City of Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines Civil & Human Rights, 21 Feb 2019

Previous Meeting

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From YouTube: Bridging the Gap: Shifting perspectives, changing behaviors

Description

Bridging the Gap is a project championed by Mayor Frank Cownie to have solutions-focused discussion with community members across Des Moines. This ongoing, community-centered dialogue and strategy series is designed to involve city and state government, business leaders, service providers, and at-large community members in the development of collaborative, step-by-step solutions to address issues that are essential to a thriving city.

Learn more: http://HumanRightsDSM.org

A

All of our solutions end up being community-based.. It's all of us working together, that'll make progress on all these different goals.

B

Well,, I'm here because of the nine concepts that individuals have come to through this process, and I'm here to put my vote in for my top three..

B

I wish I could vote for them all, but they only let us vote for our top three.

B

one is economic development,, so that was my number 1. you know,. We need jobs in this community!.

C

Spent more time here than I anticipated, because I had to keep going back over the options and evaluating.

C

honestly,, I felt like they were all really good.

C

And if we could include all of them or most of them,, I think they all could add. Strength.

D

Uhm,, it's tough. we've been here for about an hour debating, trying to figure out.

D

You know, there's positives and negatives, to each and how they're implemented then sustainability with all the programs then, which ones will maybe be better integrated, which ones are better for the community. So it's a really tough choice.

E

We really like our quality of life!. We like des moines. des moines is a friendly town, for us at least..

E

And des moines is a good place to work.

E

We like our jobs, and we like our church and we like the people, we've met., but we know that it's not always that way for other people, and we know that we want it to keep improving.

E

And I think if we don't have forward thinking that it goes the other direction.

F

It was very difficult, actually!, it was really, really difficult.

F

I looked at inclusivity, but but really, that theme of being inclusive.

F

Ran throughout all of these, but I guess the ones that really were kinda near and dear to my heart, again was community ambassadors program.

F

I was really, uhm impacted by the way that they talked wanting to recruit more youth to the program,, because I think that's really a crucial component. That's probably missing.

F

I know that there are a lot of groups in our community that are working with youth, and I think it's really important. We include the youth voice in more of what we do.

B

I think for the the council,, my message is: let's fund it., you know, funding is very important. Everyone talks about, "let's, not just talk about money".

B

Money helps bring these programs to fruition.

B

Money helps to be able to educate people.

B

To deal with the phobias and the "-isms" money helps when you talk about economic development.

B

So now we need to create that environment.

B

To where we're allowing individuals, the resources to be able to better themselves.

E

My message for council is it's great to have the conversation,, but we need to.

E

And it's good that the conversation is thorough and it's long, but I think by the end of the conversation you really gotta get active..

E

So I think it's going to be easy at the end of this to say, "well, we've got nine ideas: "narrow it down to three," "these three ideas, we're going to discuss'em a little more" and then it just kinda peters out., really make it as aggressive and as concrete as you can.

E

To get something done at the end.

D

And I think it's important as this moves on into action, to continue to have community voices.

D

There's some great leaders in the community that should be helping to make decisions on this., and I think it's really important to build them up as leaders or find new leaders that are working at these programs..

D

Listen to the people in the communities.

F

The power is with the people in the communities: listen to them., they know what the concerns are.

F

They know what the questions are. They're, not always looking for you to give the answers.

F

They know that they have the answers, so provide more platforms and be more welcoming.

F

Of them, when they show up in the spaces that you occupy.

C

Empowering and supporting and hearing the voices of the community is extremely important., and I would like to continue to attend more things such as this.