Uniting Dayton for Human Rights needs your voice
Uniting Dayton for Human Rights is a diverse movement of community members working toward making Dayton a Human Rights City, one where government officials and residents work together in an open, participatory way to reduce inequality and discrimination and improve the well-being of all residents.
About 50 human rights cities exist worldwide, including 11 in the U.S. Human rights apply to all human beings, are clear and concise, and set the minimum conditions for people to live with dignity.
Our group has been meeting for the past 15 months. We bring together community leaders, activists, scholars and anyone concerned about our community to develop a shared vision and plan. We looked at examples from other human rights cities and their diverse approaches.
The meetings are lively and exciting. Folks come with many perspectives and backgrounds. We all want to make Dayton a better place, but we don’t always agree on the details. We have much to share, but we need more knowledge from the people of Dayton. Folks from all walks of life have realworld expertise, wisdom and lived experiences that need to be included.
We are following a twopart strategy to make Dayton a human rights city:
■ We will work with city officials to draft a formal resolution declaring Dayton a Human Rights City, including clear language about the city’s efforts to improve human rights.
■ We will work to create a groundswell of knowledge about and support for human rights citywide with a series of interactive workshops where knowledge is generated and shared by participants and organizers.
We held the first of these workshops on
Feb. 23 at the Northwest Branch of the Dayton Metro Library. More than 30 participants worked in groups to share information on important issues facing people in the city and possible solutions.
Poverty, racism, inequality, education, housing insecurity, violence, lack of opportunity, food insecurity and lack of access to health care were some of the problems identified. The responses revealed a complex web of social, cultural, economic, political and personal factors to address.
Education, awareness-raising and community action were seen as critical next steps. Many also called for better, more transparent connections between local officials and residents.
We talked about how becoming a Human Rights City can help to improve participation in local democracy and accountability. We agreed to try to engage more young people, emerging leaders and the faith community.
We ended with a pledge to take action. Participants wrote down their next steps. Most promised to spread the word, get more involved, and bring at least one new person to the next meeting.
Our next workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the University of Dayton School of Law’s Keller Hall. It is open to all. Please help us in Uniting Dayton for Human Rights. Call 937229-3294 or email HRC@udayton.edu to register.