Input needed for Community Safety

From the city of Eugene’s Community Safety Initiative Engagement Team:

Hello,

The killing of George Floyd and other people of color and the disparate impacts our justice system has on black, indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) has highlighted the need to reflect marginalized voices in decisions involving community safety.  Eugene City Council recognized this and directed the City Manager to convene BIPOC representatives and their allies for input on changes or additions to the Community Safety Initiative (CSI).

We’re reaching out to you today to link you to a webinar on the Community Safety Initiative (CSI) and, if you identify as part of the BIPOC community, to ask that you sign up for one of our scheduled focus group meetings.  The webinar is open to everyone and linked to the CSI engagement webpage (www.eugene-or.gov/CSIengagement) and can be viewed here.  It takes less time to watch than an episode of your favorite sitcom! We want everyone to have a baseline understanding of the CSI and it’s source of funding—the payroll tax.  We hope to maximize our time together listening to your perspectives on how the CSI can best respond to community safety needs. So, it is important that you view the webinar before attending an upcoming meeting or focus group.    If you have questions about the content of the webinar you can submit them through our webpage or via this link.  We will be preparing a Q&A document answering all questions submitted.

Focus group sessions for BIPOC representatives will take place between December 4-10. Please sign up online for one of the sessions and let us know if you have any accommodation needs.  Community engagement in a virtual world is challenging but we will do our best to ensure you are able to participate fully.  To compensate focus group participants for their time we will be raffling a chance to win one of five $50 gift cards to Fred Meyers.  Please forward this opportunity to friends and colleagues in the Eugene BIPOC community that may be interested in participating.

While focus group sessions are limited to the BIPOC community, additional meetings on this topic will be scheduled in January 2021 to provide a forum for the general public to provide input.  We will send out updates on meeting dates/times once they are calendared.  A survey is also forthcoming and will be made available to anyone that lives or works in Eugene.

We realize these are busy times and we’re approaching the holiday season.  We truly appreciate you making time to participate in this process.  If you have any questions feel free to reply to this email or contact one of the team below.  Thank you!

Community Safety Initiative Engagement Team
Michael Kinnison MKinnison@eugene-or.gov
Lorna Flormoe LFlormoe@eugene-or.gov
Fabio Andrade FAndrade@eugene-or.gov
Kaz Zaidi KZaidi@eugene-or.gov