 Okay. So we're officially recording. Okay. Thank you. My name is Alicia Walker and I am calling this meeting to order as co-chair. Governor Baker's March 12th order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law allow us to hold this virtual meeting of the working group. Given that we have a quorum present, I'm calling the May 12th, 2021 meeting of the community safety working group to an order at 5.50 p.m. I will call upon each member of the working group by name. At that time, they should unmute their mic and say present. This will indicate that they can hear me and that we can hear them. Please remember to mute your mic after saying present. Ms. Pat Ananabaku. Present. Ms. Deborah Ferrara. Present. Mr. Russ Vernon Jones. Present. Okay. I want to take a couple of minutes to review the agenda. We will first hear any public comment that members of the public want to provide to the working group. We will not respond to your comments, but we will listen to your comments carefully. And then we will hear from reparations for Amherst for the first half of the meeting. We will then discuss. Thank you. We will then discuss the upcoming deadlines for our work. I will also leave time to open the floor to group members that want to suggest organizations that the group believes are critical to meet with before we finish our charge. Next, we will leave time to hear from the subcommittee working on the presentation for the town council, specify the length of our presentation and time for questions and answers, and also to whom we want to present our recommendations. Lastly, we will decide on the time to meet with the finance committee. Our first order of business is the public comment section of the agenda. If any members of the public would like to make a statement, please raise your hand. I will recognize you and ask Miss moisten to turn on your mic. I asked that comments be limited to no more than three minutes. The working group will not respond to your comments, but we will be listening intently. I don't think I see any hands. Should I give it a couple of more minutes to see any hands miss moisten. Okay. Um, so it does look like we have someone wanting to public comment. Can you please bring Mrs. Demetria Shavas in. Hello, can you all hear me. Yes, yes. I'm a member of the public now, but of course, with knowledge of what has transpired. And again, I just thank the CSWG for all of your hard work and miss moisten in attending each meeting and serving as staff lays on for the town. And it sounds like you all are trying to figure out other groups to meet with. I urge you to meet with the different services in the town, such as Craig's doors. I did meet with them. We were unable to do a full report on Craig's doors, Amherst connections headed by way Ling and Craig's doors headed by Kevin Newton. We also met with the CDH, I believe that basically they run the crisis hotline. They have different perspectives to share about how they interact with the police for the most part, it was positive. However, they do have ideas in how to improve. Again, when we discuss the possibility of the Crest program, they were very enthusiastic. So I think it would be to your benefit to the town's benefit. And if you all met with them, even if it was just 30 minutes to 45 minutes to talk about ideas as you shape and then meet with the finance committee about the possibility of press. Thank you, Mrs. Shabazz. Do we have anybody else looking to public comment. So if we don't have any other public comments, I'll move on to the next section. This is the time for members to update us on any work that they are doing or any events that are coming up. Does anybody, any members of our group have any events or information to share with us. Mr. Vernon Jones. Let the group know that after our meeting last week. I strongly urge the town manager to consider reducing the budgeted police department sworn officer positions to 43 and putting all of the remaining money in the Crest. I also had an opportunity today to speak with Amos Irwin. He was the author of that report that was shared with their group early on about the community responder model. And he was tremendously helpful and I think with him and the town manager and the police chief they now are have entered discussions to have an enforcement action project I think it's called do a review of the history of calls to the to the APD. They use 2019 so it's a pre-pandemic year. And they're able to come up with some estimate of how many calls might be handled by a program like Crests if they have some criteria from us. And he was also tremendously helpful with all kinds of questions. One of the reasons I ended up asking him questions is that it seems to me that at one point the town manager said to us, give us the basic outline of the kind of program you want in the town staff will work out the details. More recently I've heard from some town counselors and maybe even from the town manager that we can't move forward quickly because we don't have the details worked out. But Amos, you know, I, he actually has a little history in Amherst. I think he went to Amherst college so he's got a little connection to Amherst but he has done work across the country and they not only studied these programs but they also have worked with various municipalities to help bring the community responder programs into being. And they're able to provide this quite a bit of basic service free of charge. And then if we want there's an additional piece that they might be able to help with for a charge. So I learned a lot about the program and I do think over the next, that before we meet with the town council, or with the finance committee that we want to have some more detailed ideas about how things like dispatch and the nature of the schools and the qualifications for the community responders we want and something about shifts and you know, there are a whole bunch of things that I think it'd be very useful for us to try to work out, not that it'll all be decisions but at least a more detailed sense of what this might look like to go forward with it. So if, I mean, I'm happy for anybody to talk to him but if people have specific questions. I would be happy to help relay them and try to get answers from him. I wanted to say that the town manager mentioned to me that it might be possible for some of us to visit the dispatch facility in Amherst and just watch and get a sense of how dispatch works. I have called the police chief and left a message saying I'd like to do that next week and if anybody would like to go with me. I would, you know, like to know that and we'll help set up the schedule to accommodate all this I mean, it may have to be during the hours the chief works for something I don't know exactly what will be required but it would be great if a few of us could go and just get a look at that and we, we'd know more and be able to have, we'd have better questions and, you know, better answers to. And then the last thing I wanted to mention is I wanted to suggest that we write to the finance committee and the town council in general, sort of right away, and invite them to send us questions in advance. If they can, if they're able to tell us what they'd like to know where they want more detail than is in our report. If we knew those questions ahead of time we might be able to come up with either answers or possibilities at least. Thank you. Thank you Mr Vernon Jones Ms Ferrera. I guess I have some questions is more so based on what Mr Vernon Jones said and everything so I don't know if that's something that we could discuss at some point or because I guess in terms of what you brought up one I'd like to hear more because this is the second time that I'm hearing about the town manager kind of meeting with the fire chief and the police and so I want to know more about what's going on with that what are those meetings about and things like that so I'd like to get more details on that. Two, in terms of this person Erwin way Amos it seems like he seems like he has a lot of good information so I'm wondering what would be the best way to do it Mr Vernon Jones is it us giving you questions or should we have him come and meet with us, you know at one of our meetings, since he's he's nationally known and works with different people maybe if we have you know some time with him that we could kind of really hone in on some of the things that we would need to have. Then, in terms of the questions for for the town council and the finance committee I think that's good but is that separate then what already the presentation committee already put together or is it we're asking them. Okay, what is it that you want to know so that then we can frame the presentation, I guess I'm a little bit confused about that. Yes, Mr Vernon Jones. Well, good questions. I don't know anything about you know what the internal discussions are among, among town staff. So that would be a town manager question. I think it'd be great to have Amos Erwin come meet with us sometime but I think we also need to get some of this put together in the next week to 10 days. So I'm not sure we have time for a meeting before that but I think we should plan on having him come meet with us. My intention was not to change the plan for the presentation. But if we were able to know ahead of time some of the questions they were going to ask us after our presentation, we could be better prepared with answers. That was that was my thought about it. Thank you Mr Vernon Jones, Ms. Pat. So a couple things. Um, Mr Ross, thank you for issues that you rave. I am wondering if it's possible for Mr Amos to provide us with maybe information that he has. So we're talking about program development of Crest, of Crest, and also probably job descriptions, you know, for us to read ahead of time before the Finance Committee and the Town Council presentation so that we have an idea of what he does in other places that he's helping. That might help us instead of going back and forth with questions. It's one thing. I think in terms of observing the Dispatcher, I mean do we need to have more than one person and many people want to volunteer that. I think also, also observing I feel like the organizations that work with people with mental illness, it would be nice for us to observe how they deal with, you know, crisis calls to. And I'm, you know, I'm talking about ServiceNet and CDH. Also, something for us to think about. Perhaps when we invite them, maybe something we might want to ask them. I know there's a lot of confidentiality that, you know, that has to be maintained. So I just want to throw that out. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Moison and then Ms. Farrah. I guess the question that I have is, and I retract in terms of like meeting with Amos because I think, well, I guess the question I have for Mr. Vernon Jones, what have you, because we're having this sense that we need more details, right, to present to the Town Council and present. Like you said, I mean that wasn't what was communicated to us originally but now it's changed. So my thing is, I guess, do we have a sense or maybe one of our co-chairs can kind of reach out to the Town Council to see how much detail are they working? Are they asking for? I mean, do we need to like create the whole program for them too? Is that what we're going at? I guess I'm just kind of a little bit like, okay, how much detail is this, right? Do we need to iron out everything, you know, create job descriptions? I mean, what is the deal with that? Because if so, yeah, I guess we are in a time crunch and I guess we need to know by when we need to create all this detail too. And there's a lot of question marks to me with this. So, because there's also only so much that we can do in terms of doing all the work for the Town, right? Do any of you have any of the answers to these questions? Because it seems like there's this urgency about putting details and having details done by a certain time certain. How much details and by when? Mrs. Pat. No, Ms. Moisten has her hand up first. Ms. Moisten. I just wanted to check with Mr. Vernon-Jones and how he's spelling Amos' last name to start with. I-I-R-W-I-N. Name is Irwin. Irwin, okay. Thank you. And then I can't really speak on how much detail that the Council is looking at. But, well, let me back up to the first thing about the Town Manager meeting with the different groups of individuals or people. I know that he's trying to form, to pull together a group of people to help make these recommendations that you have happen to put those in motion, right? So it will take members from the CSWG and members from this leadership team to work together to put these forward. And I would think for detail, it just depends on, on what it is. I think that things like whether they work with the police or don't work with the police or the police go with them to some degree. I agree. I think that's the level of details, because I don't think that they anticipate you guys doing everything and definitely not the job descriptions and those things. But, I mean, that's the way it appears to sound up here in Town Hall is that that's what they're looking for more of like how you want it, the shape of it, right? And I don't know about further details in the shape. And by when? I haven't heard anything of a deadline. There's only been one leadership meeting and that was really just to kind of go over the Cress program, which I was like, well, there's all these in the Cress program. And then I said, but we really need to have all of the recommendations that the CSWG has given so that we can just put everything, try to implement everything moving forward. If that makes sense, right? Like instead of just taking one piece and then one piece and then like two years later doing one piece, try to write out a blueprint for whatever amount of timeframe that that is. And when you say the leadership team and who is that again? I've heard some people vote. It's the two chiefs. Sean Mengano, the finance committee, I mean finance director, Mary Beth Ogowich, who's the senior center director. David Zomek, the assistant town manager, Paul Backelman, town manager and myself. Okay. Thank you that that makes it a little bit more clear to me. Thank you. Mrs. Pat. Thanks. This is not rocket science to goodness with you. What we're talking about here is a public safety department that will be run by social services professional. A program is going to entail a lot of crisis management that are organization in our community or even surrounding town that deals with crisis management. They, you know, we can tap into them. It's not too hard. You know, there are a lot of templates for job descriptions that are some of us who have experienced in program development. It's not a big deal. I mean, I have tons of experience developing programs. So, you know, working, you know, doing shifts, you know, covering ship for 24 seven. But I can't speak about what police people do that. I don't want this to, you know, derail us. If we're not quite prepared for the detail. I recommend that we just let this town council and the finance committee that we were not instructed to come up with details. And that's true. So to give numbers numbers, if I knew that we're going to be talking about this, I would have produced something like, you know, through a subcommittee. And, you know, for us to look at it's not hard. I mean, I mean, I mean, long-term industry. So I've created so many programs. We shouldn't spend too much time on this. That's my point. Thank you, Mrs. Pat. Miss Bellman, I think you have your hand raised. Yes, I do. I just want to wanted somebody to like, put a little note somewhere. Oh, my hand is so raised. I wanted somebody to put a little note somewhere just. How should I say this? As you know, as I think about, you know, these social service type organizations and if we're going to tap into some of these places, I really want there to be some sort of note put in about incorporating organizations like DCF. You know, because then you run into all these like, oh, what's a mandated reporting situation, but like, we know for a fact that DCF comes into the BIPOC community, their families, and takes their kids. We know this for a fact. Um, a lot of times rather than making sure they're getting the services that they need. And so I just want to put that out there that I really feel like that needs to be like a big highlighted side note, because we're going to have that's going to have to be part of what's being addressed in the bigger picture. And I just don't feel like I've heard it be heard it be said. Um, but if you're low income or your bypass DCF very often very often comes in and will remove children in situations where if you are not one of those things children would not be real moved and so we need like if we're really doing this and we're trying to check these communities and we really need to keep, we need to keep that real reality. Um, we need to keep that reality as part of like what are like, when we're talking about recommendations and so on and so forth and involving these already pre organized organizations, we need to be thinking about stuff like that. So just wanted to put that out there. Thank you, Miss Bowman. Mrs. Morrison, I think you have your hand up. I do and I was trying to type at the same time. So I just, I want to say that, and perhaps some of that level of deep of detail is like, are you suggesting that like, and I can't quite remember what happened with the finalization of like domestic violence cases, whether or not police go with a worker or don't go with the worker or go with DSF or DCF sorry or don't go DCF I think perhaps some of those things that you guys might be able to clarify would be helpful and I also just want to say that BHN has recently I believe it was BHN recently contracted with the city of Springfield or Holyoke or one of the two to do a very similar program. So, I mean that might be someone that you guys would like to speak with in regards to how that works what makes them because they're working with the police I believe, but what made them decide to do that why or as opposed to not working with the police or, you know, Springfield and a little bit of a different level of violence than what the town of Amherst has but it, you know, I think it would be worth checking in with as long along with CHD, ServiceNet, BHN, which is behavioral health I just think all of those agencies you guys should most if possibly can get it done for next week speak with them before speaking with the council and finance committee. Thank you Miss Moyston, Miss Bellman. I agree. You know that's that yeah that falls into part of like, I think that's actually a great idea to like be talking to them ahead of time because that is part of my concern is that what's supposed to happen, because I've been I've had to deal with that not personally but um what's supposed to happen is that if, if a mom for partners get have a domestic altercation, then if there are kids involved if there are kids in the home, rather or not they're there. If there are kids in the home as they are supposed to call DCF period, like that's what that is what, like I looked it up and then I also happened to know somebody who works for DCF and I actually asked her, like what is supposed to be the relationship to the policy and anytime the police show up to a domestic violence situation whether or not the kids are there DCF is supposed to come out and do an assessment. Um, because their view is that, um, even if the mom the kids aren't witnessing the violence directly that they're witnessing the trauma because the mom is going to go or you know the father sorry I just you know, the people I've known are going to go through trauma, regardless either in this either because there's visible bruises or because of emotional the emotional aspect of it. Um, there that's why they're supposed to come in so technically like that's why I was concerned because I was like yeah like I actually talked to them and they that is what they're that's what the police are supposed to be doing and a lot of times they don't do it, but um, a lot of these other organizations will do it like I feel like they really will do it you know what I'm saying and, and that's, that's where I get that's where my part of my concern comes in because they you know they're like, we're mandated reporters we have to report but like technically everybody who walks this earth is a mandated reporter like, if you see something done to, you know, violence happen especially to a child just supposed to report it. So, anyways, yep. Thank you miss bowman. So I just wanted to make a couple of comments, one in regards to Mr Vernon Jones comment earlier. And Mrs Pat's response I don't think it's necessary we have more than one person go but I would also be happy to go with you. Because that's something I would also personally like to observe. So if you would like to contact me I would be happy to plan that with you. And then also regarding the questions for the town council if everybody else is also an agreement I think it is a good idea to reach out to both the finance committee and the town council ahead of time, just in preparation to see what their questions might be so that we can make sure we're addressing all of them and that things aren't left out. But also we have already received an email from the town manager with questions that were given to him from the town council. In regards to our work and in regards to the presentation, which he gave about our work to the town council, and we have not yet sent a full response to those questions. So, if that's something that we can forward to the whole group it might actually be helpful for you guys to know what questions are they already have for us. And I would also be happy to reach out to the town council for you all, if that's something we are interested in doing to move forward. Mrs Pat. So when did that send out this question again. I'm confused. The town manager sent them to Brianna and I, after the presentation from the town council, the presentation that he gave to the town council, the town council compiled some questions for him, and he sent them to us. We didn't necessarily have the answer to all of the questions which is why we haven't written back, and there are some other anemone issues, which we have not figured out how to respond to yet. But I think just in just for you all to see what kinds of questions they're already having to anticipate this I think it would be helpful if everybody could be aware of the questions that were asked whether or or not we have answers yet. Is that questions we can address to me? Are these questions, you know, is that something we can discuss later after the reparation group present? I, I think so. It's not on the agenda but I think after reparations presents if we want to come back to it and if we have time I think that that would be something I'd be open to discussing with the group. If everybody is okay with that. I think like I'd rather like us kind of get into the presentations and then we can discuss the questions at the same time because I want to see what we have so far for presentation because, you know, time is passing. Okay, great. So if everyone is okay, I think we can move on now to the next section for on the agenda, which is reparations for Amherst. And I believe they are here in the audience. Miss Moisten, if you can please bring them in. Yes, Michael with you as well. Matthew, I'm so sorry. Hi, Miss Miller, I think you're still muted. I know Matthew is here. I just I don't see him we're in it, you know, in a separate space. So, but I know that he was here. Let me just make sure. If you could ask him what his name is I see an Auraville International is that him. Okay, I'm always scared when they're from out of the area because often they are. Yeah, yeah, soon bomber so. Hi everyone. Hi. Hello Michelle. Thank you for coming today. Thank you for inviting us happy to be here. And then I think we have. Hi everybody. I am too many zoom accounts. And my camera just takes a minute but I'll be here in a sec. Awesome. We can see you now. Thank you so much for being here today. So I had originally reached out to reparations for Amherst. We didn't really have a specific ask for them. Just that we recognize that their goals deeply aligned with our charge and that we are working towards a similar goal of making Amherst more equitable and safe for the BIPOC community. So I asked them to come today and just share any information or ideas that they would like to with us and then I will open the floor for questions. I'm sorry I would like to hand this over to reparations for Amherst. Thank you and thanks for inviting us to be here. And just before we get into anything I really just want to send so much appreciation and gratitude to all of you. I know that not a lot of people get to come to these meetings, but Matthew and I have been following these meetings and the work that you are all doing is so deep. And it's just really, really meaningful and significant and we very much appreciate it. And on a personal note, I know I feel like what I supplied as a resident of Amherst to you all. I feel it was heard and I just really want to acknowledge and appreciate that. So we don't have a presentation per se. However, we wanted to come and first of all just let you know that we are completely in solidarity with you, we completely support your work. And there are a lot of, as Alicia said, a lot of intersecting places where our work aligns and so mostly we wanted to talk about how we can strengthen our coalition. So so we can strengthen the work that you're doing and the work that we're doing and support each other as we move forward in this in our unique processes that were that we're going through so that's kind of like the just a little a little bit of what we wanted to say and then we're happy to extrapolate and answer questions and things like that. Maybe Matthew wants to add something as well. I also just echo what Michelle said that we're really appreciative for all the work that you all are doing. And I think in just narrowing it a little bit. We imagine. We know that you all are working towards developing structures within the town to support the community safety of the whole town. And to support a transformation of what has been to what could be as far as community safety for this town. And of course those structures require funds they require support, you know, financial inputs. And also reparations obviously, you know, on a material level requires a commitment from the town if there's going to be municipal reparations and we just really it's been important to us all along and continues to be important to us that we are thinking about that collectively and not, you know, different groups trying to access the same sources of funding that we think collectively as a town like what is this, what are the needs at this time. And we happen to believe that until this town or any town or any any group or any or the country actually goes through a process of reparations and healing for the crimes that have been committed collectively. And, you know, as far as what we're the work that we're doing specifically against black people that any work, any racial equity work, any work to try to create collective systems that are fair is going to be hampered by the lack of healing, a lack of repair. It's like reparations isn't something extra that we're going to do it's something that we're not doing. The fact that we're not we haven't gone through a process of repair is the state. You know, we feel that that there's like so many places of intersecting vision and possibility and we want to work together on that. And we're happy to answer any questions and we don't have a presentation prepared, but either of us is perfectly capable of talking for longer than you want us to. So, if you have any questions we're happy to answer them. Thank you, Miss Ferrara. Thank you both for attending this meeting. And obviously for all the work that you all are doing and the group is doing. I've actually been getting emails because I'm on the listserv I think for the reparations group to. But unfortunately, I haven't been able to, you know, attend anything or, you know, really focus as much on those emails because of the work that I'm doing with the CSWG right. I want to focus on that. So that being said, you know, I do think that, of course, the work that we're doing really aligns right and a lot of the priorities that we have are really, you know, similar in terms of making sure that our community is a community that's for all but also, you know, with a particular emphasis on BIPOC and particular emphasis on, you know, on black people. It's been, you know, obviously as we know marginalized and set to the side for the years. So I guess my question is, how is it that, you know, like for someone like myself in this group right that we're so focused on when you know what would be the most beneficial right in terms of our input during this time, so that we are as you're saying, you know, that we can work collectively, as opposed to working in isolation, being that we have a lot of common goals, right, that would be one. And then to, I guess I'd like to hear from the two of you. What is the focus right now where you all at in your work right where are you all at and what is the goal like what are your goals that you're trying to attain as of right now. I think that I have a clear picture. Yeah, I'll start with your second question. Both great questions. And as far as where we're at, we are set to present to the full town council on this coming Monday the 17th. We'll be presenting alongside two members of the black stakeholders group that we've been working with. So we have about 10 minutes to make a case and what we're hoping the outcome will be is that reparations committee will be created. So municipal reparations committee will be created. So to sort of move into your set your first question. I think we are both talking about the town. Once and for all prioritizing racial equity and justice and doing that through the budget. And so I think that's where, you know, we're, we're both. We're both trying to make the case to the town that shifting money, or including money for racial equity and justice matters is, is the way forward and so if we can. We're already aligned enough that we are going to be, you know, in solidarity around that particular ask. So on Monday, when we present will be specifically asking for a committee to be set up. And I think Matthew and I both would envision that our committees can sort of work together in some ways or maybe have like a liaison, if possible that is communicating back and forth between committees. And then we are going to propose that the town has a discussion around setting aside a significant and meaningful amount of money to address racial equity and justice and so, of course that includes the work that you're all doing includes and just to be a little more specific we're going to talk about the cannabis money and the sort of reasoning for using cannabis money to toward racial justice and equity, the connection there. And Matthew if you wanted to add to that. Yeah, I just, your question Mr was fairly general and I just I'm wondering if more backstory would be useful about, you know, the types of things that we've been up to so far. Yeah, that would be useful if you, you know, obviously you don't have to go into too much detail on that but any kind of highlights that you think would be important in terms of background story that would be I mean I'll just say. Even it short isn't my best. I'm best at, but I'm, you know, we started with a petition Michelle and I, we started circulating a petition last June or July that specifically was modeled after what was happening in Evanston. The petition said we want an apology and an acknowledgement from the town for participation and involvement in anti black racism and we want a reparations fund, municipal reparations fund. And so we circulated that as kind of just like, does anybody care about this, you know what's, what's going to happen and we got a lot of feedback a lot of signatures and a lot of positive feedback in the comments and we thought okay so there's something here. So we worked with three town counselors on a resolution that was the first stage of that that was the apology and the acknowledgement, and that was passed unanimously on December 7. And then we shifted into research. Well, we, there was part some research that came before that we put together a historical document that's about 10 pages and all this stuff's on the town website. The historical document was obviously at 10 pages, not everything. You know, it was just an overview but the purpose was to educate people who had no idea about the town's history. And so after that we shifted to kind of looking into research about why you know looking, we had specific data about inequity in the town and so we wanted to understand why and so that's the report that was sent to you all last week was the result of that research process and the symposium that we held, I guess two weeks ago, a week or two ago, was a presentation of all that research in various areas. And so all of that, you know, I'm, you're probably familiar with HR 40 the house resolution 40 where the there's a effort to create a committee that would do research discovery and then make recommendations about reparations. And so we've been doing that research and trying to understand how did Amherst get to be what it is right now it's easy for Amherst to kind of slip off of the racial justice radar because of the demographics, but Amherst was created cultivated as a white enclave. And so we're really trying to understand that process. And in order to make the case in order to help people understand you know it's like even make the cases like an argument, help people understand that there's a need for repair on a municipal level in this town, we're also our intention is to also do a more collective, you know, called a fundraising campaign or an invitation to the public to contribute to a reparations fund. We don't right now have a fiscal sponsor. It's important to us the makeup of the board of directors of the fiscal sponsor and we've met with some different groups and I've looked into some different options that are continuing to do so. We don't accept donations or contributions until we have either our own five one C three status or a fiscal sponsor. And we also intend to work with the anchor institutions in the town, the University of Massachusetts and Amherst College, and we've had some initial meetings with those institutions and look to continue working with them in the future. There's kind of three parts to it there's municipal reparations, there's community, you know, just broad based individual community, there's the anchor institutions, and also, you know, there's financial reparations material reparations creating a fund. And there's, you know, what does healing look like for something so long term with such staggering, you know, detrimental impacts intergenerational trauma like what is, what is a collective process of community healing look like so that's another question that we're sitting with. So, there was something else I was gonna say but I lost it Michelle is there anything you want to add to that. I know just, you know, we we recognize that this sort of budget cycle is upon us now and that we have an opportunity, you know, one of the challenging things I think about our setup here is that we have a town manager who is excellent at sort of doing the things that the town manager does but the town manager isn't primarily like a policy leader and so it's the town council that acts as the policy leader and so our our goal is to help the town council as the policy leader understand the significance of these matters. You know, town manager Backelman is, you know, one part of the puzzle but really the policy leadership and the prior the priorities are going to come specifically from the town council and so that's been a big part of our work is like through the traditional process and through the conversations that we've been having is to help the town council as the leadership body. Recognize the priority around this and and then hopefully lead to a process where the budget will be prioritized in sort of at that level. Thank you so much. Thanks Pat. So where can I begin I just feel like I've known Michelle I might see you for a long long time with the reparation project that they're doing. I have nothing but appreciation gratitude for being a white co-conspirator doing this I know it has not been easy for you guys to stand up to do this I'm just like super grateful. When I first got the email back a while ago, I was like wow this is so cool white people doing this for us isn't that awesome. When I applied to join says WG right from the moment from the first day that we had our first meeting, I couldn't help connecting the work we're doing to reparation. Anything that we're doing at CSWG I've always view it from the from reparation lens and my network, the people like I contact that contact me. For example, the BIPOC cultural center is something that I've heard so much from black community and even BIPOC community. So I see a lot of intersection with the work that reparation group is doing and the work we're doing, and we shouldn't be, we shouldn't shy away from it. Reparation should not be such a scary word to use. I think it's something we need to embrace because it's overdue. And that's nothing wrong with, you know, pushing for it. And I know, you know, we've had some white folks over the years who have done something that we don't necessarily recognize as reparation. One of them is in our means is with us here, Ross, my children were direct beneficiary at forever school, when he created a affinity group you remember that Ross. He had lasting impact on my children. He made them what they are today. The confidence you give to black children. And I know that that white parents, some white parents are forever school, we're posed, you know, we're posed away. You had a lot of enemies from your white folks. But preparation is not new here, but different people do it in a different way. And so this is finally being put out in the open. I'm excited about it. We shouldn't share away from it. I think we need to embrace it is my point. So thank you to all of you for coming out tonight to talk to us. I push for this, because I think it's important for the town officials and town employees are to make sure that CSWG, the work we're doing, whether you call it press or youth program or BIPOC cultural center. They are all about reparation. Let's embrace that word. Thank you. Yes, go ahead, Matthew. It seems like that's the protocol. I just, you know, Miss Pat, you touched on one specific thing that is a very concrete connecting point, which is the multicultural community center. And once the thing I remembered that I was going to say before, and Michelle alluded to this, but we have we're working with a black stakeholders committee, and it's been clear from the petition from the very beginning. It's about us collecting money and deciding where the money is going to go. The allocation of any reparations funds needs to be made and determined by, you know, we can say the black community, even though that's a, you know, there's not a one black community in Amherst, but a committee of black stakeholders. And one of the things that we've also heard is, you know, that people want a community center and it could be that that's one of the things that the black stakeholders committee would decide to allocate funding for. And I know that that's on the, you know, something that you all have heard and it's part of your agenda. And, you know, we aren't determining Michelle and I aren't determining the agenda for reparations, but it could very well I mean it seems like it's the kind of thing that would be right in the middle there. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. So I just want to bring up something. And for me, it doesn't bother me, but I know that in black community. The issue of using cannabis marijuana funding for reparations, some people have concern about it that it might encourage more places to be open for marijuana sales. To me, I mean, most of our people are the people who were put out to prison for a long time. I think that money should be used that. But not everybody in black community agrees with that I just want to put that out right now. So, you know what I'm, what I mean, Deborah right. Yeah. Thank you, Mrs Pat. Anybody else has anything to say about that I mean doesn't have to right now but we would love to like feedback is always good. Mrs Ellen I think you had your hand up also. Yeah, I just wanted to thank you Michelle and Matthew for the work that you all do. I did get a chance to start watching parts of the symposium and the research that you guys did was really important and really shocking to me and it seems like what's happened in Amherst and the time that I've been here is just a repeat of what happened before. So given you guys are experts on this being a pattern. I'm interested to hear what your advice for our group is to make sure our charge and our report, and our presentation is as effective as possible to make sure that this, the pattern stops. Yeah, that's a really great question and thank you for acknowledging the work, the research work that we've done. So I think that the town council and I don't know if you, I wasn't clear just from listening in the beginning I'd love to clarify so is it it's my understanding that you're creating a report that will be submitted to the town council somewhere in the next seven to 10 days prior to your presentation is that is that. Okay. Yeah, I think that based on my experience with the town council so far. I think as much information you you have all from the beginning of this process collected enormous amount of information. And then worked with seven gen and got really thorough report from them. So you've sort of, you have a lot of information. And I think that the town council really needs to see all of those various angles, you know, like the seven gen report all of the data that you collected prior to that happening through your community forums. In my experience, having a really thorough and detailed report. And not necessarily the detail I know Miss Pat you were you there was some talk earlier about like, you know, exact details of how I think it's more at this stage about like making the case of why the money should be directed toward this program and the other recommendations that you have made. And the significance for our community and so I would just say that in our experience, the report that the reports that we have created I think have been helpful for the town council in getting a better picture of the like, I think some times we assume that people know things because we're in this you know what I mean all the time and we're reading and taking in information and talking to other people. And of course the lived experience of BIPOC like it's surprising to me how little people actually do know you know and so anything that you can highlight in there is just, you know, I guess, in my experience, I now figure, you know there's nothing I'm going to assume somebody knows about racial justice and equity it's like assume they knew nothing and give them all of the possible information that you can. And, and that would be my kind of encouragement around to that to that answer the question and maybe Matthew wants to also add to that. Yeah I think that answered the question really well but I'm also open here from Matthew to the way of saying it would be that I understand. I mean I don't you know I can imagine how frustrating and re traumatizing would be to have to explain to people who are complicit in the system of white supremacy. Why these things need to happen. And at the same time, Michelle and I have, like she said been conscious of just, you know, being as clear as possible and not assuming anything not assuming that anybody knows anything and you know there's people who are mean, and, you know, intentionally divisive. And I think they're in the minority and I think a lot of white people just really have no idea. And when we put out that just, you know, 10 pages of bullet points. I think a lot of people were really surprised. He got criticism from a few people, a few black folks who are like, Why are you putting this out there so obvious everybody knows this, but unfortunately the reality is that people really don't know. And so that's also, you know, part of the symposium was about community education for that reason. And I think Mattia did such an amazing job of saying like, I grew up in this community. I grew up in these schools in this community where I had to learn about community history and none of it was there. And so, you know, people, it's really easy as a white person to be removed from the lived experience to be separate and to not know, like the facts is one thing, and that leads to not really understanding the implications today so I guess that, you know, it's, it's not such a straightforward thing. And we have been intentional about not assuming that anybody knows anything. Mrs Ferrara. So I just had like one quick follow up, which was like from when Miss, Miss Pat was talking and she said that, you know, we had made certain recommendations. And our, you know, when we made our recommendations, I think, align with some of some of the possible recommendations you all would make and I guess for me. That's what I would be more interested in. And I think that was what my other question was about was just kind of more concretely right and this could be something that you all could think about and then get in touch with us right. Some of the recommendations we made at those online because then obviously if we are given certain budget items to that it's not something that then you all need to ask for, again, type of thing, or how can we do it so that we can get the full thing for what we asked for. You see what I'm saying. So I think that that would be, that would be something we'd need to really think about and strategize on. And then also, you know, when you all had talked about, you know, CSWG and when you all have your committee for us to have a liaison on both I think that would be very good, so that we can share that information and that we're not redoing and hammering on the same information that we always kind of talk through because at the end of the day we always know that, especially for situations like this and that's why we need to make them a priority but unfortunately for what we're asking for a lot of times, this always comes out to be limited budget. I don't know why but of course for our, the things that you know that we're fighting for it always seems to be limited so how can we use the funding, you know, the most wisely possible. And lastly, I think this is something that has always bothered me and I think you all have heard me talk about it in the past and other forum. In terms of healing right when that healing portion that you all talk about that's part of reparation which is very, that's pivotal, that's critical right. In terms of doing this type of work, given, you know, atrocities that have happened in the past, but for me, and I wonder have you all thought about this, I guess we can start a healing conversation until we even talk about the name Amherst, you know what I'm saying and the fact that our town is Amherst. I mean, we've changed our holiday to indigenous peoples day, you know, because of another, you know, a person who represented, you know, killing and murder. So, you know, so I'm still kind of baffled about that that our town is still called Amherst after someone that obviously killed a ton of people. But that's, I don't know if you all have any response anything like that. There was a bunch of stuff there but just starting at the end and working backwards, we specifically decided to focus on reparations for anti black racism. And this by no means, and that implies that there doesn't need to be reparations for indigenous people. And that they're, you know, that there aren't other groups that need a process of repair that are need is a word that deserve a process of repair. That's what we're focusing on. And so we've, this is a way another kind of way of answering Mr. Owens question. We have been very targeted and specific. So we're just trying to like, what's the next thing that relates as closely as possible to what we're trying to do, and to not get distracted by either. You know, very important valuable efforts that are really closely related, or by things that, you know, might need to happen down the line but don't need to happen next. There's, there's a park in the town that is named after a person who was involved in expelling. And this is I don't. Unfortunately, don't know the details of this but somebody was telling me about Kendrick Park and the reason that that park exists, that people were moved out of town and the park was created to justify moving people out of town. So, you know, that's definitely, you know, renaming that park, renaming and renaming the town are important steps, but it's, you know, we just haven't gotten there yet. We haven't gotten to that, you know, and, and again, those are the sorts of things that aren't going to come from us. I'm not going to rename the town and it's also interesting I was thinking with what Miss Pat said about the community center. If I decided to give a community center, a multicultural community center to the population to the residents of Amherst that would not be reparations. So the fact that the community center exists is not reparations. What makes it reparations is that it's a decision and empowered decision by the harmed party, you know, who has the resources and the capacity and the ownership of the process and says this is what we want to do. So, you know, in a way that's our role that's how we see our role is facilitating that, rather than being involved in the decision making process and the nitty gritty of it. Mrs. Pat. Matthew, I'm glad you raised that. That's how I feel about CSWG. What is exciting about our group is that all of us except for us, where, you know, we're talking from lived experiences, and we're recommending programs that will think will benefit our people. And so, to me, that's, you know, part of reparation. So when we call it BIPOC cultural center, it's just I'm not able to explain it very well. So that's my thinking like, who is recommending what, and from what perspective. Is that experience, or is it a dominant culture telling us, this is good for you, you know, take it or leave it. So that's very, very important for us to note. Thank you to everyone. It occurred to me that Dr. Barbara Love actually came to our group. And she mentioned, recommended actually, or suggested that the whole town engage in visioning process. And as she was talking to us that that evening, I couldn't help thinking perhaps, maybe I can see that relating to healing process as well. And I don't know what the town manager has in mind, or the town council. I don't know if they're going to like dissolve CSWG. One of the things that I would like to see is to have a reparation group advocating for CSWG to continue, for CSWG also to see what we're doing as a reparation. It's not, you know, we can't just be doing this work and at the end of June, you're done. Thank you. Goodbye. Then all our effort for the past several months goes to a waste because there's no accountability. You know, there's no continuity. I would really like the town council to have CSWG as a standing committee on to a sustainable future that I have concerns because I'm already hearing through Grave Vine that some of the town councilors wants to get rid of this group. Because they don't like the fact that we're very unafraid that we're speaking truth to the power. And that's why elections have consequences. So to me, reparation also means we need to change the structure of who holds decision making in this town through election, that we need more, we need BIPOC candidates to run in November as well. That's when I'm, you know, that will really, really be reform or change in this town. And also maybe some white co-conspirators who really get it for us because what we currently have now is not going to make it for us. I'll shut up. That's what I want to say. Thank you, Mrs. Pot. Mrs. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Ms. Miller. You can respond. I just will second the idea of having a standing, you know, public safety committee. I think that that would really be beneficial to carry the work that you all have done and sustain it and have it be a part of the structure of the town. So. Thank you. We'll see how that goes. Thank you, Mrs. Bowman. So, I fully agree with Ms. Pat. You know, I, and I think I've said it in different ways going throughout going as we've been going on, is that I have very little confidence in the non-BIPOC community of Amherst. Little confident. I know we, there are a few co-conspirators out there. But this community doesn't represent. This government, our government doesn't represent what the community is, what the community looks like. And when something like that occurs and that in that way, then there's going to be disparities, you know, um, and it's hard not to sit back and be like, um, and recognize that people who are empowering, who are making decisions, who have always been allowed to make decisions in one form or another, are going to have a hard time giving up that space. Even if it's for the better of the community. We really need to recognize that. And we're speaking a little bit in one of our last meetings just about how we need to find ways to attract the BIPOC community to town government. Because if we don't get it, if we don't change what our government, our town government looks like, we're not going to see change in what's going on. We have a group of people who are very comfortable in what's going on right now, who are running what's going, what, so like, so like, if I'm sitting here and being pampered and being like given gifts and this that and the other, and someone's else is like, Oh, well give me a chance to have some of that. I'm going to lie I'm going to be like, um, I like where I am right now. I like what's happening right now. It fits my needs right now. Why would I change that. You can figure out a way to do your own thing but why would I why would I change what I'm doing. Um, so I think it's really important for us. Um, as we go through and do this work part of what we need to be doing on the side is either bringing someone along with us to want to like encouraging people BIPOC community to show up to these meetings to see what these meetings are about. Um, encourage BIPOC people have them understand like there were a number of meetings that I barely said anything, but then when I started talking, I can't stop. Um, so I think that's really important because it's like I don't like being in the spotlight on anybody who really knows me personally knows that I'm a pretty big introvert, but I'm really passionate about passionate about things like in just when things are being things are happening that are in just I get very passionate about it and then I you know and then I my voice just I just let my voice out. One of the things that I was saying in the in the one of the meetings before is that it took me a few meetings to kind of get a feel, and so we need to encourage the BIPOC community to be able to come to these meetings and have a couple people over and run, you know, you know, have a meeting and run them, you know, run these meetings with a few of your, your BIPOC community members and be like look I just want you to sit in on this meeting I want you to have an opportunity to say something if you'd like to say something whatever the case may be but we have to we have to get, we have to help them understand, not only how how important it is for the you know the town committee the school committee the housing committee to look like our group to be mixed like our group but also, you know and I mean our group is still not even all that makes like we know that it's not all that makes you know there are other people in the community that you know would benefit from being part of this group but you know but also it's like part of it is fear part of it is time we're talking I was talking before and you know, and saying to Jen that the zoom format is really helpful for me as a single mom, because then it allows me to still have my kids running around like cycles around my house but then I can still mute things and still be participating. Still can you know make dinner and still be participating. And so like, you know those things are really important. To diversify our town committee. So I do really I just I wanted to put that out there I do really think I'm really like I'm really like more passionate about this but I'm really, there's still a part of me that's super concerned about where we're going to have a hard time convincing the BIPOC community to really step up and step forward. And I really want us to like, you know really be pulling in our, our friends or families whatever, and really think about that and people make the time I'll watch your kids so you can do this meeting type thing, you know what I'm saying like we really need to like, figure out ways to diversify this community because it needs it desperately, you know, this town government needs it. So, I think that's something we should be thinking about too. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Bowman. Are there any other members of the community safety working group that have any questions for reparations for Amherst. Okay. I also just wanted to thank you guys so much for being here today. I also was able to attend your symposium, and it was actually life changing for me. And it brought a lot of knowledge and informed a lot the work that we were doing here it helped me sort of redirection myself in a time of complete frustration, and it kind of gave me a little bit of fuel to keep going, because I see the huge necessity and if I didn't know it was a necessity before the fact that this has been continuing to happen for decades just makes it even more pressing for me. And so I really appreciate the work that you guys put into that. And the knowledge that I gained from it, it was very essential and I will carry that through the rest of my work in this town probably forever. So thank you guys so much for that and thank you guys so much for being here today and for taking the time to speak with us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Onward the next time we get to meet. Bye bye. Bye thank you. Now that we have finished our conversation with reparations for Amherst. I want to remind you all of upcoming town council meeting on May 24. I also want to check in with Brianna to see how much progress she has made on the graphics bar report and see if she needs anything from the group to expedite this process. Next we should discuss as a group if there are any other groups organizations the CSWG would like to meet with before our charge ends. And then also at this time Brianna sorry I didn't know if you were available to just switch facilitation for a minute my kids are in need of my attention for a second. Definitely I can take over. Yeah, so I wanted to update you guys all. I did I'm almost done with the graphics for the final report. But one thing I wanted to ask of the group is if you all have any images or any pictures from the Black Lives Matter protest that happened here. I want to include as many pictures from Amherst that are person that are a little bit more personal. I was able to pull up some on Google, but I wasn't sure if anyone was involved in the protest that happened over the pandemic and why not. Miss Moisten. I don't have them from the protest but did you want the one for the red lining and Amherst. Oh yeah that would be really helpful. Okay, I just I got to do a reminder there. Thank you. Brianna, I'll look because I know like we went to a couple of the youth ones that they had during the pandemic and some other ones so I'll look through and I'll just send it to you. Awesome. I have about seven spaces where I could incorporate some graphics, and I finished the cover page and everything is looking really really good so I'm excited for you all to see it. I should be done after you all send me the graphics so the sooner the better. The next thing that I wanted to go over for this section. And I'm not sure if you guys discussed it before I got here I do apologize for my tardiness was groups that you all felt were necessary to meet with before we finish our charge. Miss Pat. Actually, Dr. Shabazz made some suggestions for us, which Miss Moisten, I assume you took notes. They are VHN, CDH, Amherst connections, great, great door. I believe someone mentioned this year. And I think we should also invite ServiceNet. We just have to declare as to what is it that we want to hear from them, because I'm keenly aware that they are all headed by white management. I do business with them on a regular basis. VHN, ServiceNet, nothing against them, but it is run and managed by white people. So, so we need to like flash out what is it that we want to hear from them. Yes. Miss Freira. Oh yeah, Miss Pat, I think that's what I would want to hear from a lot of you to have more contacts with them because I don't have contacts with them to really see like how we can be strategic because obviously, you know, we have the Part A right that we need to, to prepare for and present on the 24th. So I guess out of this group, which ones would be the ones that we would need to meet with to kind of meet that, that focal, you know, that goal that we have. And then which ones maybe, you know, unless you all think we need to meet with all of them and then what we need to think about is obviously for Part B, who else we might need to meet with to do that. But, but so that's, that would be my question to those that kind of relay with these groups on a more frequent basis. I mean it would be helpful. And I'm just expressing my opinion, it will be very, very helpful for us to hear at least from folks who work with homeless population, the Ames connection, Miss Welling. She's one of those local heroes, heroes that doesn't get recognized, but you know that does really good work. I really very much like to hear from her. I think, you know, great store. It would be nice to have Kevin come in and talk to us. Now with BHN ServiceNet, I'm not interested. I mean, if they want to come in to talk to us that, you know, how they deal with their crisis management, more than anything else, yeah. And also CDH, you know, they, they operate hotline. So I'm very familiar with all these programs. I mean, that's, you know, that's my work every day. I really would like to, to hear from the lead woman voter. Yeah, because I see them as co-conspirators, they really, really support the work we're doing. And when we first met, I mean they're one of the groups that really wanted to connect with us. I know they submit there's something for us. I think I really like to put us to consider inviting them. So come talk to us. I'm Miss Moyston and then Mr. Vernon Jones. I just, again, want to say in where the social workers come from doesn't really matter, but I do highly suggest that you guys speak with perhaps some social workers. Just to understand the process because you are asking social workers to take over the work of the PD. And so I, you know, it seems that it would be very important to speak with them where they come from doesn't necessarily matter, but I think that is, it's pretty important, particularly if somebody comes back and ask you, well, how does the social worker community feel about this? Right. And then if you haven't talked to anybody you don't have an answer to that. I want everything that we're doing. And, you know, granted I do get paid for this but I'm truly invested in want to see this succeed and I just want to make sure that we can eliminate as many holes as possible. And that, again, I just really think that you guys should speak with some social workers as well. Mr. Vernon Jones and then Miss Pat, sorry. I certainly agree with what Ms. Moisten just said. I would suggest that we specifically add family outreach of Amherst I know they're part of CHD but they're, they're local they've been here a long time and have had a lot of contact or a lot of folks. And then I don't have an answer to this but I guess I would suggest maybe we think about, do we need to meet with all these groups or there's some we want to meet with and others that we'd like to send a member or two to go talk to them, and solicit their answers so you know our meeting time is so limited. But we could get more input, if we would sort of split them up and go talk to some of them if we if we don't have time to meet with all of them. I, so I did miss Pat, do you want to go and then I'll respond to Mr. Vernon Jones. Go ahead. I agree and I think that would be the best ways if we split up the organizations and then reported back. I work with social workers I work in child advocacy and I'm very familiar with social workers out of the Greenfield area office. I just want to warn the group ahead of time in what I've seen and what I've experienced. DCF is a little bit political so I'm not sure if they'd be able to comment on sort of open support for Crest but I'm sure what they would be able to provide is more information on what a mandated being a mandated border means and what it would mean for different situations that would arise that Crest responders would respond to, if that makes sense. And I'd be happy to reach out to DCF. I do have a couple connections there. I said we have some BIPOC social workers but I'm not I don't know if they do crisis management in their work and I'm and I'm thinking about Mrs. Wallace, and also Heather Lloyd. I know there's social workers. Don't we have like a black psychiatrist that is that work at UMass. Psychologist or somebody. Not necessarily coming to talk to us here maybe you know somebody can reach out to them or something. And, you know, we're not out of time that I would love to hear from staff of color in our school system. And, you know, they requested. Yeah. So we're not out of time. We didn't get any input from them. You know what they see in terms of, you know, you programming. Are there people on Ms. Moisten. I just have a clarity question. Because I keep hearing you mentioning that we're out of time and time is of the essence but I just am curious. Are you thinking that the terms expire in June. No. Are we not about expiring. Are we going to continue this? I think that you should most definitely put that in as one of the top recommendations. Yeah. Yeah. No, it, I thought you were I thought you were saying like thinking that June was the end of the term and it's not a final report, a final report. to get more voices. You know what we're submitting now, it has to do with money, but I would like our final report to also include other voices too that we haven't heard from. Okay. I just wanted to, for clarity purpose. Okay. Ms. Rarrow. I guess Ms. Moison, I guess I'm confused about that. I did think that out term ended in June unless they extended though. So did I miss something? It actually ends in September. Oh. Yeah. So I hold on one moment and I'll pull it up for you. Can you see? Not my desktop. Please tell me you don't see my desktop, but you see the charge in our webpage. Yeah, September one. Yeah. Oh, okay. I did not know that. I thought it was the end of June. Yeah, no. So that's good. I think you guys should know when you, you know, the group dissolves. But I, yeah, I don't, I mean, it would be best for you guys to continue. Community safety work doesn't end when your charge ends. You know what I mean? So we need to make a decision tonight. Like, who are we inviting next week? Who is going to talk to who, you know, split ourselves up? Do we want to invite all of the organizations or just have conversations and have people report back? Maybe you guys could build specific questions and then everybody asks those same questions perhaps. I don't know if that works because some places might be different if you're not, because we're also asking all of a sudden everybody just to come to this one meeting because that's it. And if they don't have that availability, you still want to be able to communicate with them. So why don't we do that? If they're not available, can they write something up for us with our questions? Would be one option if they can come. I think that would work really well. Do we have the time to develop the questions really quickly right now? Or is that something you all would want? A subcommittee to develop and approve by the group or I can develop the questions. I'm sure they'll be a little bit different for the different agencies. I can work with you. Okay. That sounds good. So then how are we going to do this? Are we just going to kind of say, you know, put out an invitation and see who, I guess that's the thing that I'm thinking through is like, are there some that we want to meet with or are we just going to put out an invitation and say, okay, these are the, you know, to the different agencies and see who's available and then the rest get the questions, I guess. We put out the invitation and people who are available can come and people who are not, maybe they can write up something to us. That's it, we can submit questions to them. Just for clarity, this is just social services. Are we including educators in this and, okay. Well, not as well. I think it wouldn't be like Mary Custer too. Yeah. Someone from the school cause we haven't talked to anyone from- We have not, yeah. System. We didn't even reach out to the Homa Wright Commission, either. So. Okay. This sounds good. I think it will be good, helpful to have their feedback too before we present to town council. What do you think, Ros? What are you thinking? I think it would be good to develop some questions, put them out to people, get some information as quickly as we can. So we have some of that information by the time, you know, if we get asked questions during our report to the town council or finance committee. And it may be that we'll, you know, if we do that with each of these organizations, we may get a better picture of who we'd like to have come in and spend some more time talking with us. I like that. That sounds good. You want to join us in the subcommittee, Ros? Sure. Okay. Thank you. Do we have to decide on a time for the subcommittee to meet tonight? Yeah. Because that's the thing you need to decide by when you'd need to have those questions out to the agency. We're going to do it that way because we only have one meeting before. One week, yeah. Can I suggest a possible different approach? Sure. If we have a subcommittee, then meetings have to be posted and everything and all in advance. If we ask Breonna to write the questions and suggest that others of us consult with her, she can consult with any one of us and she can consult with even two of us at once. There's no violation of the open meeting law. So rather than set up a subcommittee, I'd rather ask Breonna to do it and invite her to consult with any and all of us as part of the process. Sounds good. Yeah, that'll be fine. I mean, Miss Solland, you can just create a draft and then just share it with us and then we can give you feedback but just have a deadline by when. Okay. Yeah, that works for me too. I'm thinking it. I'll go ahead. Sorry, just to remind everybody, if we have feedback, we cannot send the feedback to each other. That becomes consulting with each other. We have to just send it to Breonna. Yeah, just send it to Breonna and the CC to Miss Moisten, that's how we'll do it. Sounds good. And if anybody, you know, if tonight you didn't remember a particular group or individual you can submit it to Breonna in the future, if there's somebody that we didn't thought about tonight. What about Summit Academy? That's kind of separate from the school but still in the school. What is that? Let's say that again. The Summit Academy program. So it's where, I don't know the best way to explain it, but it's where some of the children that have more behavioral issues who can't stay within the daily school structure go. And then there's also the building block program which I just happened to know that a large percentage of our young, like elementary school age children get sent to building blocks and then they go from building blocks to Summit Academy. So I, you know. So what type of special education? Well, sort of. Sort of. I mean, often it's hand in hand but it's not necessarily hand in hand. Yeah. It's like what Ms. Boyston said, like the behavioral a lot of times, you know. Because oftentimes they are involved with the police, with the law enforcement, you know, the school do call, sometimes parents call for help. Yeah. Very critical population that we didn't reach. You know, I thought about, yeah, about that too. So thank you for reminding me, reminding us. You guys had a lot of work to do in a very little amount of time. And so, you know. So I guess on a different topic, are we ever going to work on, you know, the visioning thing that Dr. Love recommended? I would very much like to see her actually do the work for the town, you know, and get compensated. She seems to have a good idea of what, you know, should happen. And I see that as part of healing process because there is so much heart and ill feelings among, you know, BIPOC folks that, you know, a process like that might help. It may not be tonight, but something for us to think about for the town to be aware that they need to budget aside because it's going to take time, it's going to take resources and, you know, to do it very well with qualified consultant to do it. Or fund, something like that. Mr. Vernon Jones. Yeah, I agree with that on this. I think it would be great for us to take that up. I think we need to deal with the more immediate issues around persuading the town council to back our recommendations. But before we disband, I would love to see us first of all, I hope we don't disband, but before our term comes to an end, I would like to see us really talk about it. I think there's a really important healing aspect to it. And, you know, as Michelle and Matthew were talking tonight, I was thinking that part of the problem is that an awful lot of folks in Amherst just don't have any vision or real notion of what would this town look like without white supremacy? What would it look like if, you know, if white people weren't dominant? And I think that's part of the process that Dr. Love was suggesting we initiate. And I think it could be a very powerful piece of what we're doing and in some ways more than what we're doing. I agree and I think it kind of fits with the second part of our charge too. When the APD came, I recognized their intention to continue to hear the voices of the community, but there's been several different community forums and healing needs to happen before BIPOC communities are approached for like, I'm not sure how many times at this point, but before they share these stories again. Cause it seems like there's a history and even in the last year, there's been three different forums of people sharing painful stories and people being brave, people who could experience retaliation, sharing their stories, hoping that change will come out of it and nothing happens. And sort of this repetitive theme is, let's do another forum. Before another forum happens, we need to envision what Amherst would look like without white supremacy and we need to heal. Healing needs to happen, I think. Yeah, that's right. So I just got a text from someone because I had mentioned what Mr. Ross did at Fort River School, the affinity group. Mr. Ross, if you don't mind, and they're not sure what you did in that school, instead of me rambling, it would be nice. And I will tell you, in my culture, we say it takes a village to raise a kid. And I can't talk enough about wonderful experiences that my kids had at Fort River School due to Mr. Ross's leadership. They became somebody today. It started at Fort River School. Take it from me. No, take it. Well, you know Ms. Patton well enough to know what an amazing parent she is. She made those children what they are. But if I was able to help, that's great. The short version is that we created an opportunity for fifth and sixth graders at lunchtime to meet in racial affinity groups. I think we had a black group, a Latinx group, a Cambodian group. We had a biracial group and we had a white group. There may have been others, but those are the ones I remember for sure. And the idea was to have a chance to talk with your peers about what's it like to be part of this identity? What's it like to be part of this identity at Fort River School? What's it like to be part of this identity in Amherst? And I worked with Dr. Ernie Washington at the university and he got some of the athletes and some other students and graduate students of color to come facilitate these groups. And he and I designed the process together and they met for, I don't know, eight weeks, maybe 10, several years. And then we also had groups where we mixed people from the groups, mixed students together in the mixed race groups. So they had an opportunity here from each other. And it was a very interesting thing to do. I've heard good reports, but Ms. Pat, it's great to know that it can impact on your children. I can tell you what it did to my two oldest children, Michael, he put a lot of confidence in him and ended up working at Wall Street. Who does that? And then for my daughter, who is certified public accountant and also a real estate developer in Atlanta, I mean, Milonia, that's who she is because of a lot of confidence that they got at Fort River School. I mean, we have wonderful teachers and principals in Amherst School System bed. That for my two years for my kids, I can't speak enough about it. I'm so grateful. I just want to raise that, that are good things that are happening and some people don't get recognized for the work they are doing. Thank you, Mr. Ross. It's true, it's true. Confidence, that's what it instilled in my children. That's so awesome. Mr. Vernon Jones, does this program still exist? Is it still up and running? No, we lost our source of facilitators and weren't able to replace it. I would love it to continue in the school system. I would love it to continue. Another life-changing experience, not for my children, but for myself is the study circle that was brought to Amherst. Of all groups or things, training I've ever done in this town, that was the most life-changing for me. And I wish it would come back. I don't even know how to describe it. It was through study circle that we created Radar Race, yeah. And I will hope, perhaps with a vision in or something, we need study circle for the whole town, like different groups, where people really speak from their hearts, no judgment, like very powerful. And it was started by a couple of white women from parents from high school. There are a lot of good things that have happened, but it seems like we have short memories about history in this town. And I can go on and on, but I would like those things, good old days to come back. Ms. Moyston. So I don't know how many people are familiar, I think Tashina, but so I just wanna say another program that was really helpful for a lot of the youth. I grew up in Village Park, which was considered low-income, or it is low-income housing, but we had that it takes a village to raise your family. But the Upward Bound program that I went to, and actually Ms. Frayer, your brother was my counselor, that's how I know him from there. And Ms. Mary and Liz and all of them just kind of follow, we've just been following each other through life. But that program, because once you hit like 13, 14, there's no camps available for you. I know that LSSE has tried over the years to create like an LIT program, like a leadership and training program, but the kids don't get paid. And I don't know, it's not like the top choice, but the Upward Bound program, and I know that that's through UMass, but that program is so beneficial for the youth and for them to have something to do. And they're being educated at the same time. We were on the UMass campus, so we definitely thought like we were the stuff, right? Cause we're walking around on campus in summer at night and hanging out with a little bit of taste of freedom of like this college prep live. And I just think that those types of programs could be highly utilized now for our junior high, early, you know, early high school, high school kids. I remember like one of the things that we did was we, there were study groups that happened at the New Africa house. And when the New Africa house was, you know, running back into the 90s the way it was, it was like, I remember like looking forward to it, to going to these groups. And it was kind of cool, like, so one of the things that I really, really miss about this community is when I was coming up in the 90s, there was a direct connection with UMass and the town of Amherst and the youth of Amherst. And there were things that were happening at UMass that the folks from upper bound would definitely really support and encourage the youth to attend programs that, you know, programs, concerts, you know, I remember it didn't necessarily stop when school was out. We still had a number of events that were happening at UMass that was very welcoming. And so every once in a while, wear this bright yellow t-shirt from Bright Moments. Bright Moments was a wonderful family-orientated concert that happened, that brought in performers from all over the world to, you know, share their music with our community, with our, you know, with our local community. And I knew that when it was Bright Moments, we could definitely, everybody went, like even if you didn't listen to that type of music, like everybody went, everybody got exposed to it, everybody, you know, and I think that especially getting a youth center up and running to really encourage the BIPOC community of UMass and Amherst College to be part of it and that being a place to really include like those students to do that kind of work with our youth would be great. Also, you know, one of the things that I really remember about the Up or Down program, wasn't just limited to females kind of teaching everybody, like there were definitely male leaders, like Sid, who were part of that community who really made sure that looked out for our youth who like our youth could call on if, you know, they ever like were having, you know, anything go on that they were struggling with, whether it be academically or otherwise. Like, and I really feel like, you know, we can look at the history that has gone on in Amherst and we can pull from some of those things that really helped along the way and incorporate that into what we're doing now. And then that way, some of the things that unfortunately fell by the wayside can, you know, be rekindled, can be rekindled and reworked in a way that can potentially work better. And so I think that's part of what's really important to remember is like, there are those opportunities out there and especially now with so many students from UMass in particular living off campus, you know, there are ways that we can, I think that we can really get them involved, you know, going to football games, going to soccer games, you know what I'm saying? Like we can really make this something that works for our community and for what we're working with in our community because at the same time that we have, you know, we have this community of Amherst but then we have the community of Amherst, like the Amherst that includes all these universities that are in the area, all this. So I think there are ways that we can really tap in to support our youth, especially our BIPOC youth and our BIPOC families, you know? Because a lot of those things, you know, I remember being able, like my mom being able to bring us the stuff because it was discounted or free because we were associated with, you know, this group or that, you know what I'm saying? Like so, you know, my mom ran a children's African dance group and we got to perform at Bright Moments, like what? You know, like that was something that was really important. And so I think that we can really tie these things in, you know, like Mr. Vernon Jones, the program that he, you know, started at Fort River, like how can we incorporate that, you know, to make that part of, you know, what the further education, what we're doing, you know? And I have to say that, you know, it's really for our youth because at the end of the day, you know, I spent way too much time over the pandemic on TikTok. But one thing I noticed about TikTok is that are these young kids that are coming up are so hungry for knowledge and are doing research that like they're finding, they're researching things that like I never knew to look up, you know what I'm saying? And now I'm looking up stuff that I wasn't even, you know, that I wasn't even aware of. And so I think that we have an opportunity to really set forth a community that really sets an example for the rest of this nation. And so we need to make sure we're tapping into that. And part of it is tapping into the history of things that did work, not just the history of things that didn't work. Hi, Ms. Pat. I'll be very quick. I'll be very quick. So that's one of my vision for CSWG moving forward in addition to us, you know, making sure that it's accountability with the Cres Program that has been set up and other programs. Also, I'm hoping that we will use this platform to also recommend to the town officials, you know, things that will prevent crisis in the first place, you know, preventative programming. And I'm hoping that, you know, there was, you know, we can use this platform to do stuff like that, to reach out to like the school system, like this is what has happened in the past, you know, let's, you know, bring it back. There has to be a body like BIPOC majority, you know, directing the town as to what we would like to see that is beneficial for our community. So that's what I'm hoping, you know, this group will do in the future. That's what I wanna say. Thank you, Ms. Pat. Ms. Ferrara and then Mr. Vernon Jones. Yeah, I just been looking at the time, you know, even though obviously all of this is wonderful, but I think we need to figure out what we're gonna do for the presentation and then the finance committee. So that's all, because it's 7.45 and we haven't done anything. And I'm gonna have to go soon. Ms. Ferrara, I hear you. Mr. Vernon Jones, do you wanna make your comment or question and then we can move to the next agenda item? Only that I agree with Ms. Ferrara and I'm limited on how long I can stay tonight. Okay, awesome. So the next agenda item is the subcommittee. Ms. Bowman and Ms. Walker were on that subcommittee with me and we also worked with seven gen to put, start putting together and outline of our presentation for town council. I did reach out to Lynn Griezmer. I hope I'm saying that right. Our presentation, the time that we have is 15 to 20 minutes to present. And then we have 15 to 20 minutes for questions and answers. What I wanted to bring to the group today is to make a decision on who should present, who should do the presentation. Or if it's a one-person job, a two-person job, if multiple people should be involved in what you guys' thoughts were on that. Ms. Pat. I think it should be the two co-chairs if that's okay with the group. Does anybody else have thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, I definitely think it should be two people presenting because obviously, just a one person, first it's not engaging and then two, that's a lot to put on one person. So at least two people, I'm fine with it being the two chairs, the co-chairs as long as that's what they wanna do. I think we all should be at the meeting though because obviously there's gonna be lots of questions and things like that. So I think we should all be prepared to kind of assist and help out. And then I guess the other question that I have is just around the presentation. Did you all want us to look at that and give any feedback? I mean, I guess that's still a little bit of a question mark to me as to what that looks like. Ms. Moyston question, am I breaking open meeting law if I share the presentation that we started putting together with the other group members or does it have to be in a packet or? Oh, I can't hear you. Right now, or if you send it out in an email later, like if you send it out in an email after the meeting and then we can put it in next week's packet. Okay, perfect. If you can send it out, yeah, that'll be good. Do you want, when you send it out, do you want us to send you any feedback? Definitely, I started the presentation and there are a lot of blank spots that we obviously need to go back and put information on. What's there is really an outline. And again, with this, if you guys have any photos that you want to add to the presentation to make it more like unique to Amherst, I'm all on board for that too. In the presentation, there is not footnotes but like presentation notes that are different points that we need to research and put more information in on each slide. So that's why it's a little bit unorganized but I can definitely send that out to the group after this meeting. Or maybe Friday or something, yeah. Also, oh, sorry, go ahead, Mr. Bernadonis. I'm very comfortable with our two co-chairs being the primary presenters. I think everyone on this group has played such a significant role that I would really like at some point in the report for each of us to get to say one or two sentences, whether it's just why we think this really matters or in some way to hear everyone's voice, for me would be important. Ms. Bellman. What I was just gonna say is that I think it's great if our two co-chairs present. I would be willing to help with presenting but I just have a question about it. So once all the slides are done, right? Once we get all the information we need to get on the slides, are we basically just presenting off the slide or is that what we're doing? Cause like I'm good with speaking with prompts but yeah, I'm... So my sort of understanding or like my vision of what the presentation would look like I personally feel like 15 to 20 minutes is a really limited amount of time for the amount of stuff that we have to get out there. You all will see in the presentation that I sent out tonight that we sort of laid the bricks to talk about the historical context of the police and then to talk about the historical presence of the police in Amherst and what white supremacy in Amherst looks like and sort of things that have been building up. So I think we should go off of the slides just so we're organized and yeah, I do agree that if we have time it would be cool if we could all read a sentence and talk about why we joined the committee but again, I just wanna make sure we have enough time to get through all of the content because it is a lot and I assume they are probably gonna have some questions. Ms. Pat? I think it would be very powerful if we include someone Jen in the presentation because I know some town councilors are concerned about the money that was spent on it. I think it would be good for them to actually talk about the work that they did. I don't think any of us sitting here can do justice to the work that they did. So I hope we will consider having them as part of the panel. I'm talking about in addition to the two co-chairs maybe reach out to Seven Gen for them to get two rep to join the four primary to present. I would like them to do their own presentation what they did for us. I'm definitely on board with that also and I think that they'll be able to explain PAR and why they chose PAR and talk about their research. Ms. Walker has her hand up. Thank you, Brianna. We actually had a meeting with Seven Gen to discuss the presentation and we went through all of our we have the outlines of our slides already available and we went over that and the order of the slides with them. And we did actually insert two slides specifically dedicated to Seven Gen and we left them blank so that they can design what information would go on those slides. And one of them is about how they conducted their research and then the second one would be about their findings and recommendations. So that is, there is an outline for that to happen. The information isn't actually in there now but once you guys can see the document you'll see the blank slides there. Did anybody else have any questions about the presentation, Ms. Pat? So again, you know, this speaks to who makes decision. We've been meeting for months now every week and they're giving us 20 minutes to present and 20 minutes to why not devote the whole evening? We're talking about BIPOC community in this town. African, African-American, Hispanic and all different groups, Asian, you know, about our issues. And they're only giving us 20 half an hour. I think we should renegotiate. Let them devote the evening for us. We deserve it. If everybody's on board with that, I'm very comfortable with reaching back out and asking for more time. I do think 15 to 20 minutes is just very short amount of time, even just for our recommendations. Yeah. How's the group feeling about that? They should give us an hour to do what we want to do and do it very well. And this comes down to who makes decision. They came just like, you know, a lot of time for us and say, this is what you work within it. That doesn't fly for me. Ms. Walker. So I agree with Ms. Pat actually. And I think I would also be interested in seeing if there's a way that we can get more time. Just because I think we have an incredible amount of information and an incredible amount of explaining that we can do. And I think limiting our time really makes us have to pick and choose what we're using. And if we had more time, we could really make a very robust and thoughtful presentation. Not that ours wouldn't be thoughtful anyways, but I just think the length of time would really impact the amount of information and the message we can get across. So I would be interested in asking for more time. I'm not sure if that will be a possibility. And then I also just wanted to say that I'm in agreement with Mr. Vernon Jones statement earlier that if it is possible to have every member like show their face and speak for even just a minute, I think it would be very powerful because we are all individuals and very unique. And I think it would be helpful. And having more time would also allow us to make that happen. Mr. Vernon Jones. I think it'd be great for us to have more time if that's possible. When you talk with whoever it is, whether it's the president of the council, I would appreciate if you could find out a little more about the relationship between our presentation to the whole town council and our presentation to the finance committee. To what extent we need to repeat things for the finance committee and to what extent we'll have an opportunity to expand on what we've said. And also, I don't have any idea how much time we may get with the finance committee and be helpful to know that as well. So this is a perfect segue. Lynn Griezmer sent me a doodle poll and I'm sure other members in the CSWG got that doodle poll. I was wondering if before we hop off the meeting if we could all come to agreement on a time that works best for our entire group or as many as possible of us to attend that finance committee meeting. The dates that were proposed were May 26th and May 27th and the time windows were 530 to 630 and then six to seven. And Mr. Vernon Jones, I can definitely ask for clarity on the difference between the presentation that the finance committee versus the town council. When we talked about it, we were talking about that. We thought Thursday would be better because we'd have time Wednesday to be in our meeting, right? I think we'll- Ms. Moyston. That was backwards because starting next week, we meet on Thursdays. So it was like, can we meet on, can you guys meet with the council and the finance committee on Wednesday the 26th at, I'm sorry, I closed the poll. Oh, I have it up. 530 to 630 or six to seven? Six to seven. Yeah, I can do 530, I can do six to seven. Okay, and Wednesday works for everyone? Yes. Yeah, six to seven, yeah. I will respond on behalf of the working group and say that that's the time that works best for us. I also wanted to let you all know I am going to do my best to attend the finance committee meeting this Thursday. Even though we're not presenting, I think it's important that members of the community safety working group here, what the APD wants in their budget and their meeting with the finance committee. I agree. Mr. Vernon Jones. Brianna, when you find out the Zoom link for that finance committee meeting, could you just share it with all of us? Yes. I'll link it on the website too. Also, what time is the meeting on the 24th with the town council, just so I could put it on my calendar? It's 630. And you said it's on the website, the town of Amherst website? It should be under the town on the town calendar. So if you click on, I mean, it should have already been posted by now because it's Wednesday and the meeting is tomorrow. So if you click on 12, I mean, I'm sorry, on May 13th on the calendar, it'll pull up all the meetings for the 13th. And it should include the finance committee and then the link is right in there. Not that one. I mean, I can send it out to you guys and find it just as easy, but I'm just... Okay, yeah, yeah, send it to us, please. Yeah. Okay. Oh, go ahead. I just, I have to say for logistical purposes that it was brought to my attention that people had not received their retroactive paychecks that had submitted their HR paperwork, right? So you would have received two paychecks only for $100, but you should have received paychecks starting all the way back from December. And so those should be coming out in the next payroll. So we will always be paid during, you guys will always be paid the second pay period of the month. And so that is coming out, that retro payment for those who have submitted their paperwork will come out on the 21st. Thank you, Ms. Weinstein. I didn't follow up with that. I'm sorry. I thought I didn't think I needed to, but apparently I did so. Thank you, Ms. Weinstein. Thank you. Did the group have anything else that they wanted to bring up before we moved toward leaving? Mr. Vernon Jones. I noticed that Lynn Greesmere, the president of the town council is in the audience and has her hand up. I don't know whether we wanna give her an opportunity to. Does everybody have time to extend the meeting longer to let her in or are we on it? Yes. Yes. That's fine. Hi. So I don't want to extend your meeting very long. I just wanted to mention that the, so I've been also calling the town council and we wanna make sure that first of all, if we do the evening meeting, it will be for however long it goes. It can be well, this is for the finance committee meeting that it can go well beyond an hour. And so right now, the best time for the town council is in fact Thursday at 5.30, maybe six, because I know one of you mentioned that six would be better. So if that was possible for the more full discussion with the finance committee meeting, and then I'll work with Brianna to see what we can do with the town council meeting in terms of the time that you're looking for on the 24th, okay? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vernon Jones. Well, I would propose we meet at the time that the most town councilors can join the finance committee that Thursday would be great. I wonder if we could have our meeting on Wednesday. We previously said it was available to meet with finance could we meet with each other? Let's do that. Okay. I'm still at six, right? On Wednesday at six. On Wednesday at six, on 5.45, yeah. No, I can't do 5.45. I don't want to go six. That's what I was telling you all. Six. 26, it would have to be, it would have to be at six. So then we would meet 5.26 at 6 p.m. for our regular meeting and then we would meet at what time on Thursday. 5.30 or six, whatever works for you, Deborah. Yeah, that's fine. I can do 5.30 or six for this one. Okay. 5.30 is when I have the most councilors. And there will also be an opportunity. You will, you are going to be the only agenda item that night. And they'll be an opportunity for you to present for us to ask questions and for there to be public comment. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much for that clarity. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Councillor Griezmer, this is an addition to them presenting on the 24th. That's correct. Okay. I heard the conversation about wanting a little more time on the 24th and I'll see what I can do. That agenda is actually much better than the agenda for the 17th. So I'm glad we moved it to the 24th. And I'll try to come up with a time certain on the 24th so people aren't waiting around. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Great. I just need to know if everybody's going to attend that meeting. So cause on the 24th to present because I will need to post a meeting. If you guys are all going to meet, I think it would be best for me to post a meeting. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Okay. So I want to motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? I'll second it. And I guess we can just do, we can all raise our hand if we're in agreement and then head out. Thank you all. I will send the PowerPoint and I'll start working on those questions for social services and people in the community. And I look forward to hearing you guys's feedback on the questions. I need Brianna and Alicia. I just have a quick question. Anybody's welcome to stay. But at some point we were talking about questions that Paul had sent or the town manager had sent. And then, but not everybody had received those questions. And so I want to make sure that I'm looking at, I just want if Alicia, are you there? Yes. And I can forward them to you. I think I have them. But yeah, if you could forward, but I don't want to, I mean, I just want to make sure I'm sending the right thing. So yes, please send it to me. And then I'll forward it. Yes, absolutely. I will do that right away. Thank you. That was creepy. Well, thank you everybody. Good night. Thanks. Thank you. Bye everybody.