It’s past 8 p.m. on a Friday night. But Samelys Lopez, chair of Community Board 7’s Long Term Planning and Community Relations Committee and second vice-chair of the executive board, hits the 198th Street business corridor near the Grand Concourse hoping to entice neighbors to attend an upcoming event.

And it’s not the regulars she’s after, but residents who barely make it to community meetings or are simply disengaged. As far as Lopez is concerned, the marginally involved are the ones she seeks the most for a workshop event set for March 26.

“It’d be great to get some residents to come out to feel like they’re plugged in to the larger community, and if they have issues, they’ll know where to turn. This portion of the community has a lot of needs, and it’s part of the education of the long term planning committee to learn what the issues are,” Lopez said.

Lopez said that Bedford Park’s Livable Neighborhoods Program workshop is an effort to demystify the language and process of urban planning, and enlighten residents about the resources available to them that could help turn their neighborhood preservation ideas into a reality. The workshop will also teach residents, businesses and others about economic development strategies and participatory budgeting–the process by which community members vote on how some capital funds are spent on local projects.

“It’s about being able to understand the conversation,” Lopez said. “Imagine someone who doesn’t speak the language, someone who is not civically engaged. Urban planning is a tool that can enact some real change.”

The workshop is being planned by the committee, the Municipal Arts Society and the New York City Department of Small Business Services.

Lopez is heavily promoting the session along the 198th Street neighborhood in particular because of the lack of a merchants association, and what she says is an uptick in violence in the area. Lopez said many attendees at community boards and other neighborhood meetings are regulars who have been involved for many years, and she’d like to see new faces.

Ammr Abisse, who owns Top Unique Fashion, a clothing store on East 198th Street since 2001, said he’s noticed the presence of drugs to be a major problem in the neighborhood.“The more that drugs are going on, the more the quality of the people is going down. A lot of people have moved,” said Abisse.

Abisse told Lopez he’d invite one of his civic-minded employees to attend. Before going home, Lopez hangs bilingual fliers at several local businesses, and hands them to other neighbors she meets.

“It’s about establishing trust and a relationship,” Lopez says on the canvassing.

Editor’s Note: The published version of the article had misstated that the event will take place March 26, not March 24. Bedford Park Livable Neighborhoods Training will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 26 at Public School 54. A light breakfast will be served. The event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required by emailing ltpcrevents@gmail.com or ordering a ticket at http://bit.ly/1RheUzn.