Item C: City Council Priority Issue - Communities of Color Meeting Debrief

Home Browse Search

ATTACHMENT B COMMUNITIES OF COLOR AND CITY COUNCIL DIALOGUE ON RACE RELATIONSHIPS JULY 12, 2006 THEMES FROM TABLE NOTES Note: Some of the comments are verbatim and others are a summary of similar comments. Numbers in parenthesis indicate which table the comment came from. GATHERINGS/FORUMS Needs to be more than this one meeting (all tables) City facilitate (relationships) by providing venues to kids to not feel alone no matter their background; arrange people by interests, not by color, so people can see similarities rather than differences (1) Regularize these conversations. Hold them more than once a year. It should be a different group of people each time, and shouldn’t be just when something happens to warrant a meeting. We need to be proactive, not reactive. (2) Get discussion, education and sharing beyond regular players and broaden to the community (3) None of us knows enough about anybody to understand each other…If you know the person less likely to insult (3) Relationships need to be built. Communities need to become cohesive units – that takes time...Plenty of work on both sides. Communities need to take it as seriously as councilors. (4) Sensitivity training around diversity. That’s useful, but need to develop relationship between government and community. With people in community and people in government. (4) More white people should be in this room listening (5) Have all groups coming together not just group specific – not individual groups – need to create a forum, continuum of meetings, not only crisis driven (7) Clear defined goal or mission statement (many other tables) Topics: why people have stayed in the community – create opportunities for people new to the community to talk with long-term residents. (10) Invite “experts” in fields to participate in conversations and share experiences (10) Create other formats/opportunities for caucuses of people to talk together (10)