CommUNITY Alliance

STERLING HEIGHTS CommUNITY Alliance Minutes of Wednesday, October 19 , 2022 Meeting Location: City Hall Members Present: Stacy Bahri, Cindy Bjornson, Nakia Powell-Thomas, Rich Rubba Members Absent: Tim Doppel, Tatrika Graphenreed, Ricardo Harris Representing the City: Melanie Davis Meeting called to order at 6 :17 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES : Motion to approve the meeting minutes of the September 21, 2022 CommUNITY Alliance made by C. Bjornson; Seconded by R. Rubba and voted all in favor. AGENDA ITEMS: A. Group Bonding Exercise – N. Powell-Thomas conducted a bonding exercise called “The Big Three” which required the group to have a conversation about things in our life until we could find three things we ALL had in common. In the end, everyone in the room had a bachelor’s degree, all were highly organized and all were involved in community service in some way. B. Recent Council Presentation Update – C. Bjornson noted that the presentation to council on Oct. 17 went well. She and R. Harris covered strategic plan updates, talked about upcoming programs and put forth the initial concept for having a dedicated funding source for accessibility initiatives. C. Strategic Plan Updates a. R. Harris and C. Bjornson noted they and M. Davis recently met with Parks and Rec Director Kyle Langlois and Facilities Maintenance Director Jared Beaudoin to talk about our DEI checklist and barrier free gaps. They each agreed to provide a list of 10 things the Alliance could help them work on over the next 3-5 years to close any barrier-free gaps and make sure our events and amenities are accessible to all. C. Bjornson noted it would be nice to aggregate our existing resources (like the Library’s translation scanner and  ADA compliant ExpressVote machine) into an asset map and promote via the CommUNITY Alliance. We could attempt to create an asset map database that is searchable/categorized and publish on the website. b. S. Bahri noted the MISD/MCC youth diversity summit will be held in person this year on February 14. The group is interested in partnering with the City’s Youth Advisory Board to promote a workshop during this summit. M. Davis will reach out to the City’s YAB liaison for more information on partnering. c. Resolution and Social Media Calendars – T. Doppel has created the resolution calendar, and we have successfully passed 16 resolutions this year to date. T. Doppel has provided bullets for social media posts for same which have been promoted through city social media platforms. We recently also posted the Native American Heritage Month information on Facebook and Instagram. d. C. Bjornson noted that library representative recently attended training for the Human Library event. We are officially licensed to hold the event, and we will be recruiting for 6-9 human books. The event will be a three-hour even from 6-9 p.m. M. Davis mentioned it to the African American Coalition, and someone attending the meeting would like to apply as an adult living with ASD. We will also be presenting to the Ethnic Community Committee. We will be looking into security for the event as well so all participants are safe. e. N. Powell-Thomas noted that she is securing additional information about a Diversity 101 workshop recently held in West Bloomfield. She thinks we may want to hold something similar here in Sterling Heights as one of the Alliance’s unity workshops that is a networking type event. f. Disability Awareness Workshops - C. Bjornson reported that we have received confirmation for our rental of the disability modules. We will pick them up on Feb.17 between 9-11 a.m. from Rochester Schools and will have them for two weeks, returning them on March 3. We will feature a couple modules at the Feb. 24 Cultural Exchange, and we will hold a stand-alone event with all 10 modules on March 1. M. Davis will reserve a room at the Community Center for the March 1 event and determine if there is storage for the modules for two weeks. OLD BUSINESS: There was no old business at this time. NEW BUSINESS : S. Bahri mentioned that the Chaldean Community Foundation is hosting an upcoming art show from 5-10 p.m. on Oct. 28-30 and invited all members to attend. ADJOURNMENT : The meeting was adjourned at 7:44 p.m. on a motion from N. Powell-Thomas, seconded by R. Rubba and voted all in favor.