City of St. Helena issued the following announcement on Nov. 13.
At the October 22, 2020 City Council meeting, the City Council adopted Resolution 2020-105: Affirming that Discrimination and Systemic Racism Constitute A Public Health Crisis Causing Disparities in Mental Wellbeing, Language Access, Housing, Economic Development, Health, and Criminal Justice Experience, and Reaffirming Its Commitment to Advancing Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the City.
What Are the Next Steps?
A key component identified at this special meeting includes the need to listen to the community in order to develop an action plan for creating a more just community. The City has created two opportunities to do so and invites the public to participate.
November 18 and 19, 2020: Small Group Listening Sessions. At the October 22, 2020 Special Meeting, staff identified and heard feedback on creating different opportunities to speak, listen and learn. One of them involves small group sessions, held over the Zoom platform.
Who: Any community member who would like to speak about their experiences related to racial and social justice. These small group sessions will be hosted by the City, and staff will attend as well as community ambassadors who will play a role in these discussions. To kick off these sessions, staff will be asking some questions to encourage participants to share. Staff will be taking notes and anticipates sharing themes with City Council members. For these meetings, Council members will not be in attendance. During these sessions, the group will adhere to the Chatham House Rule, which states that individuals can speak freely without attribution to their ideas. In other words, anything shared will remain anonymous.
When: There will be three (3) sessions.
They are:
Wednesday 11/18/20 at 1:30 pm with community ambassador Norma Ferriz
Wednesday 11/18/20 at 6:00 pm with community ambassador Marisol Vargas
Thursday 11/19/20 at 9:00 am with community ambassador Oscar DeHaro Each session will last for approximately one (1) hour.
How to Join:
To obtain the Zoom link, please email Preya Nixon at pnixon@cityofsthelena.org. You can email Preya up to 30 minutes prior to the start of each meeting.
On December 3, 2020 6:00 p.m. the public is also invited to parpticipate in a Digital Community Roundtable: A Conversation About Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This roundtable will be facilitated by CircleUp Education, an organization that focuses on addressing diversity, equity and justice. Attendees will have the ability to listen to each other, share their experiences, and find shared experiences. While this meeting will be facilitated by the consultant, City Council members will also be in attendance to listen. This meeting will have live Spanish interpretation.
How to join: This meeting will be held on Zoom. The Zoom link will be posted on the agenda, which can be found at https://sthelena.civicweb.net/portal/
Standing up for change can be hard. Any type of change requires time and patience. Speaking up and having your voice heard can be difficult, especially when you may be one of the few people who look like you. These two listening sessions are part of an opportunity to explore effective ways to enable all of our community members to stand up for what they believe and advocate for lasting change. And to make this change last, we must make waves, not necessarily a tsunami. These sessions will help identify next action steps to sustain energy and focus on these issues going forward.
Original source can be found here.
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