JOHNSON COUNTY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION COMMITTEE

MEETING MINUTES

TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020 9AM-10AM

Via Zoom Meeting

Members Present:  Maysa Ahmed, Dawn Alam, Donna Brooks, Keshia Fields, John Hannaford, Laurie Nash, Annie Nugent, Lynn Rose, Emily Way, Kelly Weston, and Raquel Wray 

Introductions

Approval of Minutes:  Approved May 19, 2020 minutes.

Next Meeting Date and Time:  Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Budget Balance:  $789.   

D&I Committee Strategic Plan and Policies: Keshia and Donna are working on this.

*ACTION ITEMS*

Learning and Development Opportunities for FY21:  Next month meeting will make up a schedule of items for the entire year.

Committee assignments (JoCo Weekly Monthly Submissions):  Next month meeting will make a schedule of when people will be providing info for JoCo Weekly Newsletter.

Upcoming Internal Events:

LGBTQ Trivia Hour, Friday June 26th at

LGBTQ 202, Wednesday, July 8th, 1-2pm

Community Events:

Juneteenth Virtual Celebration, June 15-20:  African American Museum in Cedar Rapids is hosting a virtual series of events.  Check their website.

 

Juneteenth Block Party, Friday June 19th :  Possibly event on Sat ?  There will be kids events on Sat 6/20 for Juneteenth.  Jr. High and below.  9:00 North Liberty Penn Park.  11:00 ST Morrison Park in Coralville.  1:00 Mercer Park in Iowa City.

 

Other Items not on Agenda:   

Will develop a list of books, movies, and information about racism and provide to staff.

Maybe have another training on how to intervene when hearing racist comments.  How to start discussions on racism.  

 

Ice Breaker: Keshia.  Keshia asked a series of questions about what it’s like talking about racism with others.  Members talked about their personal experiences discussing racism.

Here are the questions we talked about:

  1.  Consider the following statements and select the one that best describes how you feel:

I would rather not talk about race and/or racism

I am very uncomfortable

I am usually uncomfortable

I am sometimes uncomfortable

I am usually comfortable

I am very comfortable talking about race and/or racism

 


2.     The hardest and/or beneficial part talking about racism is………

  1.   Are you comfortable being uncomfortable?
  2.  What will a discussion about race and/or racism potentially expose about me?
  3.  How have you navigated conversations with individuals that say racist or prejudice statements?

 

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