Concord focuses on equity at listening sessions

By JAMIE L. COSTA

Monitor staff

Published: 05-07-2023 3:34 PM

Change is inevitable. And change breeds fear, said Reheb Abagegni.

It’s the people who fear change that the city must address in order to become a more inclusive community for all. she said.

“Those that look you up and down and say you shouldn’t wear a hijab in American or don’t speak Spanish on the street, we’re in America,” she said. “Those are the people that we need to focus on – it’s not only them that are the problem it’s their children that are growing up with our children and it’s not fair for my kids to feel that feeling at five years old.”

She was one of more than 120 community members who gathered to listen to their peers and share ideas to make the city of Concord a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community.

“This is going to the hands of people that are open to it,” Abagegni said of the city’s efforts. “How do we get it to the people that aren’t to it?”

The city-appointed diversity and inclusion committee, comprised of Mayor Jim Bouley and city councilors Byron Champlin and Zandra Rice-Hawkins, hosted three listening sessions aimed to create and sustain an inclusive process for public engagement for all residents to feel a sense of belonging and to participate in the decision-making processes that impact their lives.

Long term goals of the committee include creating a standing advisory board that would recommend specific changes to make Concord a place where all residents feel empowered.

As a result of the listening sessions, residents and community members shed light on short term and long term goals the city can work toward, including bringing more diversity to city government, tackling racism and religious expression within the school districts, reaching out to marginalized communities to engage with their city leaders, recognizing disabled individuals and accommodating them equitably, providing accessibility to all publicly accessible amenities, and embracing diverse communities of refugees, immigrants and new Americans while provifing them with resources to succeed.

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The three listening sessions were held Monday, Thursday and Saturday at different times and locations in the city to provide greater access than a single meeting at City Hall.

Minority-lead boards and committees

Bring people’s lived experiences to city boards, committees and discussions would allow them to share their voices and their stories from within the community to invoke change.

“People of minorities should be on committees so our representation can be fair and be part of the decision making process within the council,” said Kalamoh Donzo, a member of the Community Development Advisory Committee. “Most of our people are not informed about decisions being made that are affecting them and they’re not represented proportionally.”

Donzo suggested the long term advisory board specifically include leaders of historically marginalized communities. Those closest to the pain should be closest to the power for solution, Donzo said.

But the representation should not stop with refugees, immigrants and new Americans. These boards should be comprised of those with mental health and substance use disorders, physical and mental disabilities and the unhoused population who are also seeking diversity and inclusion but likely don’t have the means to join, speak up or engage with their city leaders, Donzo and others said.

Community engagement and empowerment

“How do we encourage active participation and community engagement from all members of the communities, including marginalized groups and minorities?” asked Martin Toe. “There should never be a community meeting where folks of different tones aren’t in the room.”

To do that, the community could connect with each other through culture, cuisine, music and shared interests, suggested Ahni Malachi of Penacook. By looking around at what other cities are doing and paying attention to the resources Concord already has, the city can become more interconnected.

“A welcoming city like Concord should embrace diversity and promote cultural sensitivity by respecting and celebrating cultures and beliefs of the communities regardless of their backgrounds,” Toe said. “Some of us in here might not see color but I know when you go and buy flowers, you’re looking for all the colors.”

To encourage more community engagement and empowerment, Kate West suggested the city work to remove barriers that prevent people of color from being involved in bodies of power where oftentimes, white people lead the desicion making process and don’t consider outside perspectives. Concord’s City Council, for example, is all white, as are all the top employees in city government.

Disabilities

Sheila Zakre, who is part of the disabled community, asked the committee to consider not just marginalized communities of color, but the disabled community, too, which makes up the largest minority group in Concord, she said.

“We’re not often thought of when thinking about diversity, equity and inclusion,” she said.

Providing accessibility to city government and resources has been the biggest challenge involving diversity and inclusion in the city. Disabled individuals can benefit from assisted listening devices installed in the City Council chambers, transportation to community meetings and access to community meetings via Zoom for all city residents to participate if they can’t leave their homes.

Additionally, Zakre would like to see all parks and playgrounds made accessible for both children and caregivers and asked the committee to enact an accessibility policy.

But the disabled community does not just include physical and mental ailments, said Connor Spern. It also includes substance use and mental health disorders and the unhoused population. Overall, she would like to see more supports in place for those populations, too.

Access verus accessibility

“Everyone in the community has access to parks, libraries, the river, pools, walking paths, but just because they have access doesn’t mean they’re accessible,” said Alan Herschlag. “This doesn’t apply to people of color, refugees, disabled people or people in low-income areas.”

When the city looks at how services are provided, leaders need to look at the entire community, he continued, to make sure the city is moving forward as a community to make newer members feel welcomed, comfortable, encouraged and able to take advantage of the resources within the city, to include transportation.

Public transit only runs during the week, several attendees pointed out. The committee was asked to look into increasing the hours of operation of public transit and expanding routes throughout all parts of the city. Additionally, Spern suggested the city provide additional services and locations for the unhoused during all hours of the day.

Additionally, many demanded the committee reduce and eliminate fees associated with the community center for new American youth and community organizations to partake in sports and use community facilities.

Resources

Immigrating to a new country to seek refuge from a homeland that is riddled with fear, war and often death is brave. It’s empowering.

But coming to Concord without access to resources prevents them being successful, said Fisto Ndayishimiye, who has been a leader of diversity and inclusion in the city.

Access to English and citizenship classes, tutoring, city government and city education, computer training, career development and interpreters will be key to their success and should be a staple in their arrival to the city.

“The lack of resources is why you don’t see members of the BIPOC community present at these discussions,” he said. “We need to find a better way to get them here. Their languages aren’t prohibited; how are they supposed to feel welcome in a community where they can’t speak their languages?”

Others suggested providing the police department with additional resources for cultural competency training, mental health training and diversity and inclusion training to better serve their community and eliminate implicit biases.

Listening sessions like these are an opportunity to share across communities, said James McKim of the Manchester branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. And this is just the start of a much larger, long term project in which city councilors will dedicate an advisory board of marginalized representation to tackle racism and bring more diversity, inclusion and equity to the city and the community.

“Change begins with listening,” McKim said. “These kind of listening sessions are so critical; you have the power to make this happen, so go do it.”

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