grants as catalysts for equity.

Goals Beyond the Tour

While the schedule may look like a string of handshakes and photo opportunities, the listening tour has a clear set of goals:

Identify short-term, actionable issues such as traffic flow, code enforcement, or park improvements.
Develop long-term strategic projects in housing, health, and transit.
Establish countywide priorities through dialogue, ensuring that growth in one district does not come at the expense of another.

Braveboy’s team is documenting each session, with plans to track outcomes and report back to residents. This follow-through is central to the tour’s credibility. As one participant put it after the Sept. 3 session, “It’s not just about being heard; it’s about knowing that what we said will lead to real action.”

Elevating Small Business and Culture

A notable through-line of the tour is the emphasis on small business vitality and cultural identity. From restaurants to arts hubs, Braveboy’s stops underscore her conviction that economic development is not merely about big projects but also about nurturing the everyday places where residents work, shop, and gather.

This approach dovetails with her broader economic vision: strengthening local entrepreneurship, investing in community-based infrastructure, and ensuring that arts and culture remain central to the county’s fabric.

How Residents Can Stay Involved

The September 5 tour is not the end but the beginning of an ongoing dialogue. Future tour dates will be announced by Braveboy’s office, and residents are encouraged to stay engaged in several ways:

County Website: Updates and schedules for upcoming listening tour stops will be posted at the Prince George’s County Executive’s official webpage.
Email List: Residents can sign up for updates and invitations by contacting the communications office at CEXComms@co.pg.md.us.
Social Media: Follow County Executive Braveboy’s official accounts for live updates, photos, and opportunities to share feedback.
Community Partners: Local elected officials, civic associations, and business organizations will also share tour information through their networks.

By keeping communication channels open, the administration hopes to transform one-time listening events into a sustained culture of engagement.

A Living Record of Progress

The Elevate Prince George’s Listening Tour is more than a series of stops—it is an attempt to write a living record of how government listens, adapts, and acts. By bringing stakeholders together in informal yet intentional settings, Braveboy is positioning her administration as one that measures success not only by policies passed but also by the trust earned along the way.

The first two stops—Sept. 3 and Sept. 5—offer a template for the months ahead: a focus on inclusion, accountability, and tangible outcomes. If the early momentum continues, Prince Georgians may look back on this fall not just as the launch of a tour, but as the moment when listening became a defining feature of county leadership.