“This one just sort of feels different to me,” says Cindy Stratton of the Commission on Children and Families. Stratton, along with 17 other residents and City Councilor Holly Edwards, was appointed by City Council to the Dialogue on Race Steering Committee. Their charge is to join outside consultants to facilitate discussions about race relations in Charlottesville.
“There is more energy; there is more of a commitment on the part of the city administration to support it and move it forward and I think that it may have been lacking in previous efforts. So, that’s exciting for me,” says Stratton.
|
Assistant City Manager Maurice Jones was tasked with creating a series of discussions centered on race relations in the community. |
In the past, attempts to create a plan to address discrimination and racism in the city have failed. At the fall retreat last September, City Council identified priorities that needed to be discussed in 2009. Included was the plan to address race relations in the community and “promoting diversity within City government.”
On January 20, Assistant City Manager Maurice Jones, as tasked, presented Council with his proposal. Jones recommended the City initiate the community-wide effort with a series of “study circles,” groups of up to 15 residents from different backgrounds meet to discuss concrete ways to help their own community solve racial problems and, most importantly, create plans of action.
Since the steering committee was created at the beginning of May, its members and Jones have already established subcommittees for the project. “One of the subcommittee was tasked with reviewing the proposals that came in for our facilitation training, our RFP,” says Jones, which was sent out nationally. “We are looking for someone who knows a little about what we are attempting to do; … [someone who] has some experience working with an initiative like ours; someone who can come in and help us establish realistic goals and objectives for the initiative and someone who has experience dealing with the challenges that you face when you are addressing race issues in a community,” he says. A consulting firm will be selected in the next couple of weeks.
Those who will participate in the study circles will have to commit to a set number of meetings and “the first thing they would do is to get to know each other,” says Jones. “They would learn about each other’s experiences, their perceptions, their realities, the issues they experience on a daily basis and have experienced in the past.”
The second phase will focus on larger issues, “issues that have kept folks from coming together and having these types of discussions,” says Jones. The steering committee will help guide the action process and the final phase focuses on finding applicable solutions that will be presented to City Council.
But for Edwards, who came up with the idea for a dialogue, one important aspect of the process is openness and accessibility. “The challenge … is making sure that there was consistent involvement and engagement from the community,” she says. “Especially the aspects of the community that have historically felt they have been disenfranchised from the formal process.”
A Community Testimonial Meeting is scheduled for August 12 at 5:30pm in the Buford Middle School Media Center. The meeting is intended to give the steering committee an understanding of the history of race relations in Charlottesville. According to an e-mail Jones sent to the members, Eugene Williams, who was not satisfied with the city’s response to race problems, Paul Gaston, Paul Garrett, Alicia Lugo, Donald Martin, Teresa Price and Francis Fife will be invited to offer their experience in the involvement in the local civil rights movement.
Yet, this effort doesn’t come cheap. City Council set aside $10,000 in Fiscal Year 2009 and had agreed to allocate another $50,000 for Fiscal Year 2010. The cost will cover a marketing campaign, refreshments at meetings and a probable part-time position to help with administrative and logistic tasks.
According to Jones, the response from city residents has been “incredibly positive.” “I think that people understand that this is something that could be really important for our community, very constructive to the community, and could take us to new places, at least from a race relations standpoint,” he says.
Stratton agrees. Even those appointed are feeling the importance of their task. “People have definitely stepped up to the plate, there is no doubt about that,” she says.
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
