Greetings!
The second meeting of Santa Rosa Together was successfully held on February 1st, 10am to 12:30pm, at Lawrence Cook Middle School, 2480 Sebastopol Road, in Santa Rosa. Eighty-five residents participated in the meeting, and notes from it are included below.
A third meeting will be held on April 12th, 2014 at the same time and place. We can be reached by commenting on this post, and leaving your contact information.
The following ws distributed at the meeting:
Following the meeting, th Steering Committee assembled th following document from materials developed at the meeting:
The second meeting of Santa Rosa Together was successfully held on February 1st, 10am to 12:30pm, at Lawrence Cook Middle School, 2480 Sebastopol Road, in Santa Rosa. Eighty-five residents participated in the meeting, and notes from it are included below.
A third meeting will be held on April 12th, 2014 at the same time and place. We can be reached by commenting on this post, and leaving your contact information.
The following ws distributed at the meeting:
AGENDA
Increasing Resident
Engagement and Improving the Way We Work Together
Saturday, February
1, 2014
10:00am- 12:30pm
Registration, coffee and snacks begin at
9:30
Lawrence Cook
Middle School
2480 Sebastopol
Road
Second meeting agenda: From Vision to
Action
1. Welcome,
introductions, review of progress to date, and expectations for today --Arnie
Barragan (10 minutes)
2. Explanation
of the process used to develop the drafts for our vision and for this year’s
objectives --Hank Topper (10
minutes)
3. Discussion/Adoption
of Vision and Objectives (30 minutes)
a. Table
discussions (10 min)
b. Large
group feedback (15 min)
c. Thumbs
up/down vote (5 min)
4. Identification
of Possible Action Activities to reach our Objectives (80 minutes)
a. Table
discussion: Facilitators assist participants to identify action activities
which would help us pursue this year’s objectives, defining barriers, resources,
and additional participants.
Tables select top 5 ideas and summarize in LARGE writing on ½ sheets of
paper. (25 minutes)
b. Table
Report outs: Using a blue sticky wall, each table reports out to the whole
group on their ideas. Ideas will
be clustered by report-out person and facilitator. (40 minutes)
c. Priority
Setting and Commitments: Each meeting participant will use 3 sticky dots to vote
on priorities for action and commitment dots (as many as they want) to put
their names on the actions that they will work on. (15 minutes)
5. Summary,
discussion, and action items for next steps (20 minutes)
a. Overview
of what we’ve accomplished
b. Next
Meeting and Next Steps
c. Final
thoughts, takeaways, suggestions
If you are
interested in being part of the Santa Rosa Together Planning Team, please
contact Hank Topper at hanktopper@gmail.com
Draft Vision
·
Santa Rosa has a strong democratic culture of
mutual respect, dialogue, and inclusion that has improved our city’s ability to
work together and address concerns.
Everyone’s voice and contribution are valued and encouraged and our
mutual respect for each other supports our efforts to find common ground. All segments of our community are equally
valued, fully engaged, and playing leading roles in the development of a strong
and healthy city. Santa Rosa is
known across the world for it democratic institutions and culture.
·
A large number of city residents are organized
and actively engaged in setting the direction and doing the work to create a
great city. We are a city with a
strong foundation of organized neighborhoods and communities where we get to
know each other, take responsibility, and learn how to work together and take
action to build strong communities and a strong city
·
Governments and elected officials understand the
importance of broad community engagement, support the organization of residents,
and partner with residents and their organizations to make important decisions
and to accomplish shared goals.
·
Our city’s business, religious, and social
organizations contribute resources and services to support resident engagement
and partner with residents and their organization to accomplish shared goals.
·
Santa Rosa has developed and institutionalized
creative new ways to make it easier for citizens to become informed, learn from
each other, and participate meaningfully in the decisions and work that will
shape our city. Our new ways of
engaging people give them real power and responsibility and bring the decision
process and work to our neighborhoods, schools, and churches to make it
possible for everyone to participate meaningfully.
Draft Objectives
Objective 1: We will take steps to improve the
democratic culture of mutual respect, dialogue and inclusion in our city.
Objective 2: We will take steps to
increase the number of engaged residents and organized neighborhoods and
communities in our city.
Objective 3: We will take
steps to increase the capability of Governmental institutions and their
respective policy/decision makers to support and partner with residents and
their organizations.
Objective 4: We will take steps to increase the capability
of our city’s business, religious and social organizations to support and
partner with residents and their organizations
Objective 5: We will develop
a new process that increases the number of residents and their organizations
participating in the decisions and the work to address a key community issue
ACTION
PROPOSALS, VOTES, AND VOLUNTEERS
Cross sector trust building (11/3)
Convene a
“mixer” with multiple groups i.e. SR Chamber, Hispanic Chamber and Black
Chamber, social justice and local residents to interact to build trust to work
together.
Votes: 11
Volunteers: Eduardo Vasquex, Gail Thomas, Veronica Jacobi
Youth (13/9)
Have a youth
council with a rep from each school who talks with students, then goes to city
to voice the youth opinion
Votes:
5
Volunteers:
2 Anna Ucik, Hank Topper
Plan a youth
summit for all youth groups to build awareness of how youth can participate in
key community issues
Votes: 6
Volunteers: 7 Yuni Mendoza, Itzel Martinez, Donna Born, Vince Harper, Gregory Fearon, Roni Jacobi, Kay Ward
“Like” DIG and YEC on Facebook (youth
organizations) as well as other groupd participating in SRT
Votes:
2
Volunteers:
0
Citizen Engagement and capacity (42/18)
SRT
will develop a committee to organize neighborhood block potlucks to build
community engagement. Invite
nonprofit organizations, local businesses (restaurants, etc.) community members
to create ambassadors
Votes:
8
Volunteers:
2 Jamie Padilla, Irma Garcia
Encourage
and strengthen neighborhood groups
Votes:
3
Volunteers:
1 Gregory Fearon
Map
neighborhoods that have strong community ties – identify activities that bonds
them together
Votes:
6
Volunteers: 4
Katherine ?, Alexa Riner, Pamela Van Helsema, Rolland Vander Sluis
Ensure
common geographical definitions of neighborhoods between government agencies
Votes: 1
Volunteers:
0
Invite and
encourage attendance to D.I.N.E., a program that brings community members to
share a discussion over dinner.
Votes:
2
Volunteers:
0
Activate
neighborhood conversations through social networks (Facebook group,
NextDoor.com)
Votes:
0
Volunteers:
0
SRT will
develop a resource sheet bilingual to provide to schools and other public
places (church, clubs, YMCA, etc).
Start with Latino community
Votes: 3
Volunteers: 3
Jamie Padillo, Irma Garcia, Nora Ward
SRT
involvement in ELAC meetings to facilitate and provide resource information
including rights and resources.
Pass out 1-page resource sheet that Santa Rosa together creates.
Votes:
5
Volunteers:
4 Jamie Padilla, Irma Garcia, Nora Ward, Alex ?, Rene
Hold
community workshops (using issues identified by the community to attract
participants) to build skills of residents in engaging the government
Votes:
0
Volunteers:
3 Rev. Curtis Byrd, Alexa Riner, Lucy Hernandez
Focus on
safety in regards to safe bikes and pedestrian pathways within our communities
Votes: 4
Volunteers:
0
Have a
bilingual community website/calendar where residents can see events and be
involved
Votes:
4
Volunteers:
1 Pamela Van Halsema
Communicate
with city, county, agencies, schools with public works with residents for empowerment to annex Roseland to
city. Build Roseland creek
greenway and the specific plan for Roseland and Roseland Village Shopping
Center on Sebastopol Road.
Votes: 3
Volunteers: 0
Increase
Roseland resident voice in city and county planning for annexation and the
Roseland specific plan
Votes: 3
Volunteers: 0
Government Capacity to partner with and Engage Citizens (49/6)
Develop
a process to ensure residents engagement and organized neighborhoods
Votes:
5
Volunteers:
2 Vince Harper, Larry Haenel
Ensure
governmental capability to increase the partnership for decision/policy making
process
Votes: 4
Volunteers:
0
Make
meetings more accessible to everyone with different locations and times. Inform of future action items and
issues
Votes:
2
Volunteers:
0
Hold
community meeting to influence the government’s process of prioritizing ways to
make information accessible to public
Votes:
3
Volunteers:
0
Establish
Department of Neighborhoods with funding for education/outreach and community
engagement. Along with that, the
city should adopt principles of public participation
Votes:
10
Volunteers:
2 Shannon Ottens, Tanya Narath
Create
citizen advisory board for city budget
Votes:
8
Volunteers:
1 David Moll
Ask City
Council to discuss key community issues at a specific time listed on the agenda
Votes:
11
Volunteers:
0
District
elections
Votes:
4
Volunteers:
1 Arthur Deicke
Support
candidates who support our goals
Votes:
2
Volunteers: 0
Create a
mechanism to foster accountable communication between the community and
government
Votes: 8
Volunteers:
2 Gregory Fearon, Rolland Vander
Sluis
Schools (12/2)
Actively
support community school model (like Via Esperanza) across city
Votes:
6
Volunteers:
0
Convene
stakeholders to take advantage of opportunity provided by changes to school
funding. Build trust and shared
goals around education (local area
plans)
Votes:
6
Volunteers:
2 Nubia Padilla, Katie Greaves
The Steering Committee met on February 13th, and agreed to take actions to notify all members of the first and second meetings of the above supported actions, to work to further revise the vision statement, and to implement these actions by providing support to committees outlined above in bold.
The Steering Committee met on February 13th, and agreed to take actions to notify all members of the first and second meetings of the above supported actions, to work to further revise the vision statement, and to implement these actions by providing support to committees outlined above in bold.
