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2019-02-26 Minutes Page 1 Meeting Minutes New Hanover County/City of Wilmington Community Relations Advisory Committee NHC Library 101 Chestnut Street, New Hanover Room February 26, 2019 5:30 PM Committee Members Present: Evelyn Bryant, Chuck Davis, Jeff Hovis, Jen Johnson, Kathy King, Kristen McKeithan, Elise Rocks, Lori Wainright, Florence Warren, Owen Wexler, Dr. Anne York Absent: Melanie Frank Staff Present: Tufanna Bradley-Williams, NHC Liaison; Dahria Kianpour, NHC; Suzanne Rogers, City of Wilmington I.Call to Order Ms. Bryant called the meeting to order. Quorum established. Members and public introduced themselves. II. Approve Agenda MOTION: Elise Rocks MOVED, SECONDED by Florence Warren, to approve the agenda as presented. Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. III. Approve Minutes MOTION: Owen Wexler MOVED, SECONDED by Kathy King, to approve the minutes of January 15, 2019 and January 22, 2019. Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. IV. Public Comments: Introductions from Caroline Nunley, Open House Youth Shelter and Iris Baker, NHRMC. V.Review Training Information: Ms. Bradley-Williams reviewed the pronunciation of C-RAC. Ms. Bradley-Williams has begun meeting one on one with members and offered if any other member would like to meet. She explained that her role is to follow through to make sure progress is achieved within the committee. Some changes have already been initiated such as submitting a budget request for the committee, gathering guidance and direction. She has met with the County Commissioners to understand their vision and how they would like to be informed. Chair Bryant and Ms. Bradley-Williams will work to meet one on one with the Commissioners as needed and discussed possible quarterly meetings. They will work with the City to determine their preference of communication. Ms. Bradley-Williams also stated she is a trained facilitator. She received a resource list from Ms. Johnson and wants to share it as a working document. The Committee purpose will always be listed on the agenda and she is looking into printing it on a poster board. Sub-committee members and meetings have not finalized yet. These sub-committees are established from the by-laws. The following information are suggestions for each sub-committee. Page 2 Crisis Prevention/Preparedness: Work with the community to develop conflict mediation skills and create a plan to handle potential crisis. Prevention/Preparedness Mediation- how/who o Encourage institutions, agencies, organizations, corporations, and businesses to: o Complete implicit bias training Hire with diversity in mind Provide harassment training that includes their anti-harassment policy Committee be prepared for complaints o Create a plan Who, what, when, where, and how o A plan that can be adapted for different situations/complaints o Programming: Identify ways to promote intergroup communication and interaction Email Groupme (others) Google Drive Plan/attend targeted events Special months February: Black History o th ), International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination o May: Asian/Pacific Americans Heritage Month o June: LGBT Pride Month o th) o September: National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept.15-Oct.15) o October: National Disability Employment Awareness Month o rdth ), Human Rights Day (10) o Public Education: Work with the community to gather and disseminate information and educational resources Develop a sound communications strategy Visual/print: group photo, media/article, resource list, update brochure, create a complaint form, flyers (survey o results, etc) Email/verbal/phone: e-newsletter, meet and greets, short videos o Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In o Websites: add a page exclusively for CRAC, all visual communications on websites, e-newsletter, short videos, o links to social media Connections with specific organizations o There was a brief discussion regarding the role of the City. The City provided support for the first two years and in October 2018, the County assumed the support role. The City has committed about $8,000 for the survey project that was delayed by Hurricane Florence last year and will be implemented for August 2019. Half of the members of the Community Relations Advisory Committee are appointed by the City and half appointed by the County. There was a suggestion to provide similar reports to the City as reported to the County. A brief discussion was held regarding intergroup communication and the committee brochure. There are resources available that the members can use to implement in the sub-committees and build off of those ideas. The Committee reviewed the suggestions provided by Ms. Bradley-Thomas. Also discussed was the CERT program the County provides for emergency preparedness. Page 3 Sub-Committee Assignments: Evelyn-rotating th Programming March 12, 5:30pm Kristen McKeithan, Lori Wainright, Jeff Hovis thnd Public Education March 6 at 11am. Changed to meet on March 22 at 1pm. Florence Warren, Jen Johnson, Anne York Crisis Prevention Preparedness next meeting March 19 th, 4pm Elise Rocks, Chuck Davis, Melanie Frank, Kathy King, Owen Wexler Ms. Warren left at 6:35pm. VI. Announcements: February 27 th th March 9: Forward Justice event at MLK Community Center th March 10: Grace United Methodist Church-Hurricane recovery cleanup. Contact Kathy King for info. April 25 th: Stand Against Racism th May 7, 6pm: YWCA Women of Achievement. Ms. Rocks congratulated the finalists for the awards. stth May 31, 7pm: NAACP 100 Year Celebration at Wilmington Convention Center. Tickets are $75. Mr. Wexler announced that he would like to be considered to serve as the representative for the new permanent affordable housing committee that the City and County announced it might establish. Members discussed that there was not enough information available yet to recommend someone to be appointed. Ms. McKeithan also announced she would like to be considered for appointment to that committee. Ms. Bradley-Williams will gather more information for the CRAC members regarding this committee. VII. Adjourn: Meeting adjourned at 6:48pm.