The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2021-04-08-LHRC-min Town of Lexington, Human Rights Committee Meeting Thursday, April 8, 2021 Virtual 9:OOa.m.-10:33a.m Present: Committee Members: Monami D. Roy [MDR] (Chair), Tanya Gisolfi [TG] (Vice Chair), Stephanie Hayes Hsu [SH], Scott Bokun [SB] (School Department Member), Melissa Interess [MI] (Town Manager's Office Member/Human Services Department) Meeting called to order at 9:02 AM, Quorum was present at 9:02 AM 1. Welcome 2. Minutes • SB moved to accept the March 11, 2021, minutes with missing document to added; TG— Seconded; Passed 3. Proclamation to recognize May as AAPI Heritage Month—Will retitle as Asian American and Pacific Islander(AAPI)Heritage Month Proclamation. • SB moved to accept the Asian American and Pacific Islander(AAPI) Heritage Month Proclamation with changes to language to ensure consistency; MI- Second; Passed 4. Proclamation to recognize May as Mental Health Awareness Month • TG moved to accept Proclamation to recognize May as Mental Health Awareness Month; MI— second; Passed 5. Co-sponsorship Request for month of May AAPI Heritage Month Initiative (Proud to be American: Celebrating Asian Americans)—multiple cultural groups • SH—motion to Co-sponsorship Request for month of May AAPI Heritage Month Initiative; SB — Second; Passed 6. CALex co-sponsorship request for program: My American Story • MI—Human Services also co-sponsoring. • MI moved to Co-sponsor CALex: My American Story program; SB — Second; Passed 7. Co-sponsorship request from LexPride June Pride Month events • MI—Human Services working with LexPride. • TG requested that flyers be shared for this and all other events happening so that we can share. • SB moved to support LexPride month activities; TG— Second; Passed 8. Member Reports and Updates • SB • Spent an hour with Boston Equity Action Teams and METCO students. • Will attend the Asian Pride Rally. • TG requested information about METCO related events. • MDR—Is there more we can do to support our METCO students? • TG • Racial Disparities in Health workgroup on hold for the moment as they determine next steps. • We have two Active Bystander trainings coming up, one April 28, for town staff, the other is June 5, for the community. • Town Meeting supported the COD article unanimously. • MI • Mental health Survey being finalized now; postcards will be going out to all households with some translation available. • Events • Life on the Autism Spectrum—April 12 • Supporting Your Child's Mental Health During COVID-19 Transition Back to In-Person School—April 15 • May Is Mental Health Month Event—May 11 • QPR Training—Question Persuade Refer Suicide Prevention Training— Several trainings coming up May 10, 12, 14 • How are we doing on demographic outreach and response to this program? • Tony Serio— Consistency of trainings help with the outreach to all populations • Human Services working with LPD, CALex and the Recreation Center to develop a safety program that will launch in late April/May around how to address hate and hate speech when encountered. • SH • Intersectionality Event—working with Fuang-Ping Huang, Valerie Overton and Larry Freeman. • We are working on a panel of 5 speakers talk from their unique perspectives across race, disability, age, faith, LGBTQ+. Considering having breakout groups for deeper discussions with speakers rotating through to answer questions. Breakouts would report back/share, followed by closing remarks. • We will bookend the panelist portion with slideshow display of artwork from our community around Race Amity and Intersectionality. We would like to reach out to schools and community to encourage all to participate. We would also like to look for another way to display this work publicly. • Suggested time of event is 1-2 pm which would not overlap with Pride events which begin around 2:30pm and allow for participation in both. • Plan for artwork request will be handled by SH/FH. • Find panelist—Valerie/Larry/others • Race Amity—FH is working on trivia questions—more to come. 9. Work group Presentation—Housing Group • Fair Housing Presentation—We have postponed our presentation due to a conflict with the WestMetro Home Consortium's (WMHC)Fair Housing Workshop. Lexington is part of the WMHC. • The WMHC Fair Housing Workshop is covering much of the information work group were planning on presenting. • WMHC sent out their flyers Friday April 2, to all the key audiences work group would also be inviting. • We will be reaching out to our Lexington liaisons for WMHC for more information to learn more about workshop and WMHC and RHSO and Lexington's involvement. The goal is to see how we might expand on the learning offered and create a Lexington focused discussion or presentation. • We will follow-up with Catherine LaRaia from Suffolk University about how to tailor a future training that can be more Lexington focused or to dive into the implicit bias in fair housing. A date for this would be planned either for June or early fall. • Housing Webpage for HRC —Work group is working on creating a resource page that includes the Housing Glossary and links to Lexington specific housing resources and committees, as well as a section for learning more about fair housing. We are looking at Newton and Needham as examples of towns who have created a robust site around housing in general and fair housing. Timeline is to have this ready by end of April. • Jill Hai—Will connect SH with Kathy Santos and Sean Dugan who can help you design the page and make sure it is searchable. • Melinda Walker shared her concerns about Lexington's commitment to housing concerns and that we are one of the few towns comparable to Lexington that doesn't have a dedicated housing director to consolidate and coordinate housing committees/boards/organizations work. 10. Upcoming Events and Future Programs • Life on the Autism Spectrum—April 12 • Supporting Your Child's Mental Health During COVID-19 Transition Back to In-Person School—April 15 • May Is Mental Health Month Event—May 11 • QPR Training—Question Persuade Refer Suicide Prevention Training— Several trainings coming up May 10, 12, 14 • WMHC Fair Housing Workshops—April 11 & 29 • TAB —April 28 & June 5 • Asian Pride Rally—April 11, 2021 • Race Amity Day —June 13 • LexPride Event—June 13 • Intersectionality Event—June 13 11. Chair Report—MDR • Recognized the great job Fuang-Ping Huang did at the Stop Asian Hate Vigil. 12. Unexpected Items Not Reasonably Anticipated in Advance • TG—HRC Clerk duties— SH has taken on the notetaking duties of Clerk since January in the absence of current Clerk Georgia Swann and we should think about making this a permanent change. • MDR— Since we don't have a full committee, we should vote on this in May when more of us are available. 13. Public Comments for Items Not on the Agenda 14. Confirm Next Meeting Date and Time—May 6, 2021, at 9 am Motion to Adjourn: SB Seconded: TG Meeting Adjourned: 10:33AM Next Meeting Date and Time May 6 at 9:00 AM LIST OF DOCUMENTS 1. LHRC Chair Report 2. AAPI Heritage Month Proclamation 3. Mental Health Awareness Month Proclamation 4. CALex Sponsorship Request for My American Story 5. LexPride Sponsorship Request June Pride Month Events 6. Sponsorship Request for Proud To Be American (Various Cultural Groups)