Brookhaven’s Social Justice, Equity and Race Commission will begin efforts in June to get the public more involved in developing its plan to improve equity, race relations and policing in Brookhaven.
The city established the commission in September of last year. The commission is meant to recommend improvements to the city’s vision and mission statement, city hiring and retention practices, procurement and contracting, and policing.
Recently, the commission has discussed how to begin engaging the rest of the community in the process. At its May 20 meeting, Lesley Grady of Chrysalis Lab – the organization management nonprofit that consults with the commission – said the engagement process is set to start in June.
“Nothing’s perfect, but we believe that if we do this right, blow it out in the summer … that in the fall, we’ll be able to pull these recommendations in – with the continued dialogue, with the data analysis – [and] be able to start developing the recommendations for presentation to the mayor and council,” she said.
The plan has five components, the first of which includes a partnership with the engagement platform Civic Dinners, a company founded in 2016. Through this platform, commissioners will be hosting “civic dinners,” which are self-facilitated events that are focused on discussing important issues.
Stephen Causby of Chrysalis Lab described the process for setting up a civic dinner. He said the company’s online platform is composed of predetermined questions that center around numerous topics, so the commissioners and residents would already have prompts ready to discuss. According to the Chrysalis Lab presentation, civic dinners are expected to take place from June to August.
The second stage of engagement will focus on community pop-ups. Interactive tables will be set up at community events, stores, and other public areas to engage the public on a broader level. Community pop-ups are expected to take place from June to August.
“We’ll be asking that commissioners sign up personally to spend a few hours at these pop-ups to share the word on what we’re doing and to engage communities on these issues,” Grady said.
The third stage will be commissioners giving presentations at local businesses and other organizations in the city. Grady said Chairman John Funny will send a letter to local institutions to see if they would be interested in having a presentation on social justice in the community. SJREC presentations are expected to take place in July and August.
The fourth stage will feature subcommittee focus groups and interviews. Grady said these will be meetings with the community that focus on the findings and data of each of the different subcommittees. These focus groups are expected to take place from July to September.
“These would be very focused, question and prompt-based discussions with participants, and it will be relative to the work of the subcommittee,” she said.
The final stage of engagement will be Brookhaven City Council district discussions. Grady said commissioners will be encouraged to host meetings in their own districts to speak on a broader level with members of the community. Council district discussions are expected to take place from July to September.