What do you do when the world comes to a screeching halt due to a pandemic and then their is the police killing of George Floyd? Along with everyone else, we pivoted and among other things we created a series of community conversations on Race and used our newsletter to further our learning on social justice.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
With Cov-Id it was still difficult to meet face-to-face, but we did start doing weekly Wednesday Park Chats outside at local parks once it was warm.
Before Cov-Id lockdown, we had 3 global palate dinners.
During the Summer we had one Sidewalk Talk event outside the Roseville Library.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
When our city was subjected to racial hate incidents after the killing of George Floyd, we reacted by holding a “Rally Against Racism” march through Roseville. Over 300 people attended.
To increase learning and understanding we created series of community conversations called “Talking About Race” based on the materials from the National Museum of African American History”.
- Historical Foundations of Race
- Bias
- Race and Racial Identity
- Whiteness
- Social Identities and Systems of Oppression
- Being Anti-Racist
- Handling Difficult Conversations
- Community Building
Since people were stuck at home, we reached them via a daily Facebook post and special weekly newsletters that provided a reading or video on social justice topics – one for every day of the month.
This program was about the impact of stereotypes.
This training provided a toolset on how to be more welcoming of anyone who is “Other” in our society.
VOLUNTEERING
We had one volunteer event before the pandemic hit.
- Fight for Air Climb
CIVICS
Part 3 of our series on Civic Literacy was on the Judicial System. It covered the basic structure of our judicial system, who plays each role in the system and the duties and responsibilities of each.
COLLECTIONS AND DONATIONS
We raised money to purchase diverse books to put in Little Libraries throughout the community.
These talented bakers made and sold a variety of baked goods to raise money to buy new winter wear for area school kids.
This winter we hosted 3 collections in a little Red Bin at the end of driveway. The numbers were astounding!
- Bras for women in shelters
- Socks for people experiencing homelessness
- Winter Wear for schools