Notes from 8/3/15 Community Action Team Meeting

The Community Action Team of the Dialogue to Action Project met on Monday August 3 at the Wellstone Center, El Rio Vista Rec Center on the West Side.

There was an initial welcome and personal updates from individuals attending. It was a small group this month. In attendance were Chia and Betsy (District 1); Clara, John S and Steve (D4); John L, John B and Kurt (Police Dept.), and Diane (City and D16)

We had a recap of ground rules and added a rule to stay on task, noting that we have had a lot of side conversations in previous meetings that have taken us a bit off track at times. In light of this we reviewed the purpose of this group in the Dialogue to Action project – trying to clear up misunderstandings about what this group is. This group is not focused on having the actual but is intended to do the planning needed to have the dialogues be successful in the fall. The 4 task forces set up at the July meeting with membership from this planning group are going to do work on Police guide, the Parks guide, on recruiting for the dialogues, and on finding the background data that is necessary for each dialogue.

Diane reviewed the data used in the original cross cultural dialogue. These included data from MN Compass showing disparities in median income, home ownership, poverty level, non-insured status, and education level among different racial and ethnic groups. There were also data at the state level on the prison population by ethnicity. We discussed what of these data we wanted to include and what additional data we would like to have. The main focus was on looking at the local level as much as possible. There was a suggestion that we look at ASANDC survey of Frogtown residents about  their use of Parks for the Parks guide. The CAT asks the data task force to get together and then look at the options and figure out what needs to be background information for the fall dialogues. Diane will send out a meeting wizard to set up a meeting of this group.

The next topic was Strategic Planning for the dialogues. The steering committee proposed dates and locations for each set of dialogues. They proposed that the Police and youth dialogues take place at the Wellstone Center from September 14 – October 12, with a goal of 50 participants. These will be divided into 2-3 groups each with 2 facilitators – the number is dependent on the total number of facilitators. We discussed the breakdown of composition of these groups in terms of the proportion of youth, to community members to police. The suggestion was that there be no more than 1/3 of the total be police officers and 2/3 be youth and community members. Then the question was how do we recruit police officers? It was determined that 5 officers per district (E, W, C) is the goal. There was a lengthy discussion on how to keep youth and their guardians engaged throughout the process.  Police have tried several approaches and are concerned about long term commitment through the entire dialogue process. They have found that focusing on the very, very local means that there actually weren’t incidents that people had experienced that they could talk about. There was some discussion about whether a 5 session model would really work and some discussion of different models of how to do this. In the end, we will stick with the dialogue model and its curriculum.

We decided that by recruiting from churches throughout the city we could enlist the pastors to help identify families that would be interested and have the commitment to stick with the process. A list of faith organizations was developed and a plan for contacting them and recruiting. We discussed that the final location needs to have breakout rooms, need to be accessible for a variety of transportation options and that we will need to identify transportation needs of potential participants. We will limit the space for other community members (not youth and their families).

The critieria for participation are that folks be residents of Saint Paul, committed to the effort, that the youth be mature enough to participate, that all parts of Saint Paul are represented, that the family be willing to attend, and that we are made aware of any transportation needs.

The facilitator training is proposed for August 29, noon to 4, Saturday – MayChy and Thaoke will be providing the training at the District 1 offices.

There will be a run-through for Police Guide – August 17 location TBD 5:30-7:30

There will be a run-through for Parks – September 15 location TBD 5:30-7:30

Additional materials to be included in Police guide should be a list of law enforcement agencies operating in Saint Paul, flyer of how police prioritize calls, etc.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:20p. Next meeting is the run-through for Police Guide.