Charlottesville’s Dialogue on Race is prepping for its kick-off meeting on December 5 at Charlottesville High School. Assistant City Manager Maurice Jones told City Council on November 2 that the study circle model will begin in early January.
Last year, City Council highlighted seven priorities that needed to be tackled in 2009. One of those was improving race relations in Charlottesville. Jones was tasked with finding the right method for dealing with race issues. The study-circle model allows up to 12 city residents to meet six times for the duration of this city-wide initiative—for two hours per session—to “learn about each other,” said Jones, discuss about the existing tensions and find solutions.
Last Monday at the City Council meeting, Jones told Council that each group will document its findings and will recommend their proposed solutions to the Dialogue on Race Steering Committee by March. The committee, in turn, will report to Council in May. More than 100 people had signed up to be part of the dialogue.
To train and help facilitate the success of the initiative, the city contracted Gwendolyn Whiting. Whiting will train the facilitators for the study groups. “They don’t need to be experts on race,” she told C-VILLE last month. “They need to be experts on the process and guiding people through that process.”
Jones, who said that the process won’t be easy, told Council that residents have to participate to make a difference and those 12 hours spent in the study circles, could indeed be the starting point.
The steering committee just added one more member. At the meeting, Council selected Gloria Rockhold.
“I am excited to be in the conversation, because I always bring the Latino question to the table,” she told C-VILLE about her appointment. Rockhold, who works as a liaison between the Latino community and both city and county, believes the committee should be engaged and active, agrees that the study-circle model is the best choice.
“That’s a very powerful model in terms of getting everyone’s voices and everyone’s experiences,” she says. It’s just a question of getting it moving. That’s what I am hoping. I am hoping it’s not just a stagnant group.”
The kick-off even will be held at the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center at Charlottesville High School from 10am to noon.
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
