Social Equity Committee will host workshop Monday
A city committee formed to tackle the issue of social equity and racism in Sonora will host a public and online workshop on Monday to promote discussion on the topics and guide their eventual drafting of a resolution for the Sonora City Council.
“This workshop is really about communication, shared language and different strategies,” said Councilwoman Colette Such, who sits on the Social Equity Committee. “Hopefully it can be a little more interactive … It’s for all of us.”
The event is billed through an online flier as “Social Equity Starts With Me.” It later adds that it is intended to promote “inclusivity, listening and social equity in the community.”
The event will be live streamed through Zoom to allow for public participation and ensure safety protocols due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. All of the previous committee meetings have been hosted through Zoom.
“It offers us a little more freedom,” Such said. “I think we’ve moved beyond the tension, and a lot of good work has happened kind of organically.”
The meeting is scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday.
Such said she has shared the event with multiple stakeholders in the community, including the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors, the Superintendent of Schools Office, the Yes Partnership and Columbia College.
“It’s just an opportunity for people of different walks of life to get together and discuss what is meant by social equity and just get a better understanding of where everyone is coming from,” said Councilman Jim Garaventa, who also sits on the committee.
Garaventa added that the workshop could also act as a platform to diffuse much of the politicized and partisan rhetoric that surrounds discussions of racism and other topics.
“I’m more interested in people getting a better understanding of where everybody is
coming from,” he said.
The workshop will be hosted by Lynn Peters, who is described in her biography posted to the city website as a “social-justice practitioner with 30 years of nonprofit and community organizing experience working to change cultural norms around violence, racism and oppression.”
Peters is based on the East Coast and will guide the workshop at no cost to the city. She has previously worked to support domestic violence survivors and has hosted other “learning circles for leadership to support more inclusive and equitable practices, provided national training and technical assistance for organizations developing diversity, equity and inclusion programs, facilitated workshops on topics such as implicit bias, dominant culture and allyship, and worked on community-change strategies around substance misuse and community violence.”
According to the biography, Peters has a bachelor’s from the University of Redlands, California, and a master’s of science in jurisprudence degree from Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism in Evanston/ Chicago.
The framework of the meeting will likely be guided by Peters on a general discussion of social equity topics rather than a deep-dig into the challenges facing Sonora, though Garaventa said they may touch on those topics.
“This is something she does. It may be a more broad outlook. There may be topics that are local that will come up,” he said.
Committee member Nikki Coleman said she wanted the workshop to be a safe and open discussion to learn new terms and ask questions.
“I’m thrilled for the opportunity for the workshop, honestly,” she said. “We all want the same things for our community. We’re just speaking different languages. This workshop will help bridge some gaps and help us to start communicating more. The most important part is knowing we have more in common that we think we do.”
The group has previously garnered criticism — even from within its own ranks — for its intent, focus and organization. In January, the city council approved the workshop above a discussion about the efficacy of the group and its publicly stated goal of drafting a resolution to be considered by the council.
The council representatives on the committee were asked to modify the directed outcomes of the committee in order to host the workshop.
At the time, Councilman Mark Plummer commended the participants, but also voted against the workshop because he hoped the group would complete the work sooner.
Others have claimed that the committee’s progress often has been stymied by the limits of a one-hour meeting every two weeks.
Committee member Darren Duez said he is excited to participate in the workshop, though he wants to discuss how the topics “correlate to our community problems.”
“I would like to focus on things we can grasp, what we can handle. We’re not downtown Chicago,” Duez said. “But any discussion is a good discussion.”
The Sonora City Council approved vision and mission statements for the committee at its last meeting.
Later, Such said, the Social Equity Committee will move into unachieved outcomes such as an eventual resolution to be submitted to the City Council and possibly updating city policies on racial and cultural sensitivity.
At its last meeting, Such said the committee crafted values statements for the city that included concepts related to equity. She said they were crafted with assistance and participation from local stakeholders and indigenous tribes.
The value statements were:
We value our city’s social and racial diversity and our commitment to protection, safety, property, and a sense of belonging for all
We recognize the diverse groups of people who lived on this land before us, and their continued contributions to our city’s history
We value the Tuolumne and Chicken Ranch Bands of Me-wuk Indians and respect their heritage, culture, and lasting impact in this community through the centuries. (This statement was crafted with assistance from Chairman of the Chicken Ranch Rancheria Tribal Council Lloyd Mathiesen, Tribal Chair of the Tuolumne Band of Me Wuk Indians Andrea Reich and Coleman)