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2019-05-28 Minutes Page 1 Meeting Minutes New Hanover County/City of Wilmington Community Relations Advisory Committee NHC Library 101 Chestnut Street, New Hanover Room May 28, 2019 5:30 PM Committee Members Present: Chair Evelyn Bryant, Vice-Chair Owen Wexler, Rev. Charles Davis, Jen Johnson, Kathy King, Dr. Kent Locklear, Lori Wainright, Elise Rocks, Florence Warren, Dr. Anne York Absent: Jeff Hovis, Kristen McKeithan StaffPresent: Tufanna Bradley-Thomas, NHC; Dahria Kianpour, NHC; Suzanne Rogers, City of Wilmington; Chief Deputy Ken Sarvis, NHC; Deputy Chief Donny Williams, City of Wilmington I.Call to Order Chair Bryant called the meeting to order. Quorum established. Members introduced themselves. II. Approve Agenda Ms. Warren made a motion to add to the agenda the election of a secretary. MOTION: Florence Warren MOVED, SECONDED by Owen Wexler, to approve the agenda with the amendment to add the election of a secretary. Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. III. Approve Minutes Ms. Rocks made a motion to strike the last sentence on page one. MOTION: Elise Rocks MOVED, SECONDED by Owen Wexler, to approve the minutes of April 23, 2019 with the amendment to strike the last sentence on page one. Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. IV. Public Comments: 5 min each Craig Bullock, Tru Colors employee, announced that June is gun awareness month. He will send details to Chair Bryant to share with C-RAC members if they would like to be involved. Mr. Bullock presented background information about Tru Colors. The company provides resources to communities with the goal to help decrease gun violence. Currently, there are 18 employees and it continues to grow. A youth summer program with has been started with 20 teens. There are several gun awareness events ththstth occurring in June from 3pm-5pm: June 7 at Creekwood; June 14 at Hill Crest; June 21 at Houston Moore; June 28 at Rank and Terrace. There will be raffles for t-shirts and donations will be accepted. The target age group range for the events is 16-21 years old. Chaz Springer, Tru Colors Marketing Manager, explained one of the missions of Tru Colors is to help the youth in the community and invited C-RAC members to be involved. The company began two years ago with the hiring of active and inactive gang members with a goal to decrease violence. The company employs people up to age 25. Various business and entrepreneurship skills are taught and the company occasionally collaborate with Untappd. The company website is www.trucolors.co. Reverend Davis stated he met with Mr. Bullock recently and suggested that Tru Colors work with law enforcement for assistance at the events. He would also like to meet regarding future events. Page 2 Glendora Mullins, Vice-President of Creekside Community, invited C-RAC members to the Creekside resident meeting on June th 12. Mr. Bullock and Mr. Springer have been working with her and have been supporting the community events for the youth. Brief discussion was held regarding the active and inactive members working at Tru Colors and how to change the narrative since the shooting occurred in Creekwood Community. Discussion was also held regarding the hiring process and training. Mr. Springer stated he recently attended the Wilmington Housing Authority meeting in order to build relationships with other local organizations. Employees want to help build communication with the community. Tru Colors provides an opportunity to education, and provide an income. Employees are able to leave at any time. Quanesha Mullins, resident of Wilmington, stated she has worked with Mr. Bullock. Her son is hopefully going to attend the upcoming gun violence awareness event. Tru Colors is doing a lot in the community, but is getting pushback due to some of the employees being active gang members. Ms. Mullins is working with Tru Colors to plan a teen summit for youth and adults at the end of June to discuss various issues and would like to involve other organizations in the community. Ms. Mullins requested recommendations for organizations to contact for planning support. She shared her email address for members to contact her: Quaneshamullins26@yahoo.com. Regarding active gang members working at Tru Colors, the perception in the community is that the employees are being used. Mr. Springer stated actions to be there for the kids and change perceptions. However, the stigma makes it difficult to plan events. Tru Colors wants to stop youth violence in the city, but many people are unaware of this goal. Regarding questions as to why some employees are still active gang members, Mr. Bullock and Mr. Springer said they want to change the gang members and believe that being active has a big effect on youth. ndst Deputy Chief Williams announced the 2 Peace Jam event in partnership with Moms in Mourning will be held on June 1 at the MLK Center. It is a free event and many kids attended the last Peace Jam. Many officers that the kids are familiar with will be present. He stated he would miss the next C-RAC meeting next month due to training, but will send a representative to attend in his stead. Deputy Chief Williams left the meeting at 6:15pm. Chief Deputy Sarvis stated he personally thinks George Taylor seems to be trying to help the community. His perspective is that no one else has tried this and if this can help change lives, he is for it. The end result of this is not known, but he is interested in the possible positive influence. Chief Sarvis stated that he did not know some of the employees are current gang members and that is a concern. V. Sub-Committee Reports: Vice-Chair Wexler reported for the Crisis Prevention/Preparedness Sub-Committee as follows: The sub-committee established the sub-committee goals and clarified tasks. A Crisis Plan document was emailed to the sub- committee to review and edit, which is intended to be approved after changes are made. When the sub-committee approves the plan, it will be sent to the entire C-RAC members to possibly be considered during the June meeting. Ms. Wainright reported for the Programming Sub-Committee as follows: Members are working on updating the resource contact list. This list could be merged with the current list on Google Drive, which is accessible to C-RAC members. Ms. Bradley-Thomas was tasked with researching when the next Implicit Bias training is available for members to attend and will also acquire current data on the number of County staff that have completed the Implicit Bias training to possibly include in the C-RAC presentation to the City. Members continue to work on researching events for specific groups and organizations to include on the Group Information Form. This can be a resource that members can use for awareness of events to attend. Page 3 Dr. York reported for the Public Education Sub-Committee as follows: The Community Resource Outreach Site has been confirmed at the Downtown Library in the Wilmington room from 9am to 10am th every Monday beginning on June 10. This is an opportunity for members to provide resources and bring awareness of C-RAC to the community. A laptop, printer, and brochures will be available at the site. Dr. York stated she needs a member to fill in for her on June 17 th. She suggested that a resource list she has been working on be combined the other list into one document. Ms. Wainright stated list to the current resource contact list. A request was made to review the Google Drive access at the next C-RAC meeting. On June 12 th at 5pm, the first Meet and Greet will be held at Creekwood Community. The topic is WAVE Transportation access specifically for Creekwood residents and all C-RAC members are invited to attend. They are working to invite at least two members from WAVE. Ms. Bradley-Thomas presented the new C-RAC website, which will go live this week and noted that the County have reviewed the documents and website. Ms. Johnson would like to include information regarding disability/public access discrimination. A brief discussion was held regarding federal law for people who experience disability/public access issues and that this should be a separate category with its own information. When C-RAC was established, this category was not specifically added. Ms. Bradley-Thomas will research if there is any information with the County regarding disability/public access and Ms. Rogers will research if the City has information. A separate tab will be created on the website for disability/public access issues and a link will be included for how to file an ADA form to the U.S. Department of Justice. A suggestion was made to add a dash in the abbreviation of the committee to assist with pronunciation. This will be updated on the website. Ms. Wainright left at 7:02 pm. VI. Discussion/Planning of Presentation to New Hanover County and City of Wilmington Chair Bryant is preparing information to include for the presentations to the County and City. A brief discussion was held regarding the January training with Mr. Dean. A suggestion was made to continue to reassess every six months to one year regarding the status of C-RAC. It was also suggested for each sub-committee to send a brief list of their tasks to Chair Bryant to include in the presentation. Chair Bryant plans to include the goals that were created in January and anything accomplished to present. She is th scheduled to present at the City Council meeting on June 18. Dr. York left at 7:17 pm. VII.New Business: Election of Secretary Ms. Warren MOVED, SECONDED by Chair Bryant, to elect Dr. York as the C-RAC secretary. By general consensus, the majority of the committee members agreed to appoint Dr. York as C-RAC Secretary. Ms. Johnson left at 7:18 pm. Ms. Warren left at 7:23 pm. VIII: Announcements: Chair Bryant stated Katrina Redmond from the Wilmington Housing Authority is tentatively scheduled to attend the June C- RAC meeting in order to address housing in the community. Ms. Rocks would like to discuss the public comment protocol at the next meeting. IX. Adjourn: Meeting adjourned at 7:27 pm.