Good afternoon everyone. Um welcome back to the um the start of the fiscal year for the human rights commission. I hope everyone had an amazing summer. Um today as you can see we are located at the city council chambers and we will start our meeting um momentarily. Um, I would
like to call the meeting to order and start calling uh start doing roll call for uh commissioners. Um, Dr. Garcia, >> hi. >> Commissioner Ku Pitch >> here.
>> New Commissioner Albert Alberti >> here. >> All right. And lastly, but not least, um, Commissioner Sheayla Johnson >> here. >> And our fellow uh, um, DEI director Steve Morbido
>> here. >> All right. All right. So, before we start um, commencing our meeting, I would like for everyone to uh, see the mission statement in front of them and like to all read together collectively. Whenever everyone's ready,
I'll start. The mission of the River Human Rights Commission is to promote human and civil rights and empower all people of River by ensuring that everyone especially the most vulnerable and marginalized have
equitable opportunities, equal access and are treated with dignity, respect, fairness and justice. >> Thank you everyone. So for the land for land acknowledgement, we are on the land of the potucket and we would like to invite
anyone who is from native lands or indigenous peoples in the city of River to join our meetings at any moment in any given time for um I would like someone to approve the May 1st uh uh minutes from before we
went on our recess and I would like someone to [Music] Just approve. >> I'll second it. >> All commissioners, uh, all current
commissioners, uh, say I. >> I. >> I. >> I. >> All right. For the monthly acknowledgements and the upcoming events for starting off, I know that September 1st was Labor Day. Um it
is also the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. So happy um Hispanic Heritage Month to the Hispanic community in River. We have uh for September 1st as well, we have National Guide Dog Month. Um
I think actually Hispanic Heritage Month starts September 15th rather than September 1st, but September 15th all the way to October 15th. Uh International Day of Democracy is also September 15th. uh step family day September 16th uh national um day of
remembrance for those who are falling in 911 on September 11th constitution day or citizenship day September 17th the Shirley Avenue Cultural Festival will be commencing in Sandler Square uh on September 20th from 1 to 4 p.m.
September 21st is World Peace Day. September 22nd is European languages day and September 27th is 26 is European languages day and then uh September 27th is World Tourism Day. Um do any other commissioners would like to mention any
events or any um sort of holidays are happening September that I haven't uh mentioned thus far? Go ahead. >> You had mentioned Hispanic Heritage Month. Um, so the city of Rivier will be hosting its first Hispanic American
Heritage Month on September Thursday, September 25th outside River City Hall from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Um, also one holiday that we didn't recognize is Rashashana Jewish New Year, which is
September 22nd to 24th. So yeah, it it starts on sundown September 22nd and ends at nightfall of September 24th. I will coordinate to make sure that um the Hispanic Heritage Month I know that it's already has it been advertised on
the the rever okay just okay awesome and then um for Rashashana I'll make sure that it's added to um the calendar for next year so that we're able to acknowledge it then as well um for anyone else in the community who is watching in our videos
in our meeting if there are any events in throughout any month of the year that we haven't mentioned during our meetings, definitely let us know through email so that we could add that to the calendar so that we could acknowledge them accordingly in our future meetings. So, um I would like to
um I would like to have the honor to introduce a new member of the human rights commission. I know I'm going to put you on the spot, Mr. Ti, but um I would like to welcome Mr. Albert Teti to the Human Rights Commission. I would like uh everyone I guess round of round
of applause for welcoming him. Um, if you don't mind, Mr. Tesy, please introduce yourself to um the community. >> Hi, I'm I'm Albert Tachi. I thank you for the introduction. I am excited to join the commission this year. Um, I've
been a resident of Rever basically my entire life. Um, so unfortunately, well, for 44 years. Um, yeah, a little older. So, uh, over my four decades, I'm I'm seeing a lot of change here in Rev Air
and I'm excited to be a part of where it could go forward. >> Thank you very much for that, Mr. Tachi. Um, I also like to acknowledge the fact that I didn't um I didn't call myself a roll call, but Sham Husseini, chair of the human rights commission, is here as well, just so we could have that on
record. Um so for um I know that um just going into the main topics of discussion that I have in the agenda. Of course we could add things or um add things for when I open forum for everyone else. But the first thing on our agenda is the mass cultural council grant. Um I know
that um director Morabito has emailed us about information regarding that um that grant uh recently. Would you like to go ahead, director Morbidito? >> I apologize to interrupt. Um, but this is not There was technical difficulties
at our last meeting and Sheila Johnson is also a new human rights commission member. >> Oh, >> so no, we didn't. So, if we uh can welcome her aboard as well. >> No, my ap Yeah, my apologies for that. No, I I thought that we already formally introduced you. So, Miss Shayla Johnson.
Yes, please. Um, I have please. Uh, I want to give you the honor to just introduce yourself to the community as well. >> Hi again. I'm Sheila Johnson. I've been a resident of River for over 25 years and also just the changes that I've seen
and talking to my fellow neighbors and I just want to make a difference. I want to make sure that all voices are heard and changes are made for the better for the community. Thank you very much, Miss Johnson. Um, so, um, I guess going back on the topic
of hand regarding the mass, uh, cultural, um, council grant, um, I know that applications, um, has already opened up on September 2nd and that the application deadline will be October 16th. Um I believe the
grant decisions report uh this is after we get the the grant itself the the decisions report the grant decisions report that's due on the 16th is that after we apply for it or is that something that we have to do to in order to get it?
>> So the grant decision report is the um when the cultural council has to report it to the mass cultural. So there is an informational session um for anyone who is interested and that's on Tuesday September 9th. It's virtual. You can go to the mass cultural website and just
type in umformational session and it will bring you to that link. Um but yeah, you have all the dates uh correct. It started on September. Applications opened up on September 2nd and closed on October 16th.
>> Okay. So, I do want to take this time um today to just discuss potential talk um potential projects that we could use um just to start brainstorming of how uh we might create like some sort of grand proposal um for projects coming up. Um
and um yeah, I I'll open it up to everyone in the in the commission just like things that we would like to ask for grant money for so that we could do these projects. Uh Commissioner Pitch, go ahead. Thank you, Chair Hoseni and Director
Morabito for bringing this up to our attention. First and foremost, I have a question. Do we have someone at the city that can help us writing the grant? Is it a grant writer that we can utilize or
all of us or one of us can write it? >> So, we do have it. We now have a full-time grant writer. So once we come up with some I think what we should do is come up with a few projects um that meet the criteria. Um I have some
suggestions um but once we choose a project um that everyone wants to do we can we just got to give them give her some information and then she can write the grant for us. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. So secondly,
I have said this for many many years that I would love to have um kind of listening um learning listening tour with each community from different wards um in our city. And I would love to have
that project really um partnering with the counselors um going to each community and inviting people Um we can host a circle. We can have different form of getting people together and want
to learn and um asking for information. What are the strength in our community? What are the gaps and um what do people want to do want to see
happen and any recommendation for the human rights comm human rights commission and then also more so like what would they want to see the city um working on. So that's one of which that
we can um like coordinate and um that's the project I want to see happen. Um I definitely agree with Commissioner Pitch only because we have been talking about this for for many years and now that we're starting early in terms of grant
proposal writing, we could we could definitely plan out where the allocation of that money goes to. Um and I definitely agree with you. I'm definitely on board with um with that project. Do we um director Morbidito, is there a cap to how much we could request
from the council? >> So the grant is based on a reimbursement basis. So, you would gather all the costs of the project that you're going to do and you would itemize it and you
would you would put the amount of your project and say if you put 7,000 or 6,000 or 1,000 like I know some of the uh teachers um will go on an educational field trip and their field trip may only cost $650.
So, um it's a learning proc. a educational project. So it it ranges. So I think what they they approve on the basis of is this bringing the community together? How many pe how is it going to impact
the business? Is it bringing businesses? Is it bringing all walks of life together? So like some of the things I was I was thinking of that I wrote down like um like maybe like a series of community film and dialogue night
like so maybe show an HR or cultural documentary like on immigration stories or local history or LGBTQ rights or generational changes or black history month um something of that nature. Um because we have to keep in mind we don't
want to commit to a project. Each and every one of you have full-time jobs. You guys have volunteer. You're dedicating and committing your free time on your own will. So we need to be fair and reasonable and like we don't want we we really have to look at it as a whole
because we don't want to put you you don't want to put yourself in a position where you're going to be stressed out. So like something of this magnitude is not much of a magnitude. If you think about it, it's uh basically your book commission role would be booking a venue. We could do like the American
Legion. We could uh it's you could introduce speakers or the film. Um another project I was thinking of um like maybe teaming up with the art culture art committee, public arts committee. Um maybe a pop a public art
popup like a commission a local artist um to create temporary banners of art installations on themes of like justice, diversity or unity and we can put it at city hall or a restaurant or um at the
library for display. And then I was thinking of I know I was thinking of ways we can utilize it that wouldn't be um too much of a work overload on on the commissioners because it it takes a lot
of planning. Um another one project I was thinking of a youth poster or essay contest on human rights. invite local middle school students or high school students to submit an artwork or short essay on what human rights means to them
and then display winning entries and we can also have a reveal as well. >> I think these are these are excellent excellent plans on top of what Krew has suggested too. Um anyone else? Yes. Uh Mrs. Johnson. >> Um, I agree with the poster and the art
artwork, but I'm also thinking without being too political and all, but something for the middle school students before they enter that night green, that high school of um, educating them on
not smoking or pregnancy. And I don't think we could do that, but just more of an educational thing, pamphlets or have someone come in and talk talk to the groups.
Um, just more I I want to grab them before they hit high school and just educate them and just give them a good head start. >> Something kind of like a health and safety night. Yes. For for Okay. Yeah.
Um, Commissioner Touchy, Dr. Garcia, >> I think I think all the u all the projects that starting with Mr. Morabidra and the idea that also um Karu um champion in terms
of uh um doing a listening tour and also listening and hearing what our community members are telling us. I think that's an important it's very very important and it's timely uh especially during this juncture that we have in this
country. It's timely. So I would probably just what motivator suggests he suggests some powerful uh initiatives here. We could potentially team up with the um river history museum. That would be probably a perfect place to do these
type of things. Inviting uh families to go there. You can even offer some food. You can just storytelling. I I strongly believe in storytelling. Sometimes we come up with initiatives that is top down. we have to go down and listen to
what people are telling us. So I think storytelling is important having people from different countries in Latin American c you know uh you know uh uh countries u you know lat you know um Arab speaking countries you know bring them together and listen to the concerns
they may have things that probably will improve our system and also will u they may have important insights things that we don't see that's important in terms of data data it's called street data right you're collecting data that is important that's not numerical but it's
basically what people are feeling on the dayto-day uh that's what really matters to people u so I think I think many of these things that were mentioned here these are some of the things we could potentially do invite the community to a gathering like that last year for example
when we were doing some projects with the river TV I met a woman who came to this country um without paper she crossed the border and now that particular woman she has I believe three restaurants. That's a story we want to
hear. Stories of success, people who struggle through crossing the borders, but they hear they basically they they were able to progress, build things and come up with small businesses and inviting people. These are the stories we want to hear. So I I I think that you
know we can you know we can certainly write something of that caliber that nature and basically engage our community members. I I think one trend that I'm seeing from actually uh Commissioner Touchy I want to give you an opportunity to if you want to voice any of your opinions or have any ideas
of how we can move forward with the projects that we could work on. Go ahead. I appreciate all the ideas that are being offered and I wonder if there is also um opportunity to merge some of them if you know there is I'm guessing
it's a grant writing process so there's going to be a limited number of fonts being um presented um I love the idea that commissioner pish threw out there >> that um having these listening nights I I think that really gets to the idea of
um with what our mission is and getting it back to the voice of the people and giving everyone an opportunity to say how they're being impacted on a day-to-day basis. Um Commissioner Garcia, like you said, it's it's that data that not the quantitative data, but
the qualitative data, you know, that's what we'd be getting at those. And is there an opportunity to pair that with a documentary night as as was said or a storytelling night, some type of art installation night where we do have a
couple hours of some an art presentation or a movie and then afterwards we can open it to a discussion or an open forum for the community. Um, thank you very much, uh, Commissioner Teshi for bringing that up
only because I was about to, um, I want to I I want to echo the exact same thing. I think all the different um projects that everyone has mentioned can ultimately be the listening tour um
where um rather than actively um having separate events for listening to this community, listening to that community, those are, you know, having an art installation, something at the river um at the River Historical Museum, something at the high school, something at the different middle schools. Those are the different destinations of the
listening tour. Um, so I don't know if we're on the same wavelength about this, but I want to give you a chance to talk. Go ahead, Commissioner Pitch. >> Um, thank you, Chair Joseeni. Um, I also would like, um,
uh, since we talking about learning and listening um, and collecting information and data from the community. Um, one of the thing that has been some well, one of the thing that are pressing
need for the community especially community of color are um know your right um sessions, immigration, and then also people are also struggling with housing and I'm
wondering if we can have like a housing rights um session. for the community and I know Dr. Garcia um I can't thank you enough Dr. GCU have done a a great um tremendous work within
the Riviera public schools and involving parents, students and um supporting um immigrants family and you have done it amazing work um bringing um different
speakers, different attorneys who talk about um immigration. So those are the two thing for me I learned um from the community. Um those are the the thing that people have been struggling with
and I I think it very crucial resources to have um for our community especially around housing rights um affordable housing and immigration um rights and um know your rights. Yeah,
I think um an an excellent individual that we could definitely speak about in terms of um housing crisis and housing justice is definitely um councelor Harmo. I know he does have um history and he's still currently in the in the
field of advocating for housing justice and advocating for um for affordable housing. So we could definitely um you know talk about how we could uh collaborate and just engage in that conversation so that we can create a session for people. I'm pretty sure that
I'm pretty sure he has done events where he's spoken about it but definitely with a collaborate like maybe an event with in collaboration with the human rights commission just so that people are aware that we're also advocating for this right for um for affordable housing as well. So I think that's like one way to
go about it too. Um any anyone else? Um question for director Morabito. Can we is there any way that since all the different projects can ultimately be be under the umbrella of one larger
project? Is there any way that we could when we request a certain amount of money to request it for different things or do we have to do separate grants for different events? if if >> you have to be creative about the way you no matter what grant you're writing,
you have to be creative on how you're writing it and what it entails. Um, I think what the Massachusetts Cultural Council is looking for, the local cultural council as well, they're looking for community events or programs
or educational pieces that bring a lot of people together or um something like for instance like what Mr. Teti said about um merging the these aren't sol the I was just trying to give you some
examples of criteria of what like some of the projects that would meet their criteria. So like commissioner pitch could actually like for instance a community film and dialogue night she could actually create add a listing night but
it's just a matter of we need to be present with the grant writer and she needs to share her vision and let the grant writer know okay this is what we want to do but you also want it to appeal to the reader of the application
as well. >> Does that make sense? So here's the suggestion. So what about if we divide the year into two se well not divide it is what it is semester 1 and semester 2 during semester one from now until January we
do one of these events for example let's for example you invite the um the river housing authority I don't know if that's the organization the name of the organization they can come and do an a session for example about access to housing and resources I'm just throwing
I don't know if that's a title I don't know >> bring people to that event at the same time you invite people other organizations to go there and have tables set up where people can go and ask questions around while they attending that for example you you may plan it for 90 minutes
45 minutes you dedicate that to the housing access to housing and conversations about how to apply how to do this and that people will be focused on that after that or maybe you can plan it for one one hour and a 30 minutes at the same time 30 minutes you'll have
different tables set up there with different organizations. Okay, people can go and collect information, talk to the people there, right there. So, you can kill two birds with one zone that way rather than, you know, I hear you. There's so many hours in the day and
then with the full-time job that we all have, but you can do it that way. It's very impactful. Do it one for semester one, two for semester 2. I talk about semester because that's the way we operate in schools. But I would say probably, you know, between now September to January, you do one event
and then from January to maybe June, you do another event, a big event. Find a place to do it. That way you'll have enough time to send invitations. You know, it's a big event. We have the speakers. We have this and that. You can bring the mayor, other people together to come and talk. You have a table on
domestic violence, for example, on on on all those tables. That's information session. People need to hear that and interact. That way you don't have to stretch yourself. You know, we're doing event another one. It's one with so many things there that will benefit people.
>> All right, Commissioner Johnson. >> Oh, I definitely agree. I think this is an awesome idea and you'll get more people in attendant that will come to that because I may not be interested in that table, but I'm definitely interested in the other table.
>> I think that's a great idea. Oh, go ahead, Commissioner Fish. >> I also want to make sure um when if there um when we put the grant together, I want to make sure that there money for childcare space because people can bring
their kids. Um also transportation because some people are struggling with transportations. Um, so just want to make sure that we add that to >> the grant. >> Uh, I think definitely excellent points.
Um, in terms of transportation, how would we go how would we go about it? Like um do I mean do you have do you have any ideas? Because I only can think of the M7 that's for students. Um but for like for to make things more accessible for
individuals who don't have some sort of who have access who don't have access to public transportation. Does anyone have any thoughts of how to go about that one? Because I don't know much about that realm. >> We um for us we work with clients. So
either we give them a bus pass or a voucher so that they can utilize for lift or Uber or different things. So we we can be creative. Yeah, >> we could definitely brainstorm different
ways because I know there's like another transportation service for people who live in River and Chelsea. I've heard it from some of the students. >> I'm sorry. >> RC Link. >> Is that what it's called? RC link. Um is that only for Yeah. Sorry. Do you mind if you could go ahead? >> So RC link is between Rivere and
Chelsea. What they do currently, they're offering promotional rides for $2 from Ravier and Chelsea locations. I think there but I don't quote me on it. I shouldn't even be speaking on this because I don't know the full extent. Um but I believe it's like $2 and you can
get a ride to the public transportation. Oh >> yeah, >> we could definitely as we move forward into further brainstorming some of these ideas and just breaking them down so that we um start preparing for any sort of grant writing, we could definitely just discover um look for more
alternative ways to provide that transportation for families and um that to come to our events for I think we're all and please correct me over stop me talking if I'm incorrect on this. Um, I believe that we're all on the same page
in terms of going with Dr. Garcia's idea of just having one event that focuses on one thing while also having tables about just other things going on um to pro just like informationformational tables to provide that information to the community. What would we like to have that first event be about? Because I
know we did it on the subject of the housing crisis and just affordable housing, but does everyone agree on having that as like, you know what, we should focus on this for semester one as Dr. Garcia says and then have all these other tables or do we want to focus it
on another pressing matter in the in the community? So, I'll leave it up to the commissioners. we are in, you know, in the school. We already have two sessions planned for that. So, we got one uh that's going to be run probably. We have several um um I
don't know if there's a way we can team up. If you guys would like to do that, we can team up with you guys. We do it in the in the evening. Uh that's um I forgot the name of the lady who runs the you know who's you know I think she's the director of the housing. What's her name? Do you know her? >> Dean Harris.
>> Yeah, she's excellent. She comes and she does a good job. Actually, to be honest with you, I think she run three sessions last year. I think between seven to 10 people were able to access housing. Just to give you an idea how good she is.
Even after the presentation, she sits individual with people seeking help and actually explain the whole process on oneonone which is very good. So uh you know we also do we also have some you know also uh events coming up with Mera
that's going to come and provide information on immigration and uh and things like that. I already emailed them. I'm waiting for them to respond. So there are some things that we already doing if you guys you know we can certainly team up with the school department or we can run a separate event for example find a place like the
re as I said the re historical societ you know uh museum where we can run that as well. So, it's all depends on what we want to do. So, um glad to team up. So, >> thank you, Dr. Garcia. Um Commissioner Johnson, >> do you think we would have a bigger
attendance if we joined with the um school committee? Is that first quarter after um first quarter you're having your event? >> Yeah, I think I can't find out the date. Okay. Uh but we have we certainly have that scheduled. >> School just started. Kids are coming
back. Parents want to know what's going on. So you have a larger audience. >> No, I definitely agree with um with Commissioner Johnson. Um if we are going to move on with uh teaming up with the school committee in terms of just collaborating with one of the particular
events that's um scheduled in the first semester or rather the first quarter of the of the year. Um I know that at that time we're we're still going to be working on like grant writing for you know some some of the other projects but we were allocated um a grant from the
city council to like just to work with. So we could definitely use some of that um some of that money to help uh to further collaborate with the school committee. Um does anyone I guess like before I guess like I'll I'll have everyone make a decision except for you.
um for current members um to just move forward with um I'll I'll propose to have a um to collaborate with the school committee in terms of I believe we're going to do does everyone agree with
going with the housing crisis one or anything else? Oh, Commissioner Pitch. >> So, I I I'm just pulling back. I love the idea of collaboration with the community, with the schools and other communities. Um, which is great. Um,
partnering is good. I'm just want to go back. We're talking about the grants that we want um to access. So, we just want to make sure we got those grant and it sounded like there's two thing we want to see happening throughout each
year, right? So one is happening in um the winter, one is happening in spring or late spring. Um so we have to I mean for the grand proposal we have to come
up with what are those um what are those um event what is it for? Who's the target audience are? how many numbers of people we want to engage um any youth any population specifically
elderly LGBTQ people with disability um so one project in a winter and then one project in the spring um so we can I mean we can decide now or we can also
share that through emails like soliciting ideas um and then we put a project together and say, "Hey, this winter we human rights commission would like to partner with Rivier Public
Schools to host such and such event and hear the target audience, right? And then in spring, this is the name of the event and yeah, I agree with Commissioner Pidge. I think of just a clarifying question for
director Moraveto. When would we be getting if everything goes well with the grant proposal and they accept it and this is the assumption that they accept it. When would we get that decision? >> So by the end of the year, usually like
around right before the new year >> and then um that's when we would find out. Okay. So the the reason why I asked that question is just that if there's anything that's going on before the end of the year that ultimately like I don't and in from my
perspective wouldn't be counted towards the grant because we've already that event would have already passed by the time the grant gets accepted which is why I said to utilize the the grant that we got from the city council. Um, hence why I mentioned to move on like have our
first event be in collaboration with the school committee and then once we have that on paper like hey this is the amount of money that we got allocated for us then we could just be like okay so here we could definitely brainstorm ideas in terms of what we want to do for our own events. Um, but I'm not I
everyone, you know, everyone has their own opinion, so you could definitely um voice them as you please, but um I just want us to have that on paper like, hey, we got the grant money now. We know what to do with it moving forward. Um, so that's just how I feel about it. I don't know if anyone else wants to voice their
opinions on that. >> I would just like to clarify something. So you could actually have an event in the winter because keep in mind it's a reimbursement but you would just have to it would be for a project retroed. So yeah, so you would you could still apply
for a project that >> Yeah. >> Well, in that case then we could just go on with >> but once again it's about how we write the grant and the ideas. We don't want to make it sound too complex, but we want to make it uh commu very community
oriented. >> Understood. Thank you, director. Go ahead, Commissioner Pitch. >> So, is it like if we put together a proposal um director Morao, is it a guarantee that we're going to get funded? I'm just saying I'm I'm just
um clarifying what if we spended much money for the winter and then we didn't get the grand who are we going to reimburse, right? Or we got this small amount and we spend this much. Um
so we just want to make sure that we have the funds to do it and being able to reimburse >> un to get reimbured. >> Yeah. Unfortunately, I don't have my crystal ball, so but like nothing's guaranteed, but they're usually pretty
you they I know they were awarded like $44,600, but um now that the pandemic has passed and more people are going out and having community events and more people are learning about the program. I know the
cultural council has been on El uh El Mundo and they've been on they created the they're really trying to be more active in the community. They have about four new members and they're really doing the outreach for their program. So I I would assume there's going to be a
lot of applicants so they try to spread it out. So but once again they look at it picture if you're reading a grant. Like picture reading a article. If it's interested to you, if you can get
through the first paragraph, you're going to continue reading it. If it catches your eye and be like, "Oh, this is something I would want to go to." Or something, "Oh, wow. Let's go. This is a nice community event." It's going to hit the nail on the head.
>> Okay. So, I proposed for the first for our first I guess like event of the year. we could do a collaboration with the school committee while we write the grant for our own events and utilize the money that we got from the city council just like to start
off the year strong as per commissioner Johnson mentioned that this part this first quarter of the semester everyone's going back to school parents want to know everything about you know what's going on in those kids lives so I think we should definitely utilize you know one of the school events that um that
Dr. that the school committee is hosting while we're actively writing grants for our own event just so like in the meantime like we're not wasting time not doing anything tangible. Um, and that like while and hey, even the things that
we're going to be learning from this collaboration, this potential collaboration with the school committee can actually elevate some of the things that we're going to be talking about at that grand proposal because we're actively hearing back from the community even though it's not our specific event. It's like a collaboration. Um, so I
think I'm gonna propose I don't know if the chair can propose, but I propose Oh, yes, Commissioner Pitch. Go ahead. In terms of collaboration, um Dr. Garcia, I have a question for you because we want to partner with this uh
Rebea public schools. Um I know that there's a cost to bring people the cost of food of um presenter um so on so forth, right? And if we um advertise for
city wise, it's going to be more people coming. Correct. And then how do we contribute the cost um in partnership because partnership is not just just for my um >> experience it's not just the
collaboration itself but also how we contribute the fund the mean to support the event. >> Um is that something also um that we need to have? M so as you
know uh school department this year we have a budget deficit it's it's not secret it's known to everyone um to support the event to pay for the event um I think we can do that out of a grant that we received um you know to
support our homeless families and families immigrant families and so on so but the issue here with the food uh if we can only get support from you guys in terms of food. We cannot buy food unfortunately. So if that you you know
we can secure at least food for people that would go a long way. That's all. Now, keep in mind when you're create, when you're writing out a grant, you can include appetizers, you can include, so someone would have
to get an estimate of what everything cost, an entertainer, blah, blah, blah, and so on. Um, so there has to be some research that goes into it. But excuse me, time is of the essence because October 16th is the deadline. And you
don't want to just give the We can't just give the grant writer the um Oh, just give me one second. >> Okay. You want water? Is that >> No. Yeah. I'm just So, you can't give the grant writer the information a day
before or two days before cuz every she's the grant writer for the entire city hall and all the departments. So she work she's think of if there's 30 something departments 40 departments she's writing grants for all of them. So
time I would say we we want to get some concrete plan an idea some some kind of wording um finalized by next week. >> Okay here here's a suggestion. So what about if we schedule 30 minutes
zoom conversation with the grad writer um and basically delineated our plan and uh she can take all the information and try to up >> sorry u before anyone decides and I do want to give space for commissioner
Johnson and commissioner tachi to voice their opinions um how can we go about speaking with the grand writer without breaking without breaking open city open meeting laws or does it like does it necessarily have to be I I want everyone
there to provide the grant writer with all their different because it's you know it's a commission it's not just one person's ideas going into this grant but I also don't want um tori breaking open meeting laws so how >> so what I would suggest is I I think
each of the members gave you sufficient ideas and I think what you maybe like two or three members would attend the meeting and speak on behalf of the commission and relay the messaging because she needs the
messaging. >> Uh, all right. Thank you very much, Director Morave. Um, yes, I do like I do want to hear from Commissioner Johnson and Commissioner Tedi. >> First question, what is our budget? Not the grant, but do we have a actual
budget? Because we're talking about buying food. Yes, it's $1,000. >> $1,000 and an estimate. We're going $1,000 is not how many people if you
>> Yeah. Can we find a way to see if we can get a lot of the food donated to us? Do we ever go that route in addition to paying for it?
I mean in and I in my experience I haven't I haven't yet seen um such a system in place or probably definitely somewhere that does that but it's I don't know I'll open it up to the commission maybe um everyone knows the city a lot more
than me but to my to my knowledge I don't know anything in that so that's something that definitely within the next week since time like uh like uh director Morio has mentioned time is of the essence And so definitely within the next we could definitely research and just see if there's something like that in the city.
>> I can stretch $1,000. I can stretch $500 to feed the masses if need be. But I didn't know. I just I I didn't know just how much money we should spend on each event because that should make a difference. We we want to have something
in the bank before spending it all also. Correct. So >> correct. based on my experience with >> Sorry, Dr. Garcia. I just want to hear from Commissioner Tuchi first. Go ahead, Commissioner Teti. >> No, that's all right. I mean, it sounds
like Dr. Garcia has some ideas, but um it I think with the idea of donations, it matters on the dates that are already been secured by the school system at this time. Uh I have some experience at getting donations for food and for
various events and it takes time. So, if we're talking about a an event that might be like a month from now, it might be really difficult to get out there, hit the phone lines, follow up, get it secured, >> okay, >> um, and in place in a month. We would
need a couple months probably to prepare for something like that. It just really matters on the dates that have already been established. >> Uh, Dr. Thank you very much for me that, Commissioner. Dr. Garcia, do you have any tentative dates for any of for the
school? Um, >> we met today. We start putting the dates together. >> Okay. >> Get those dates together. >> All right. Is there any way within the next week that you could provide those dates to the commission just so we could have those at our disposal? >> I can talk about especially about the um
the immigration housing that I can get those dates. No get dates. Okay. >> Yeah, I'll repeat. Um I'll get those dates, those two dates for those two
major events probably by next week. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Dr. Garcia. Um, I think we we can move on to the next we can move on to the next agenda item. I just want for everyone to just make decision like
final decisions that things that we're going to work on within the next couple of weeks so that we have something in order. Um, I would like to uh make a motion to Can I even make motions? I can't make motions. Um I would like to
make a motion for us to collaborate depending on which event is like timely in terms of um how it's going to work for the money um to work with the to collaborate with the school committee on one of their school um school events in
terms of um for us collaborating with them and also um having a table and event as well at the same time. Um so I made that motion. Can I would like someone to second I just want to make a a clarification here. >> Go ahead.
>> Yeah, you know, let's uh it's school department. >> Oh, sorry. It's not school comm school committee. School department. My apologies. Um on the record, it's not school committee. I know that's a completely different entity than school department. Um but school department is the entity that we're talking about. Um
so I would like someone to second in terms of collaborating with the school department on one of their events. um in ter and having a table of event as well. >> I second. >> All active members say I
>> I >> I >> I. All righty. So we have it on record that we um depending on the event we will be collaborating with the school department um and having a table event um that will be in the tentative date that will be provided to the community
as soon as we have it. Um all righty. Uh in terms of the other decisions that we're about to be making today, I have written them down so that we could know those are on record so that once we go back to that um or at
least like in the midst of us writing uh making uh writing grants um we'll have the ability to I guess not advertise but rather um announce to the community on our in the October meeting that this is exactly what we're going to be doing. um
and just brainstorming in the time between now and then. Um uh since no actual final decisions have been made in terms of the other aspects. So um I'll have that in the meeting um meeting notes for you folks to have on your disposal so that we could actively be
planning this as we're outside of the meeting. Um of course no regarding open meeting law. So everyone doing their own planning accordingly. Um for the second uh agenda item of the
of the uh evening is um diversifying demographic considerations. This is something that was actually brought up to me by a community member in terms of um how do we know for sure that I know that every 10 years we do our you know our census whether that be um citywide
or just nationwide census. And um I understand that um a majority at least 60% of revere is indeed person of color. And I wanted to and this is just like my own my own research when it comes to
identifying um populations are over are conglomerated into other into other populations. For example, people who are Arab and North African are nationally considered as individuals who are white. um as well as some um Hispanic and
Latino communities as well. Um some people consider themselves as white. Um, and I wanted to um just open up the discussion in terms of is there any way that we could um not necessarily I mean there's nothing that we could do on a national level when it comes to
municipal government, but is there anything that we could establish whether it be in the school system or just any of the forms that we fill out in city hall, whether that be for a permit or anything of that sort that lists more diverse considerations like instead of
just white and then have like Arab underneath it's like North African, it's like Moroccan, Algerian, what whatever the countries are. Or um just like being a lot more specific only because there's some people who don't know that, you know, that you know those particular
populations don't actually go under the white white category because they're not receiving the same resources as those who identify as white. Um, so that's why I wanted to open it up to everyone to see how everyone is feeling about that. And I
just think that in theory, if we do break down the population even more and we'll see that our city is actually a lot more diverse than 60%. And we'll just see how much that you know um we'll see just how many cultures are actually being that are actually being overlooked
when it comes to talking about the different communities that make up river. So, I know I went to a long elaborate tangent, but just wanna see like what everyone's opinions on in terms of what I just mentioned. I'll
open it up to everyone in the in the uh commission. >> I I appreciate that idea. I don't know what's capable on a city level or possible as far as
you know if if the city wants to do that how do they get applications changed websites change whatever I so this is just appreciating your idea and um you know noticing having a couple interactions with people and and friends
that have reported um not being captured appropriately on paperwork work. I I have one friend I'm thinking of that who is from Iran and she her story is always she went to go get her first mortgage in where she had a check her box. There was
no box for her. You know, where does somebody from Iran say they're from? Are they Asian or but there's no nothing that captured her. And I would love to capture the texture of all the people that we do have in our city and this is
really a step towards it. Thank you, Commissioner Touchy. Anyone else? Uh, Commissioner Johnson, >> do we have the census is a national thing? It's more so as an individual city, do we have the right to change
that? Can we add anything on the census because it's a national thing? >> The way house is because obviously we can't change things on a national level. there has been bills that have been proposed to add more categories especially those from um Middle Eastern
and North African countries. Um, I was thinking in terms of just rather than just thinking about big picture like the city, like the city sensus or even the national census to start off things much more smaller like when you're at the RMV
and you can't find your demographic or if you're filling out school forms or if you're filling just like forms that you would um or like for a learning permit or a residential permit, a parking permit. Just having those options there is a first step to creating more of a
reason why we should have it on the citywide census on the national censive because how how I want to move about this is that and when it has legislative complic uh implications meaning that if
we show just how much diversity and underrepresented communities are in the city of River that leads the conversations of well we could get more funding because all these communities are not are very unders sourced and we didn't know that before because they
were all under a category that is the majority um that is considered the majority on a national level. So that's just like these small individual changes. I know that as a like the human rights commission, we can't necessarily do things um like physically, but we
could definitely, you know, have those discussions with city council, see what we can do in collaboration with other departments in um in um in city hall so that they we can move forward and make those changes municipally. Um, so that's why I wanted to talk about only because
it's like as a human rights commission, if our job is to represent those who are underrepresented, we won't know who's underrepresented until we, you know, make those options available to be like, so these are the people that we're overlooking this entire time. Um, and
that's that's what I mean like it leads to conversations about technically we could get more funding because all these people are under resourced. we could have this finding like notice how there are so many injustices because people don't even realize that they're happening to this particular type of
individuals. Um so, uh yeah, that's how I'm thinking about it. But in terms of the changing things on the citywide census and the national sense, there isn't much that we could do on a municipal level. There isn't much that we can do on even a national level. But these are like the small steps to eventually get there to build that
argument of why we need those categories to begin with. Go ahead, Commissioner Pitch. >> Thank you, Chair Husseini. I think one of the thing that we can start is that we start having conversation
with the community um so that we can collect data how people feel about how they share their identity, race, gender, um sexual orientation. um then we can look at what changes can
happen in a in a in a local community. Um I just want to give example um the staff and the client we serve domestic violence survivor we serve um most of whom they don't identify themsel as
white or um black but then they were like what category I will be in that and then we also collect data for the state for our organization we add a different
categories so that those are the information that we receive from a client and they want to be identified as this and then when we come when they come we ask them and they were like yeah I fit in this we check that so there's
this conversation we can have with the community >> I think that's a that's like an excellent way to start off especially with the different events that we want to do this year is just like having um
some sort sort of like suggestion box or just questions that we want, you know, just like little index cards of like uh this is this is what the commission wants to ask the community, what we would like to hear from you folks and just like having that way as a way from
um to get that get those responses from the community because yes, we always mention if you have any questions, comments and concerns about the things that we talk about our you could definitely go online to, you know, email us go through the um the portal to like
send us directly like just send us an email directly and then we'll be able to read it. But I feel like that's just so limited because not even I use the internet as much. So it um so it just you know you know I would I wouldn't know for individuals who don't have
access to the internet who really want you know the city to help them out. people who don't know how to use a computer. people who you know the city at least our um I know that there's like the auto translate but you know sometimes our our website isn't in is
not sometimes it's always in English so there's always like those different barriers but I feel like having those questions that it's like oh what would you like to identify what would you like to hear from the community and have those in different languages so people can respond in different languages yes we will utilize the translation services
as much as we can because I don't know if I'll speak for myself. I only know three languages. I don't know the all the different beautiful languages that make up in rever. But I think utilizing those events to have um just places where people can like really fill out
questions or just write anything that they want that would like that they would like the human rights commission to know um is is um is something that I would like to see in some of our events. So yes, thank you very much. Commissioner Pitch, Commissioner Pitch,
Dr. Um, director Morito, >> did anyone want to say anything? Commissioner Pitch, >> go ahead. >> I just have to be a little vocal because you mentioned one example. You mentioned the website. So um our department in the
last year we've come a long way and Esma Abafuda she's been doing the language coordination when I tell you we've uploaded we've so you can't fill out forms in a different language. So what
happens is we every department has a copy of the most spoken languages in the city based on the census. So yes, that information is dated because they do it every what 10 years. So for instance, at the high school,
they took a survey and there's 33 different languages spoken. So it kind of shows you where the future of River is going. So right now all we do is we go by the three most spoken languages, um,
Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. So, all our forms, if you go to the department, if you're filling out a marriage license, they'll give you the translated version, but you cannot fill it. It has to be it has to be in English writing.
Um, but we have done everything from permitting to updating all our websites to different languages and we're actually work we actually have Spanish translation in the council chambers and we're also working with Rivia TV to have live um Spanish translation so live
viewers can listen to it as well. So I just have to you know I know she's we've been working very hard especially her. So I I just need I can't stay silent on that because I know we've been working so hard in the last year just to get our
website and get everything get the departments. We we even give gave each department a interpretation device an AI interpretation device so they don't have to run to an office looking for someone who speaks Spanish or Arabic. So every
department can be accountable and say okay what language uh you know and basically we have I speak cards they can point to the I speak card in their language and we can do you they can every department can use the interpretation device we also
have lionbridge so say if you're on the conservation commission and you're going out on a job and there's a um someone speaking Vietnamese they can actually call a number on their cell phone and communicate with the um residents. So, we have come a long way in that aspect,
but I just wanted to speak on that because you mentioned um the website and the languages, but as far as collecting data, I think it's going to be very hard on a city level because we can't we can't as a city, we can't ask for data
like that. We can't ask for your what your background is like only on the national census we can do it. So even if I'm if I'm going down to get a learner like learner's permit or something of that
sort or any sort of sort of permit that relates to the city of like they don't ask for demographer permit is actually state. Oh, okay. Well, >> a state agency. Yeah. This >> if I'm getting like for example like a like a parking permit like as a residential parking permit for example
>> they don't ask for demographics and >> No, they don't. >> No, you can't do that. No, we don't ask for demographics when you're applying for permits or any kind of permanent whe whether you're um doing work in your house, whether you need um flooring
done, any permit, wedding, we don't ask >> what are you planning for. So even you know I'm just looking at uh you know I always like to do a little bit digging to the information. So at the
national level okay there was one time that I had basically four races black white maybe Hispanic and another group that's it but now I think I I think they have gone a long way. For example, they have
now American Indian, Alaskan native. They have Asian. They have black or African-American. They have Hispanic or Latino. They have Middle Eastern or North Africa with so-called Mina. They have, you know, uh native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. They have gone a long
way too. So, it's changing because certainly there's a lot of demand and pressure that's coming from the community for from the society in general. Um here I don't know how the city hall operates if they have that or not. I'm hearing from you know uh um uh
Mr. Moru that they they don't take they don't collect that type of data. I don't know if it's legal. I I agree with him. You cannot ask a person about the race or identity or gender. It's prohibited. You cannot do that. But I thought that maybe on the forms that those things
will be there at least on the forms because that's you know in order for us to collect data even for the city hall or any other organization to collect data based on race and ethnicity you have to ask people to identify themselves. I don't know if they do it here but institutional wise that's right
way of collecting data because that's where you're going to know how many people are being served from what nationality what background what race what ethnicity etc etc even language are also are also asked so I don't know maybe here they don't have it it's you
know it's it may you know Boston I know does it they collect a lot of information on because they really want to make sure that they serving people they They want to they they want to have findings that are reliable to see if they really are serving people equitable
by race, ethnicity, gender and so on and so forth. So I don't know at least on the forms not asking verbally but that is a good suggestion at least to have it on the form. >> Yeah. Um any >> I think the reason for that like for instance as far as like say if someone
comes in for a permit uh they're doing work in their house and they come in for a per uh building permit >> to have that on the build. It's so far-fetched to have that on the building permit to okay well what if your permit gets declined you're there's a huge gray
area that you're opening yourself up for liability. Oh well did you did you fail me because I checked off this box. So there I I haven't seen any permits or city permits that have that on. >> I mean I was just using permits as like
just an example, but just like like forms that that the city collects data from to some extent that if people are people are the city are actively filling out those forms for city hall to have more diverse options if they are asking
for demographics in said forms. Um yeah, I just use permanent because it's the first thing that came to my head. Um but just like um just any kind of application that the the community is in rever I mean even within the even within the um the white the the white category
that doesn't even include um the Middle Eastern North Africans just you know how many you know the distribution of Italians in our in our community distribution of Irish individuals in our community just other individuals who are in that category that are that would be
considered are traditionally white. I would like to see that category as well. >> Go ahead, Dr. Garcia. >> It's um it's it is an interesting idea. U we should not, you know, we should always be open to explore things because even for example, here we are talking
about exploring pathways >> to housing, right, and resources. I'm sure that the we as a community and even city hall and other organizations they that'll be interesting in knowing how many Latino Hispanic families have been
served in terms of accessing housing. How many black you know uh uh families you know have you know attended a particular event and in the end they were able to have access to housing or something like that. It's always together important to collect data
because it it gives us a a compass in terms of where the institution is marching and if there's any you know um tendency one way or the other you can certainly improve your practice is something worth you know exploring. Yeah. >> Also just having opening up these
actually I've talked about I'm open I'm going to leave it to the rest of the commissioners. Go ahead. I think it's a very very important conversation to have um especially around race, ethnicity,
gender orient um gender identity, sexual orientation, so on so forth because um we can look at who have the most access to what resources, who have the least access and how can we um promote that justice that everyone can have access,
right? Let's say um for examples like all of the new housing developments who can afford to live there. The one on the beach, the one on um wherever, right? All of these luxury building are those
only um do we have only white people living there or the majority? Do we have people of color? Do we have LGBTQ people? Do we have disabilities? Right? And then how can we um have those conversation and then every time that
there's um new developer coming into the city we say look here what we have seen right here's the data show us can we do this so that everyone can have access to these um luxury building right so um
also looking at housing justice it's like the rent is um keep on increasing and even the middle class can't even afford living in the city of Rivier. So do we need to have rent control in
Riviera, right? Um who can afford that? because I have heard many many um rever resident who been here all their lives like born here, raised here, moving out
of the city because they cannot afford um housing costs anymore. So I think we can look at housing, we can look at job, we can look at education um and Dr. That's you know it's like one
example how you promote um um learning equity within the school right how you get all the resources to support newcomer um immigrants family kids of color so that they can also
reach high potential as well. So we can look at all of those and it starts small it start with this conversation any changes um so it's a great issue I mean
it's a great topic to bring um to have this conversation um chair Husini appreciate that >> also um spearheading conversations with the city council since they can make um uh decisions on a municipal level you So
since we don't have that level of the ability to do the exact same things, definitely having those conversations with them as well since they do have the power to make said like some sort of legislative change um I think is definitely warranted. Um, so, um, I do
want to, um, I know I'm wary of time, so I do want to keep that conversation in mind only because I do want to keep on bring, um, bringing it up since, um, I was thinking about just speaking with some of the city councils. Obviously,
it's still very up in the air. nothing's really solid, but I do want to speak uh have another meeting in which we really sit down and like this is what we want to talk to the city council about this um this that and the third to bringing to our last um agenda meeting is um
brainstorming other ways for community members to submit intakes to the HRC. Um, and I think I already did mention that when it comes to the second agenda meeting where um, in any of the city citywide events, it doesn't even necessarily have to be ours, but for
example, the Shirley Cultural Shirley Avenue Cultural Festival, any of the events happening with the school department, just having some sort of suggestion box that says, you know, HRC um, in HRC suggestion box or what like
it um, and have it translated in like the three big languages. languages. So having HRC suggestions in Spanish and in Haitian Creole, in Arabic, in Portuguese, all those things in that so that people from different from different communities, it's like if they
have things that they would like the HRC to address, that could be another way of just like here's another form of communication that doesn't involve going online and filling out an intake form if you don't have the ability to do so. Um
or like even the the food pantry. Um I know that they do one at the the Hill School on um the first Thursday is at the Paul Rivera and the second Thursday, correct me if I'm wrong, the second Thursday is at the Hill School. We could definitely have a suggestion box there
too and have just like anyone I mean will there be days where no one will put anything? No. But just having that there for people to be like, "Oh, maybe I do have something that I want the HRC to talk about." that's like another way to cover our bases. Um, so that's just, you
know, I that's that's only one suggestion only because that's something that I did in college when it comes to to to my own club where we wanted to hear from the student groups. We just put a suggestion box in any of the events as permission from the other clubs and then just from there we just
heard back from the community naturally over time because it was like this is what we would like to see from the group. Um, so that that is just uh one idea of mine. I don't know if anyone else has um any particular ideas of just how we would like to um for community
members and for us to reach as a community outside of the listening tour that we're spending so much um that we're spending time building a grant around. So um any suggestions? I'll leave it open. Go ahead, Commissioner Johnson.
Um, could you speak to the newspaper? Like, could we just have an interview to tell them who we are? Does that happen? I don't I don't I'm asking
>> I haven't interacted with the reviewer journal in a very long time but um if there's any way that we could do some sort of um maybe even advertise like maybe the email or if you have a suggestions you know send them off to review Journal they send it off to us
like is there anything that we could do? >> Absolutely. Op opeds are free. So or you can write a letter to the new uh editor. Um I think I gave another s suggestion last year. I was trying to make you guys
movie stars uh on rever television. You guys can do like a little segment each week and just interview each other on a on a very person like a a very informal basis and just let people get to know who you are. Let the community be like, "Oh, wow." You know, get to know your
personalities, you know, and you know, talk about different issues that impact everyone and also maybe social media if you guys create a Facebook. I know the cultural council just did that. >> Yeah, I do wanted to because I was thinking about Yeah. making either a
Facebook or an Instagram. I think most people since we have a larger um elderly population in rever most people do use Facebook for a lot of the events. I know the reverb community uses it. I think most of the community organizations
use Facebook. So we could definitely utilize Facebook as a place for people to just you know send in their opinions. Will that will obviously come with some sort of level of scrutiny. Um but that's just something you know uh us the fact
that we're here on the commission are willing to take as a way of like this is what this is you're voicing your opinions your opinions deserve to be heard. Um so I could definitely is there anyone that the commission can talk to in terms of starting up that social social media account? What I would
suggest is I would just have um I would link it to your Instagram because now you can in uh link Instagram to Facebook. And what I would do is I would just make sure I would create a universal email address and just make sure everyone has a password to it
that's in on the commission. I would also contact Taylor uh from the mayor's office. She's the communications person and see what her thoughts would be. But I feel where where this commission is more independently um independent in
their wording and their message that um it it you could do it even though you're the River Human Rights Commission. I I I think you would be able to because you're your own board. So >> go ahead, Dr. Gerson.
>> I would ask. So in addition to that I would so one of the things that we lacking sometimes is that we do a lot of things we don't document there and we don't offer the publicly uh uh don't uh give public access to places where they
can go and read about the human rights commission or about the human rights period. So I think what we could do in addition to uh creating a um a Facebook uh you know I I'm I'm good you know I I
like that that idea of creating a space where we can go but I think we also we would like probably to create a landing page where you can put all the resources there people click on it you see all the information about the human rights commission all the information about this and that I know that we have
something already on the website but I think that in terms of resources I think it would be great to create something I think when we started this old about two or three years ago you remember you know I think we created something >> I don't recall what that but all the information people click on it I think
we should continue that >> yeah so um for the I I'll give you a chance to speak commissioner pitch for the new commissioners a couple years ago we allocated just a just a database of information on you know u black Black
lives, Black Lives Matter, um social rights activists, anything on LGBTQ um justice, anything on um on uh less physically abled justice, just anything that we were just like people need to
know about this. Um, and we created it all in oh sorry we put it all in one Excel sheet with links the what it is like if it's a documentary video um books to read things um things of that sort and we just allocate it all into
one and essentially how it works is that when you search up for example um black rights activists you'll just see everything that's in that category um and that's what Dr. Dr. Garcia is is suggesting to continue on but making it
rather than making it like a spreadsheet to have it like correct me if I'm wrong on this Dr. Garcia rather than having it as a spreadsheet to actually have it as like a landmarks page on our human rights on our human rights um commission website so that instead of going to a
database and then search up everything up we just have everything there and then it's just like you just scroll through all the different types of media and information that you would like to learn about a particular subject. So I'll open it up to you folks. I know uh
Commissioner Pitch uh wanted to talk. >> I think great idea to have a resource page. I also um would like to follow up with um the work that we have done. Um one of the thing
that we were talking about, we would like to partner with other city that has human rights commission as well. we were talking about the city of Lynn, we were talking about the city of Cambridge um
and some other city. I think it would be great to have those connections and learning from one another and what they are working on. Um I know um a former um commissioner attorney McGee um had
formed a collaboration with the Cambridge Human Rights Commission and we were supposed to have um a meeting with them. Um also we're looking at human rights commission in Lynn as well. So
there there may be something we can collaborate and learn from one another how um other thing they have done well and what are some challenges that we we can learn from just my suggestion.
Yeah, I think that's um I think that's an excellent idea to go back to what um former um commissioner McGee um has mentioned in terms of collaborating with uh with other commissioners especially other commissions especially since to
see just like how they've been successful in their work and how we could implement those same systems for river. Um, but I think it's also an excellent topic to end the day off where we are right now. I did note that down
so that we could definitely continue talking about this in the October meeting. Um, so that I'll have that for the agenda um for then. Um, one thing that I did fail to mention is that
former commissioner Amal McGee is no longer a commissioner with us. Um, I would like to just, you know, take a moment and just celebrate all the work that Molly has and work and all the contributions that Attorney McGee has brought to the commission since she
started back with us in 2022 and just um her, you know, her dedication, her compassion, and just the amount of advocacy she had for the people of Rever that she's cared for the people of Rever and that she will continue doing it even
outside of the commission. Um she's, you know, is, you know, she's like family for for for all of us and that we wish her all the best moving forward, especially um with um all the different things, all the beautiful things that she's doing in our city. Um, I would
like to ask um I know some of you folks may or may not have met um um Attorney McGee, but for those who do, I would like to uh request a just some sort of note of appreciation for all the work that she's done. Um and just, you know,
really mention how much she's, you know, she's deeply appreciated by the commission. So, whoever would like to go with that, um I'll give you the space for that. Go ahead, Commissioner Pitch. >> Well, I um
two thing I would like to appreciate uh former commissioner um attorney McGee, especially her um dedication to the community, especially immigrants community. her work is really
um rooted in a community and then her um commitment and okay and her commitment to the human rights commission. I know that she's no
longer with us and I'm sure for me that her legacy will carry on all the thing that she have brought and um to a team um either with the human rights commission or at with the
community at large and you know her um unwavering heroic that she um have done that she has done for the community. So I can't thank her enough
for um her contributions. >> Anyone else can go? >> I didn't know uh Commissioner McGee as part of the committee. Um I knew her outside of of
the committee. So, um, can speak to her work here, but I'm happy that somebody like her is doing the work out there on an everyday basis. Um, we could talk a lot in here and we
could try to do what we can. Um, but she's getting her hands dirty every day and I'm happy like some someone like her is doing that. I was such an honor to meet her for the first day. She was very welcome, very nice, very kind. And as my fellow
commissioner for her out there fighting the good fight, I'm so proud of her and I'm so glad I got to meet such an awesome person. So, thank you for everything you've done and doing. >> Dr. Garcia.
>> I just want to thank um attorney McGee for her dedication to this um commission and dedication to the people of um Rivier. One thing that I really um appreciate about her is that the
infinite kind of passion that she had uh especially working on that project uh regarding the uh the history of Rivier. I thought she was very uh committed to that project. She was very proud uh she got a lot of proud uh of the fact that
she was engaged in researching the history of River uh making sure that there is something to be told to uh current generation, future generation. So that's one of the things that I I knew that she worked very hard and she
wanted uh the story to get out for people to know what the city is all about. I think I as someone that really enjoys uh writing history and conducting research, I appreciate that from her. So, she was very devoted to that. So, um
I just want to I I thank you for I thank her to for um for that endeavor and I hope that one day that will be written somewhere that children of Rivier will read and educate themselves and know how
wonderful this city is all about is. So, attorney McGee, um, I met her, she reached out to me and wanted to meet for coffee because she was doing a history project on Rivier and how the Rivier Human Rights Commission came about. And
we we were spo we ended up having like over an hour uh conversation and it it was a really good conversation. And um when I took on the role of uh director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, um
she was a good source of information when it came to immigration or anything legal. Um, and let's not all be sad because you know what? There's someone she's an immigration attorney and those people
need her right now. And they're very lucky because she can she can devote each and every minute to her clients. And she's doing what she loves and what people need her to do right now. And she offered her services to us if we need
need any guidance. And her phone will be ringing, I'm sure, next week. But, um, I wish her the best. And Molly, if you're watching, stay in touch. Uh, we we're going to miss your passion on here, uh, your commitment. You're a go-getter. And
you know what? Do everything you can to fight for the people. >> Um, I know I know Molly as a as a fellow sister, not even as a commissioner. Um her dedication to her craft is something that inspires me to be also dedicated to
my own craft as someone who wants to you know contribute my life to medicine as she does for the rights of the in you know of the individuals of not even our community but the n the people of our nation. and just the the amount of
dedication she not only had to the people that she serves but just to the commission itself is something that is going to forever be un unwavered. Um, and it as someone who is a young individual who learns a lot from
everyone in this commission, I definitely learned a lot from her and that, you know, keep going. Do do your thing and, you know, uh, I hope to have the same uh, motivation and dedication
to my own craft as you do, to my own patients as you do with your with your um, for the people that you take care of. Um I wish her all the best. I know she did have the history of River project and something that I also shared
my um commitment to and I want to continue continue her you know continue that project moving forward as I continue to do that research on her on her BF and eventually sometime in the future we could definitely present that project to the community when it's ready
to be shared. Um, thank you very much, Molly, for all your service that you've done for the past couple of years with the Human Rights Commission. We all collectively wish you all the best for fighting the good fight and we will, you know, we will always support you in your end endeavors and thank you. Thank you
for everything that you've done. Um, and with that being said, I understand we don't have time for opening. Oh, also I would like to also mention that Chief Callahan is no longer a commission um a commission member as well. I believe we did mention this back
in um in May. So, I also want to give his um respects to all the work that he's done for the city for the past couple of decades um protecting the people of our city and basically being the the spearhead of a lot of the things
uh changes are going on whether that be with the River Rever um fire department and uh sorry for for Rever police department and um just being part of the community in general, especially someone who's been here for many for for many many decades
and I also want to congrat not congratulate but commend him for all the work that he's done in the community and that I you know I wish him all the best especially with his retirement everything and I hope he's enjoying it as well but we will also support you as well in your endeavors and thank you
very much for also being a a beacon of hope for the people of community um and with that being said I know we do not have time for an open forum does anyone else want to speak about anything else I know we're like a little bit over time. With that uh with that being said, um I
would like someone to make a motion to end the meeting and someone to second. >> Make a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> I second it. >> All active members say I >> I meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much for the community folks at home.
Thank you very much for joining us for this meeting. For commissioners, thank you very much for taking your time out of your day to meet with each other. Thank you and have a great evening.