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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021_07_12 Racial Equity Taskforce Minutes Minutes of the Racial Equity Task Force of the Town of Mamaroneck Held July 12, 2021 at 7:30 pm, Town Center Conference Room C Present: Jeffery King (Town Council member, Chairman), Sabrina Fiddelman (Town Council member), Lynne Murphy-Rivera, Andrew Tannenbaum, Christina Battalia (Town Clerk), Shyam Pandya (IT Director) Also present: Drew Barkiewicz (Co-Founder, CulturePop) Chairman King opened the meeting. New Business Liaison to R.E.A.L.M. Mr. King updated the Task Force on the Town Board’s discussions with R.E.A.L.M. particularly regarding the work to find a location for the proposed monument to enslaved Africans in Larchmont and Mamaroneck. The Town Board will be meeting with representatives of R.E.A.L.M. on Wednesday on the grounds of the Town Center to scout a possible site. Mr. King also said he’d like to ask Mr. Zeballos to act as the liaison to R.E.A.L.M. Mr. Zeballos did indicate an interest at our last meeting. Renaming of the Racial Equity Task Force Mr. King had introduced this topic at our last meeting. We discussed some of the issues we’d like to address with a new name. Most importantly, we wish to convey that we are not a single issue body convened on an ad hoc basis. We discussed including the word Race/Racial in our name. We discussed the words equity, diversity and inclusion. We will continue to think about this and address it at our first fall meeting. Presentation-CulturePop Ms. Horsham-Bertels and Ms. Murphy-Rivera brought CulturePop to the attention of the Task Force as a potential tool to assist with DEI training for both the Town staff and the greater community. Drew Barkiewicz, the co-founder of CulturePop joined our meeting via Zoom. CulturePop is a digital online learning tool that focuses on culture and its development. It delivers learning at the “pace of life”, according to Mr. Barkiewicz; that is in 4-5 minute segments. All content is online and accessible via an app on a smart phone. It can be accessed on the user’s timetable and with complete anonymity. The focus of the content is diversity, equity and inclusion. The content is intended to provide continuous learning and engagement for the user. The app could be built out to include Town specific content or it can be used in its existing state. The themes and content are appropriate of an individual organization’s culture or a community’s. Specific content would have to be curated by a Town of Mamaroneck employee or committee member. The cost is $35 per user/per year for a non-profit of government entity. Mr. Barkiewicz made his presentation available at the following link. https://link.zixcentral.com/u/7aaff4a7/gqJ6Unnj6xGpy7nXhnsoMg?u=https%3A%2F%2Fculturepop.com %2Fnow He also provided the members of the RETF with the app, itself for us to use and explore. We agreed to discuss this further going forward. Report of Minutes Minutes of the meetings of April 19 and May 24 were approved. The next meeting of the Racial Equity Task Force is currently scheduled for Monday, September 27 at 7:30 pm. Meeting place is to be determined.