A number of organizations and community groups are hosting a forum on race and equity issues across the city, with a particular focus on education and poverty. You are invited! The forum will be held at Hickman High School, in the gymnasium, Tuesday May 3, 5:30 to 7 pm. Hosts include Heart of Missouri United Way, the Columbia Public Schools, University of Missouri and the City of Columbia.
Interested in Development? Town Hall Tomorrow!
Yesterday the City sent out a press release announcing there would be a town hall meeting on “the development code update project” tomorrow, Saturday morning, April 30 from 8 am to noon, at City Hall, 701 East Broadway, Conference rooms 1A-C.
Topics will include:
- Proposed new parking requirements,
- Development, redevelopment and sufficiency of services and
- Form-based controls downtown.
The announced purpose for this event is to “assist interested persons with understanding the draft development code in preparation for the public hearing process which begins in May”. While we commend the City for hosting this event we would also like your thoughts on how the process for informing and inviting the public on these key issues might be improved.
We Are Family march focuses on inequality, black on black violence
Over the weekend, Glenn Cobbins Sr. and Judy Hubbard, the city of Columbia’s neighborhood outreach specialists organized a march that focused on black on black violence, and the social inequality that can cause it.
The march had speakers who shared their perspectives on Columbia’s struggles with inequality, and all of them encouraged the group to take action to make the city a better place.
You can read more about the event and the speakers in Sunday’s edition of the Columbia Daily Tribune, or online by clicking this link.
Do you have something to add? What questions do you have for the event’s organizers? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
Opportunities to connect with community this weekend
Looking to get involved with your community this weekend?
Cleanup Columbia
The 20th annual Cleanup Columbia volunteer event kicked off this week with more 1,300 volunteers representing 113 groups. But it’s not too late to step up and take part. Go to the Rock Quarry House at 2002 Grindstone Parkway from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday or 7:30 to 10 a.m. Saturday to take part.
Beyond the weekend
Numerous organizations around Columbia are always looking for volunteers to help out. Every week, the Columbia Daily Tribune publishes a list of volunteer opportunities to help citizens get involved. Check out the Get Involved listing from this week.
Opportunities For Building Bridges
Two local organizations are inviting your participation in events that are designed to bring members of the community together and help one another.
The Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture will host its Empty Bowls 2016 on Sunday April 10; this is a community meal in support of growing healthy food and hunger relief. You have two choices of meals, lunch form Noon to 2 pm or Dinner from 5 to 7 pm. Both will be served at Missouri United Methodist. Admission is free although donations are invited and encouraged!
More than 30 churches in Columbia will come together for a day of serving the community on April 23, from 8:30 am to 1:00 pm. You can sign up here. You can find Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages for this event by simply entering “For Columbia 2016” in your browser.
We invite you to share other opportunities to make Columbia a stronger, more supportive community on this blog!
More Divides
In addition to healing divisions reflecting age, class and race, participants in our February forum further identified a need to build bridges of communication and collaboration between City and County governments, City government and citizens, and citizens and City staff. The Battle students raised the question of how to strengthen connections between schools and community. Several people observed that without proactive dialogue between citizens, planners, and elected leaders, Columbia runs the risk of developing a geographic divide between North and South Columbia, like the geographic divides that exist in the St. Louis area. Holding regular community dialogues within school buildings could begin to address some of these issues.
Other communities, including Carbondale IL, have used sustained community dialogue to help solve difficult issues. Columbia headed in that direction with the Imagine Columbia’s Future visioning process, although that dialogue was not sustained following that process in the ways envisioned by the public. What could a “community commons” for dialogue look like in Columbia? What might we accomplish by working together?
Building Bridges – Healing Divides
Participants in our February 11 forum identified many ways in which Columbia is divided. These included divides between neighbors and neighborhoods that reflect differences in race, age, income, and political affiliation. These divides need more than a bridge to bring people together – underlying distrust, fear and anger need to be addressed as well.
An articulate and thoughtful group of students from Battle High School attended the forum. These students have been working hard at creating programs to help students work through the community divisions that are reflected within their school. We have invited them to tell us more on this blog, both through the comment section and in future posts.
There are other groups working in the community to build bridges or heal divides. These include Race Matters, Friends and Diversity Awareness Partnership. If you are involved in an effort to bring diverse groups together in dialogue let us know in the comment section below.
Dialogue Builds Bridges
“Groups of people getting together and talking is never a waste of time! That is the only way to build communities.”
“Need more open democratic system for discussion.”
“People can’t seem to disagree without it getting personal.”
These were all comments made by citizens who attended the recent Trib Talks forum “Are We An Us?”
It was an energizing exchange that resulted in much productive dialogue and several ideas for action. We will be posting more of the comments and ideas shared on the three themes – Building Bridges, Citizen-Centered Planning, and Addressing Inequities – over the next few weeks. In the meantime, view more pictures and resources in this summary from reporter Alicia Stice.
Keep the conversation going and join us!
“Loving All Our Neighbors”
Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation, Mid-Missouri Peaceworks and the Islamic Center of Central Missouri have announced they will be holding a community conversation on inclusion, titled “Loving All Our Neighbors”, on Tuesday Feb. 16 at Rock Bridge Christian Church, 301 W. Green Meadows Rd., Columbia. This free gathering will include an optional potluck dinner at 6 p.m. and a panel discussion and community conversation starting at 7 p.m.
Come and discuss a range of related topics –inclusion, the embrace of diversity, addressing racism, Islamophobia, and the plight of refugees and undocumented people.
The panel of speakers for this event includes:
- Rasha Abousalem, Director of Humanitarian Operations with Global First Responders, who led a mission last month to Calais, France camp where thousands of war refugees are temporarily living;
- Alejo Gonzalez, MU English/Psychology student who works with at-risk youth;
- Marquise Griffin, MU graduate student in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis program with an emphasis on Higher Education; and
- Faisan Syad, Executive Director of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) St. Louis.
Join Us Thursday Feb 11 at 7 pm
Join us tomorrow evening for the Trib Talks forum “Are We An Us?’ The world-cafe style forum will be held at the ARC, 1701W. Ash St., at 7 pm. We will dig deeper into themes that emerged during our last session and our on-line forums.
These were citizen centered planning, addressing inequities, and building bridges.
What is citizen-centered planning? One thing it involves is leadership that accurately informs citizens. During our last forum citizens expressed a desire for the Trib to make it easier for them to track coverage on complex issues, like the current transmission line controversy. The Trib has responded with a new archive on infrastructure issues. Come and share additional thoughts on how our planning for growth might be improved.
There are many groups in Columbia working to address needs for food and shelter. Affordable housing, and outreach through efforts like Project Homeless Connect have been in the news. Bring your ideas on what more might be done.
And over the last month uniting the diverse elements of our community has been a theme of many events – from the the city-sponsored diversity breakfast, to a unity concert, to a multicultural cooking class sponsored by the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture. Come and share your thoughts on how we might bridge our gaps.
Join us at the ARC and here on-line!
One Community One Columbia 