Fairmont Human Rights Commission

(Submitted to the Executive Committee of Shalom and to Valerie Means, City Manager November, 2020 and updated on May 24, 2021 for the City Council Mtg) Marion County’s Prevention Coalition, (your active ASSET-BASED-COMMUNITY-DEVELOPMENT non- profit for over 20 years) the Communities of Shalom, (specifically the MultiCultural Committee and the Health & Wellness Committee) in collaboration with the Human Rights Commission has completed the original pilot group book study "How to be an Anti-Racist" by Ibram Kendi. One of our ON-GOING commitments is to offer NUMEROUS and VARIED educational sessions to the community at large, targeting the City and County Leadership then inviting the broader community audience. We wanted you to be aware of the time-line that we (the committee and coalition members) tentatively sketched out…because you are an integral part of it… Phase 1: We began the PILOT book study on Kendi's "How to be an Anti-Racist" in October, 2020.We invited our Shalom Coalition members, and a few guests, and met 6 times, once a week, via ZOOM covering 3 chapters each time. We had 6 facilitators who volunteered their time. This is complete. Phase 2: The 6 Shalom facilitators have already met numerous times to review the evaluations, brainstorm facilitative strategies and begin to scope out how best to offer the next step. It's likely that we'll have at least 2 more meetings to plan. Our plan is to facilitate another book study for our city/county leadership. Books will be delivered to those new members. We are also exploring Kendi's books on tape and the adolescent version Kendi has written for youth. We will work with Valerie Means, city manager, to coordinate best times and carve out a schedule for the 2021 book study. We are also exploring Emmanuel Acho’s Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man for additional food for thought. Both books will be provided to participants free of charge (prevention funding from WV Prevention Solutions has made this possible) This is partially- complete. Phase 3: We are already providing ZOOM mini-sessions called ’65 Minutes of Support, Sensibility and Skills’ on a variety of timely topics. These sessions should be viewed as a continuation of our BUILDING BRIDGES OF RESPECT effort, which has been a respected and valued conference event for 20 years in Marion County. They are a series but independent of each other. These began pre-holiday, December, 2020 and will continue throughout 2021. The Health & Wellness Shalom committee will help in setting direction on which topics to offer and in what order. Renée will act as coordinator and facilitator of these ZOOM workshops, w’ collaboration from West Virginia Prevention Solutions. Guest speakers would be invited, depending on the topic. City Council and city leadership have been invited to each one of these via EVENTBRITE. The completed topics offered so far have been: December = Stress Management During a Pandemic Holiday January = Pandemic Habits, Make ‘Em? Keep ‘Em? Break ‘Em? February = Empathy Means Connection March = Navigating Difficult Conversations April = Label Jars, Not People: Words Matter May = Addressing Stigma continued June is slated to cover more on STIGMA associated with mental illness and addiction Phase 4: The following effort has been on the back burner as we were waiting on viable vaccinations to prove their sustainability, and when we’ve determined it's safer to be in person. Again, it’s an effort collaboratively between the Human Rights Commission and the Communities of Shalom to Build Bridges of Respect. We have been planning on partnering with WVU Extension to provide "Inclusivity = Marion County Strong!” workshops for community leaders (20-25 at a time). These will be LIVE 3 hours long each session, held up at the High Technology Foundation on the NASA campus. This effort is tentatively scheduled for July 22nd and 23rd, a Thursday, Friday. There will be at least 4 three hour sessions made available to choose. But our PRIMARY GOAL is to include and prioritize participation from our MARION COUNTY LEADERSHIP. WVU Ext facilitators will work around your schedules, offering the 3 hour session either in the morning, afternoon or evening for 3 hours. WVU Ext is making these trainings available to other cities around West Virginia, always emphasizing city leadership. Their fee is approx $3000 and our plan is to request funding assistance from WV Prevention Solutions. HOWEVER, we want to be sure to get buy-in from you all this evening BEFORE we proceed on plans and incur this cost. We cannot emphasis enough how much of a priority DIVERSITY, INCLUSIVITY and REPRESENTATION is for our town and our communities. And, while we can offer this to the general public and guarantee to pack the seats with participation, we are SPECIFICALLY targeting our county leadership. (city council, commissioners, law enforcement, business leaders, etc) . And we will not hold these sessions until you indicate to us that you are interested as a Council to participate. Phase 5: And lastly, we cordially invite you to our continued BUILDING BRIDGES OF RESPECT event on July 24th at WaveTek Pavilions from 10 – 4PM where we will be celebrating DIVERSITY, REPRESENTATION and INCLUSIVITY with crafters, family engagement activities and resource tables and July 25th at LIFE UMC with musicians, yoga and zumba for adults and kids, and labyrinth walking from 2 – 6 PM. Watch for those invitations! Thank you for your kind consideration, Respectfully submitted, Renee Verbanic, Consultant Communities of Shalom Prevention Coalition