January 21, 2025 — Human Relations Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Manually captioned by City of Boulder staff. All segments attributed to uploader — not individual speaker labels. [MM:SS] timestamps correspond to the YouTube recording.

[0:07] Really, here we go. Okay. So I'm gonna share my screen. And, Carlos, I will pass it over to you to begin. Buenos. No chess. Yeah. You know. There. Provision one S similar to us. Turn on him. This is

[1:09] cool. Okay, this is going to. Yeah. yeah. Earlier. I motion to approve the minutes from the December Human Relations Commission meeting. I will second that motion. Yeah promosa le paso la palebra otravesa Christian para commentarios abiertos.

[2:06] Yes, thank you, Carlos. It looks like we have some folks tuning in, and this is the part of the meeting that we welcome the public to make open comment before we do so, I'm going to just read through a few items. Before we begin. So the the city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive, meaningful, and inclusive civic conversations. The vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members, staff and board and commission members as well as democracy, for people of all ages. identities and lived experiences and political perspectives. For more information about this vision and the community engagement process. Please visit the website that shows on your screen

[3:14] and get the slide to advance. I would keep going. Give me one second. The following are examples of rules of decorum found in the Boulder revised Code, and other guidelines that support this vision. These will be upheld during this meeting all remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to city business. No participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person. obscenity, racial epithets, and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the ability to conduct the meeting are prohibited. Participants are required to sign up to speak, using the name they are commonly known by.

[4:02] and individuals must display their whole name before being allowed to speak online. Currently, only audio testimony is permitted online. With that being said, I'm going to stop, screen, share, and pause. It looks like we have one audience member who would like to make public comment. So bear with me just a second mark. I'm going to promote Youtube panelists. So you can make your comment. You will have 3 min to make comment and then I will move you back from panelists to the audience. should get a message in one second.

[5:08] Are you able to hear me. We can hear you, and you would like to make comment. The floor is yours. You have 3 min, and I will put in the chat time warnings for you. Alright, thanks hopefully. It won't take 3 min, but I always say that so I have spoken to you all before about tenant issues and housing issues. But I am not speaking to you about that tonight. I want to address the issue of community dialogues which I am glad to see here discussing tonight. I'm a little unclear about how it's going to be discussed. So that's why I'm a little vague in how to talk about it. But I do strongly want to urge

[6:04] you all. I don't know if you're gonna be doing specific issues, or if it's just doing sessions on how to have difficult dialogues. It's really not clear to me. I was reading the notes from the last meeting, and I'm not clear on that. But I want to make a suggestion about one of the things that obviously has been polarizing boulder. Specifically, the City Council. A Mini dialogue. I have been trying to promote a community dialogue which is desperately needed. I feel. and it feels like the Hrc. Is a great forum for that to happen, and I have spoken with other folks in city, including city council members and city staff, about this, just to a few. and while they support the idea. I've heard a little push back that maybe the city isn't

[7:03] the best arbiter of, or the best entity to promote that. And yet clearly the city is I guess, in the crosshairs. No, that's not the right word. They're certainly taking a lot of grief right now for this issue. So like it or not. I feel like the city can benefit quite a bit by having a neutral facilitated discussion very strongly facilitated people with strong conflict resolution skills to find the common ground between the 2 sides on this very difficult issue. And I think it wouldn't be a model for other cities and other communities to to show that there can be a way

[8:04] to bring sides, to talk to each other without yelling and screaming. So I'll just leave it at that, for now. Thanks. Thank you very much. Mark. yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mark, just want to acknowledge your perspective, and that we will definitely take that into consideration or discussion about the next steps around the difficult dialogues project. So thank you. Yeah, I, I hope you stick around for that part. yeah, i've, had some good conversations with you and we'll talk about that in the heart, but I think. There's similar lines of thinking.

[9:00] Awesome mark. I'm going to bump you back to the attendees. If I accidentally kick you out of the meeting, please know that is accidental. This is the 1st time I'm moving somebody back in this manner. So just I please give me a little bit of grace if I do it incorrectly here. No problem. I don't even know if you can still hear me. We can. Okay, I will remain relatively silent then, if I'm able to. While you're doing that, I'll say there's probably no more difficult dialogue than the mideast right now. especially with current events. It's even more needed.

[10:04] Yeah, thank you work. Okay. So the only option that I'm seeing is actually to remove you from the meeting without having you rejoin and I do not want to do that in case you want to attend for the rest of the meeting. so I can either mute you, and you can just listen in, or if you want to exit, and then rejoin the meeting just in the audience. That works for me as well. I'll leave it up to you. Whatever you feel is best. I'll I'll just mute you and we can't allow any further comment from you. Okay. Thank you very much. All right, back to you, Carlos. I will share my screen

[11:05] their logins. Yeah, okay, so you're okay. The more participation. Cool. Yeah, so. So you don't come back. Is there any way to stop. Here myself. Back and back. Yeah. Oh! Okay, I think I think that that's good. Cool. So see you difficult dialogues. Right now where that is. Is that.

[12:04] So I had a conversation with Jennifer. Ho! Who runs you difficult dialogues? And it was a really fruitful, fruitful conversation. She's definitely very interested in supporting in this. And it seems like there's a really meaningful potential to create a partnership between Hrc. And the city and see you difficult dialogue they operate within cha center for humanities and arts. Really cool part of Ceos, glad to go and be in their offices. What seems like the biggest possibility. So she she presented a number of different pathways, like one is like, Oh, the They could recommend a very skilled facilitator that would like move through a number of processes. Something like that is gonna cost more money. But she also proposed that, like she, she's not a trained facilitator. But she does a lot of this organizing and so she was proposing that she could help support a process.

[13:06] The proposal was that she does a trial run potentially with, just like the group a group of us. To get an experience for what that's like. And there's a few different models. And she sent me some information. I can forward that information like different ways of like doing little games to get conversation going and how to pick start more dialogue. So there's a few different models. And so the proposal was to do a trial run with us, and then, once we've gone through, and we have a sense. Then we could get clear on who, we think should be invited to one. Should it be some people from city council. Some people from show community. An ideal size is like 6 to 8 people for one of these. So you know, that allows us to be a good ideal size for for the 1st group. And then, yeah, if it goes well, then they could host a few more and we could recommend she's happy to do do the 1st round just like totally totally pro bono. Just like to try it out and then, if more are happening, then it would be nice, probably, to have some funding coming from the city to to support but the 1st one is just a great little trial run and this is just kind of the work the work they do

[14:21] And what we talked about was that if if we like in the trial run. And then we figure out, after we've gone through it, that okay, one of these should happen, and maybe it has these people. And what should be the topic of dialogue. Middle East is, of course, one very prescient like thing that we could dialogue about, but after we've gone through the process ourselves, we can discuss what seems like. It would be meaningful, and the idea that her and I had is like. if we, if we go through and do this do one round or 3 rounds with a number of people? The ideal would be that like, there's a partnership established, so that now we have this model in place. So whenever there are major tensions that are arising in the city, we can

[15:04] kind of like reach out to them and organize something. So the idea is like, let's do one of these ourselves. Let's do one that's actually a real one with some council people, some community members that's probably getting to the root of this issue, because this is still attention that's alive in our community. And then let's like land this as a model so that we can return to it whenever these things arise again. So that was the discussion. yeah, I'd be interested in hearing people's thoughts around that and if it's aligned, we could start looking at how to to schedule, and she gave me some feedback about, or some information about what times could work for her, so we could like see about scheduling. That trial run hopefully. My idea would be, we just schedule the trial run between now and our next meeting, so that the next meeting we can be in dialogue about what is the larger thing that we want to plan out with them

[16:01] so that I'll open it for discussion. Thank you, Erin, for having that conversation with Jennifer, and thank you, Mark, again for your comments. I haven't been present at City council meetings to witness this tension. full of people that are consistently raising the same. Or is it like. Or is it like quite a lot of different. Yeah, there's usually usually around 5 people presenting an open comment during any city council meeting. And there's usually a group of 10 to 15 who show up. Drop that who are yeah. And mostly people who are advocating for supporting Palestinians and advocating for ceasefire. And then there's usually a few people who are like more pro Israel, and pushing back against that and at least the time I was there there was a major argument between like one pro Israel person and the group of pro-palestine people. And from what I heard, that's not an uncommon

[17:08] thanks. I really like the idea of a practice round a practice run with us, and then maybe a practice run with a few people who are directly involved, and feel very strongly. My 1st like feeling about Jennifer facilitating without being a trained facilitator, is that I feel most comfortable with having a few people who are directly affected by the conflict to be the facilitators. I know that that's like a little bit of pie in the sky. Best case scenario, at least from my perspective. and that Christian and Elizabeth you have a better idea of, like

[18:01] how much money the city has to offer this But if Elizabeth, if Jennifer, as well. To. Work with us. I I definitely want to keep an open mind. I know Jennifer, respect, respect her work. Yes. Just. For my. From my perspective in terms of the identities involved. You know. I know that. People who are. People who are Pro-palestine aren't necessarily Palestinian, and vice versa. But I do think it's very powerful to have people who are directly impacted be facilitating the conversation, and I also don't presume, or I don't know if those facilitators are even out there for. You need the people directly. They've all. Need to be facilitating or just participating. I think both, and. It's perfect. For me the ideal would be that the people facilitating are directly impacted, so they can speak from their direct experience, which again, I know people have different versions or different experiences that are.

[19:13] Yeah, cause this sounds like was that it's kind of better for a facilitator to be a little like able to hold multiple perspectives. And like there is like too biased towards one. Then it's gonna be hard to get either side into the conversation. That's why a duo would be amazing. Yeah, a duo that has can model within their relationship that we have found common ground again. I don't know if those facilitators exist, but that that is what 1st comes to mind for me of like that would be ideal. Yeah. And maybe given that, we can do an experience with Jennifer without worrying about going through a lot of other decision making and figuring out funding. Maybe it would make sense to do that 1st round and then talk to her about. If she knows those people who might be able to to do that and get some more details around that. But yeah, I don't. I don't want to put it off too much trying to get the perfect configuration, especially when we're just trying to get the trial run for us to understand what the process might be like.

[20:20] Yeah, I'm curious, speaker. And, Carlos, what you 2 feel about the process that Aaron has outlined. Yeah, thanks for doing the work, Erin. I mean, it sounds like a really great process. I really like the idea of doing a trial. And I initially had thought, you know, when you guys were having the dialogue, that I also would have imagined the facilitator to be somebody who's unbiased and could navigate the conversation. But, Emily, I think you make a good point. If there is a duo that has kind of already had that conversation come to a point where they can kind of facilitate the conversation to together as one that would be ideal. But yeah, not pushing it off is ideal, too. So I mean, I was just like listening to the conversation and then agreeing with Erin, then agreeing with you, and then saw that you guys came to an agreement, so I don't really have anything to add. I would love to kind of understand what the trial would look like Aaron in more detail

[21:23] when you say. That's it. From us that, like the Hrc members, what topics and like, what does that look like. Yeah, what Jennifer suggested is that for the initial run we might not want to like actually like. pick this topic. So we could kind of brainstorm what the topic would be, but it would. It would be more about helping us understand how their process works, so that we can make a decision about it. And so I don't have too many details other than it would be about like a 90 min a 90 min thing. That would involve all of us. you know, sitting around sitting around a table together and moving into some kind of facilitated dialogue that enables us to kind of bring our unique perspectives together. And like, discover where where the conflict is and

[22:15] and resolution, although, yeah, basically a facilitated dialogue process around a given topic, and I think we could brainstorm. What would be an ideal topic to to touch on. Okay. Sounds good. They, as I organized the I'll go, I'll go. Primero would be our logo exterior. No Al conflicto que stante. The other place interview. And Musa. I said, Emma Pero, yes, well, conflict of existe European soqueseria mejoruna persona neutra work. See?

[23:15] Ebitariamos conflictos dentro de del diago. It's okay. It's okay, so. Are you gonna say something, Aaron? Okay, I had something to say on the second piece, which was, Who do we invite to the second. the actual dialogue, after we do the trial. Initially, I had envisioned or thought we were going to do like an open community dialogue, but I do think it would be really impactful if the people who regularly show up to the city Council meetings, if we did a closed dialogue with them.

[24:02] I'm wondering what the other folks here think about that. Yeah, the sense I get, and especially from talking to Jennifer, is that a smaller group is probably gonna work. If you make it too big. It's just hard to facilitate it, and they can get a little explosive sometimes. And so I think. Sounds, like. 8 or so people would probably be ideal, especially as we're doing our 1st runs at this. Yeah, I think that's a good idea, Emily, to have the discuss the dialogue with the people who, you know, are already trying to start that within one another.

[25:00] It seems like we're all interested. We could see about scheduling that 1st trial run Tuesday evenings. Work well for Jennifer. so I'm wondering if we want to try and do Tuesday, since I know most of us are free, and I think our next meeting will be on the 18, th and maybe like the 4th or the 11.th If people are available. The next next meeting would be scheduled for Tuesday, February 18.th That's correct. So I would propose we do the 4, th the 11, th and I we I can reach out to Jennifer and see if that works. If people have a preference of one or 2 of those. and then maybe there would be an option to do that on the 4th or the 11, th and then maybe we can also invite her to attend the meeting on the 18, th where we can do a little more brainstorming about where we go from here. Thank you.

[26:01] Either the 4th or the 18th or sorry. The 4th or the 11th would work for me. A little memory. Wait then I will. Send an email to Jennifer and. Proposed 4th or 11th Christian appropriate ways to communicate scheduling sunshine. All that. Should I send an email that we're all cp'd in or. That is just what I'm trying to think through in my head. How best to do that. If Elizabeth a question, if Aaron is going to try to set up the practice run on a non. Hrc. Meeting night, but it would be a

[27:03] all. Theoretically all Hrc members would be attending, so communication would need to go out to all Hrc. Members. Would he send something to me to send to all members? And then, would that be a meeting than technically of the Hrc. And need to be made public. Hear me? But The I think you'd have to. Yeah, or. this is, even if we're not discussing Hsc business, because the idea would be for us to have this experience and then to have the meeting on the 18th to talk about it. So I was thinking, this is not discussing city business. So it doesn't fall into that sunshine.

[28:06] Yeah. Let's check I don't wanna mix. Okay. Is there any way for you to earlier. Are you native. Meters on the number. You're muted. There we go. Can you hear me?

[29:01] I will check the handbook again if we want to move to a different agenda item, and I can loop back so I don't want to misspeak. I think it's not quite, you know, a social event like we're not having a pot like dinner, you know, on the creek, like we did totally non-meeting. So I wanna just make sure that's okay and not misspeak. But I can do that, and we can check with with our attorney as well. Gold. If it's not possible. Maybe we could plan, see if we could do that on the 18th as part of our meeting, but it would probably pick up like the whole chunk of it. so probably better instead of meetings, and I don't know how that would work. I wonder if we can like hold both those possibilities depending on what the Rule book says. Hey, guys, it's a little hard to hear you, because you're muted. Erin.

[30:00] So. Whoops. I was saying that if we can't all meet on the 4th or the 11, th or without making it an official meeting. that maybe we could do that as our 18th meeting. Just maybe holding that possibility, depending what the rule book says. I think whether to and Elizabeth correct me if I'm wrong, but I think whether to dedicate meeting time to do that process, I think that is up to you all as the Commissioners to make that decision. So that would be up to those present tonight. Well, I would I would propose. We move on to the next topic, and then wait to hear back from Elizabeth when she gets more clarity.

[31:06] Is it okay with you, Carlos? If I move on to the human traffic conversation? Okay, so, Kara emailed Speaker and I proposing March 18th for an in-person human trafficking workshop. Christian and Elizabeth. The information that we're waiting on to begin our outreach is the location. I'm wondering if you 2 have had any chance to reach out and see what spaces might be available. And if you have updates on that. Can indeed. So in terms of let's see, we have a few different options.

[32:04] I 1st looked at public spaces through the libraries, since they are accessible, known and do have communal spaces. Tuesday evenings are busy there. So the only one that I could find is actually the North Boulder Library. The newer small branch has a 18 person capacity room that would be available that evening for only about an hour. So I don't believe that would work within the time that Kara has in terms of city facilities. We have used in the past the open space mountain parks. like community room which I believe has a capacity for roughly 60 people.

[33:07] That has more flexibility in terms of timing. We can make it a 6 to 8 pm. Ish presentation there. The downsides to that space are it's located out on 55th Street, which is out there it has. If you're taking the bus, there's 2 routes that would get you out there. But there's a 5 min walk from the bus. Stop there is free parking, however. The other option would be the east boulder rec center. and this is still to be confirmed if it's available that evening. but the East Boulder Rec Center has a ballroom. That is a large community space. I don't have exactly a number of

[34:03] seats or people off the information that I have that is also not the most centrally located. It is on like Sue drive, which is out off a flake at that point. It's South Boulder Road. it's a very nice space, but and it does have free parking. If you're taking public transportation you're looking at a 15 min walk from the bus, stop to get there. And then I did reach out to some Bbsd staff that we have also been emailing back and forth with to see if they may have any community space. I have not yet heard back from them on that. So the 2 options through the city would be the open space, mountain parks, community space, or the east Boulder Rec Center, and I can

[35:01] nail down that date. If that is something that we think would be a good. Okay, thank you for that. All that work could tell. It was a lot of work. Is the community space the same space that Carlos and I went to for the event. The multi office event. Okay, that was a nice big space. Yes, you were there too. Forgot that your husband. If we can arrange some foliage. Elizabeth. And

[36:01] Como sin combinutos para tomare la autobus. Yep, I it was just going off of I was Google mapping public transportation directions. And so I was just going off of what they were telling me in terms of getting their 5 plus. So yeah, it is possible. I think it might drop you like around the technically like the back, and you just have to walk around to the front of the building like the parking area. But I I know where that bus stop is. Carlos. Did that open space mountain parks feel better accessible by bus than have you been to the east. Boulder Rec Center

[37:04] is the which one is better, do you think, for accessibility. See. Okay. And okay. Okay. Yeah, you're walking through rural slash like residential. Not a whole lot of street lighting. So yeah. And I ate. That's not ideal. In the winter. Okay, Beaker and Erin, how do you 2 feel about the open Space Mountain Parks location for the 18th of March?

[38:03] The one we were all yeah, think that's great. Okay, awesome. Let me just double check to make sure that Sarah didn't have any other things we need to figure out. Speaker, do you remember anything else. Nope, not outside of the dates. I think it was the march right. Yeah. Yeah. March 18.th So hopefully. It'll be a little warmer by then as well for anybody who will need to take the bus. Yeah. Peremos. Might be wishful thinking. We will see. Oh, the other thing, I guess, was.

[39:02] if we wanted to talk more about who should attend so Kara said. Any bold anyone interested in joining the fight to end human trafficking in Colorado, or she could say, Boulder, County, or City of Boulder. And this is on the flyer. We could say something like human services, professionals, victim services, providers, nonprofit community partners. She's got a whole list. Educators and school staff government employees, healthcare and public health professionals. What? What I'm leaning towards is just saying, anyone interested in joining the fight to end human trafficking. So then everyone feels like it's for them if they want to come. But I'm curious what you all think in terms of who to say for the target audience.

[40:00] I agree with you, Emily, that we should say anyone who wants to join more inclusive, and I think it'll increase our numbers. So I think that's good for our 1st event. Until from Aaron. You feel okay about that, Carlos. Okay? See. My preferences. Yeah. Okay, and then we have a logo. Right? Okay? I guess I can just take that from the Internet. Can you all send us. I can. Get you like what we use typically for deliverables like that. Okay. and then the last thing, I guess, is, is the city able to provide any like form of refreshment for that, that we could also advertise on there. Yes.

[41:04] great is the appropriate language refreshments provided snacks, provided. What do you all advise. Light, refreshments. Light refreshments provided. Okay, great. Christian, will you email me the logo, and then the exact location with the. Room. I know you said community room. Maybe that's all it's called. But. Let me 1st double confirm that it is available for that night and get it reserved. But I can respond in that email thread with Kara figure. And you this is what we're looking at. Here's the logo. So that way she can just plug in the location. Once I have it squared away. Awesome. Thank you. And then.

[42:00] Is the city able to print out any flyers like if we wanted to do some canvassing? Okay, Carlos and Erin and Speaker, would you all be willing to distribute some flyers around. How many. Okay, cute. How many do we want? There are 4 of us, maybe like 10 each or something. Yeah, I can distribute a few. I would lean more towards digital distribution. That's how I usually share things. I don't do too much flyering. I'll put up a few flyers if needed. And we'll count on you for our digital distribution. I do 0 digital distribution. Okay. maybe 25 total. What do you all think.

[43:01] Do we wanna. Sorry, Pika. Go ahead. That sounds good to me. I can do like 10. Okay. okay. Even. Okay, yeah, totally definitely. And maybe we can see if we can translate it. Would that be helpful? Okay, okay, Christian, is that something you could do. Okay. Awesome. Okay. Great. Well, Christian. We will wait, then, until you have confirmation from the venue that we have it reserved, and then we will get it all put up and the flyers made if you

[44:15] 75 companies. Okay for the they need to print out. Okay, so we'll do 75 copies at least. 50 of those in Spanish and English. If they were. All by bilingual. That would be amazing. Thank you. And then, Erin, count on you for the virtual distribution. And Kara seemed like she had some people to distribute to as well. But. This all sounds really great, and thank you all for your input. And I'm really excited about the March 18th event. If you will if there's a need for more

[45:01] like printed copies, physical copies more than happy to do that. Also, Elizabeth is reminding me. Thank you. That Bbsd was supportive of the event, and offered to help as well with getting the word out. So that being said I'm not sure how we might wanna manage just breaking up how we might wanna manage like keeping attendees to like what we're limited to. If there is the chance that we might get more interest than we have space for if we'd wanna do like a registration or something along those lines, just an idea. Era did have. She was gonna put a registration link on there, and we could just cap it for like 50% more than the capacity, you know, but

[46:03] counting on counting on. Attrition perfect. Okay, you guys are on it already. Good good flag, though. I'll ask Kira if she can cap it. Like a hundred or something. Sounds good. Sounds like we have some momentum there. So march 18.th The presentation itself I am not remembering. Is it 90 min or 2 h. Do you recall? Okay, I don't recall we didn't. We'll just plan for it during this normal meeting time. I will get you the

[47:06] confirmation of the location and the city logo. And then once we have the flyers ready to go, I can get you printed copies and work with the individually on how to pick those up where to pick them up. Sounds like a plan cool. I think that's it. Just making sure I'm tracking, though. Thank you. Christian. Thank you. Everybody. Yes, yes, this is Emily Aaron, for so in, for I'm sorry.

[48:04] Just wanna jump in real quick. Carlos. Elizabeth, do you have anything to? We said we were gonna go back to the question about the difficult dialogues before we move on. I just reached out to our city attorney, and I don't know that he can respond tonight. But we can just communicate with at Minimum Erin, and then move ahead in that way. Cool thanks for flexibility and patience. I guess real quick. Are we all good with. It being the 4th or the 11, th if we can. and if we're not able to, would we like to do it instead of our meeting on the 18.th

[49:05] I'm happy with that, and I think we probably want a few minutes to touch base about the workshop, just to make sure we're on the same page, but I don't think those are mutually exclusive. Perfect. Good. If. and probably good, to move to the immigration. Hello! Or if you want to, just kind of like introduce what you were, what you had shared with me when we were putting together the agenda, and then I can talk about some of the resources.

[50:03] Or if not, I'm I'm happy to just kind of like recap what we briefly discussed. Yeah. Where? Where do I? Look here. Mente? Yesando. Just look at papa, sir, let's look at everything. Is that I can take estate de lo que pueda su seder contemo de, and don't says with to my tene eno pues seresto. Okay, send you over that.

[51:02] Yes, and also have some discussion here. With other commissioners. If there's similar worries, questions, etc, coming up just kind of like giving a space to discuss that here as well. But I can just share. Briefly, there's community organizations that have historically worked to in Boulder County to assist the immigrant community. They are sharing information, I think, in anticipation of just the questions that Carlos you're mentioning are coming up the worries that are coming up. And so I have received over the past couple of weeks with a few like flyers with brief like, know your rights trainings that are happening and events in the community that are happening to educate folks. Kind of around

[52:03] what? like municipal local and Federal laws are at the moment, and everything. So folks have that information on hand as well as kind of just what to be conscious of. If you are someone who add. does not have citizenship does not have like legal, permanent residency here, or what have you? And I just what to know. And so after after tonight, I can send out what I have thus far, and then also update our work plan with any events that might be coming up in the near future. That's that will be helpful to see the events going on, Christian and especially if we have enough leeway time to kind of promote them within our own networks. So thank you for providing that. And then, Carlos, I'll be curious to hear from you at the next meeting. Maybe, if, after looking at the resources. If you feel like there's sufficient. And if you hear from community members that there's sufficient.

[53:22] know your rights trainings. And then, if not. I think that's something that we could explore with the support, of course, of an organization like Circ or another immigrant rights organization, of supporting as another event. Lottery. Yeah, I don't foresee. Necessarily. What the the sort of like know your rights trainings, and everything seems to be happening with some pretty reasonable frequency. So if we don't have one enough lead time in the for the next one, I

[54:05] believe, and anticipate there will be plenty more for you to share with the with the groups. Yeah, I just wanna thank you, Carlos, for putting this on the agenda. And I think it's only day one of the administration, and I think it's a really important issue for our community, and something that we should keep our eye out on. Excuse me. Yeah. Very happy to continue knowing about it and see what we can do to help. Yeah, we appreciate you bringing information to us.

[55:03] Latina. Okay. actually, socione.

[56:00] It is the community update or the staff update. Sorry? Okay. Let me jump in. Christian. Okay, sorry, was my camera and audio been a little funky for this meeting. So thanks everyone for your patience. A couple of things I'll note, and bob some of these over to Christian as well. In the last couple of years the Human Relations Commission has been interested in, among many other issues, what the city is doing regarding behavioral health and specifically with the care program, which is a co-responder program that does not involve police. It only involves behavioral health clinician who goes out with a paramedic in response to people who need help, but are not committing any crime.

[57:02] And so this program has been in place for some time now, and this coming Thursday evening at the City Council meeting, our staff colleagues will be providing to city council a behavioral health framework where the city's role is in in the context of a countywide behavioral health roadmap and in relationship to other government entities as well. And part of that will also include an update on the care program. So just wanted to make sure that you all are aware, even though for Emily and Erin a lot of the updates and engagement that city or sorry Human Relations Commission members had with staff kind of predated your membership. It should be hopefully an informative discussion. So feel free to to watch either online watch that one online

[58:02] also. On February 13th another City council meeting will be focusing on homelessness program updates. That's another topic that the Hrc. Has been interested in for many years, so that will be an opportunity to hear a little bit about how our homelessness services are doing and what we're focused on some recent activities and how we're tracking on outcomes and also a little bit of information from an evaluation consultant that has been working with the countywide homelessness services Boulder County. so that, again, could be an an opportunity for you all to get a little update on those 2 program areas. Did you want to talk about extreme weather shelter, Christian.

[59:02] I can, indeed. So the okay, so the it's extreme weather shelter. Is a additional shelter that would open is triggered by certain weather events and is open by direct about the city manager when we meet that criteria, and when that weather is going to last for more than 3 days. the or there's an emergency declaration over the past weekend. The weather met that criteria and lasted more than 3 days, so we opened one up over at the East Boulder Rec Center that we were just discussing. That was open from Saturday at noon until I believe. Today at noon. And it is specifically for

[60:04] unhoused folks who either for whatever reason or not, going up to boulder shelter or all roads, as it's called now. So they have a place a warm place to be while the weather's happening. I was there personally most of the day yesterday, I believe. Numbers sort of like, fluctuated as folks came and went about their typical routines and everything but it was a calm, warm, nice environment to be in, and I was thankful to be a part of that. Anything else to add, Elizabeth. No just well, I say no, and then keep talking so. Yes,

[61:01] She marry senos puede notificar antes para nosotros percipo de most esta recurso porque porchelo. Questions. I wonder if is it? Is there any sort of communication that goes out apart from? I think, like a press release may have happened. But is there any thing that goes out through like? I don't know if it's like the text messages that community members can sign up for to be informed of things like that. Yeah, it's a good question. The most important people we're reaching out to are people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness. And for that it's yes, there are press releases that go out. But we're really not the people who most need to hear about it are people who are in direct contact with

[62:21] organizations that work with homeless individuals. We also have outreach teams. One of them is called be there, another is focus reentry that they all are out in the community leading up to bad weather, and throughout the in this case, throughout the weekend, just constantly going around town and engaging with people who are not inside. And so that is really the most effective way to reach people. And the message always has been that and is circulated quite widely. That the place to go is all roads the main shelter, and from there, if they don't have room, or if there are other reasons why someone can't stay there. Then they are transported out to the out to the Rec. Center. So I think I totally hear that, Carlos. I think we can look at

[63:19] what some other methods are of of just making sure the community is aware as a whole. and the people who are most the best way to reach people who are experiencing homelessness is through those organizations and by people who are literally walking around the community and talking to them. But thank you for that. With the extreme weather, were there warming shelters open for people who were housed? Or was it just the extreme weather shelter open for people who are unhoused. The city's effort with support from the county office of disaster management is for people who are single adults who are unsheltered, unhoused.

[64:09] Okay. Okay, cause I came across an individual yesterday on the street who was housed, but whose heat was not working. so he was kind of in between, of needing somewhere to go that was heated but does not fit that. Oh! So! So good to know and wish there was a another place for people who, for whatever reason, just needed a warm place to be. Thanks for sharing that, Emily. Think if others have examples of that, it's good for us to to know. I don't know that as a city, we would open that up and hopefully, there are at minimum, you know, folks who need

[65:01] you know, are able to make another plan right, either either with another family member, friend, or something like that. But we obviously know that there are many reasons that could affect someone and their ability to to stay warm and comfortable. So thank you for bringing that up. Carlos. I don't know. You said it was a necessary resource in your community, so I don't know if there are not without naming names, of course, but if there are specific examples that you have. Rambien I use.

[66:04] I see. So it would have been helpful to have. Hey? Did you know this warming shelter is open that you could go to to be able to refer them if you met them on the path. Gotcha. Sure. So any other questions about emergency or extreme weather shelter. Thank you so much for those questions. And input we are improving on the planning every year. This is the 3rd year in a row that we've had to open a shelter, and it's always been on a holiday weekend. So we hope that maybe it won't happen in 2020 6. But you never know but we're we're ready when it does But any other questions or comments on that before we move on.

[67:00] I'm wondering how many people about were taking advantage of the warming shelters. This weekend. I will say so. I don't have the final final numbers. But at least 70, not necessarily all at one time. Gotcha. Thank you. So moving on the Child Friendly Cities initiative is another program that Hrc members have been interested in, or at least knowing what's happening time to time when we come upon milestones just as a reminder. This is a project that's extending over a number of years that involves Unicef. an international organization focused on children's welfare and growing up Boulder, a local nonprofit partner and the city of Boulder. And this is a process that is a unicef process that the city of Boulder is undertaking to be a designated child Friendly City. So we are only the 7th city in the United States that's going through this process. So it's pretty exciting.

[68:18] And it's really focused on creating strategies to solve or address and solve problems that are really, a priority for young people. and that have been lifted up by young people themselves. So it's been a very child, meaning children and teenager centered process that has involved many, other, many, many other partners, lots of departments within our city, notably our Youth Opportunities Advisory Board, which is a board comprised of teens in Boulder. So just briefly, again, it's a multi-year process. Right now, we're in transition from having had a number of

[69:07] community conversations and workshops for young people to help determine some key priority areas. pretty big kind of buckets of priorities that they want to focus on in the Youth Action Plan. And that is a plan that will be working to support the young people, to create between now and kind of mid end of April, to present to city council later on this spring. So again, there are going to be kind of multiple milestones in this process in order to keep it a very youth centered process. Those next phases with the Youth Action Plan Development are going to primarily involve the subset of the Youth Opportunities Advisory Board, with the addition of some other young people to join a council specifically designed at creating that plan.

[70:07] So that's all very kind of process, heavy and a bit wonky. But it is exciting in that the priority areas that have been identified by the young people really going to be diving in a little bit deeper and saying like, Well, exactly what part of this area. Do we really want to focus on? How can we assess and further understand, maybe, what the city or nonprofit agencies are already doing, and what gaps there are? Or even if action is taking place in that area, is it actually being effective for young people? Or is there something that might need to look different in order for community to be more welcoming to young people. So it's a little bit of an update. Again, if if any of you are more interested in finding out more about the process.

[71:00] or want to read up on it a little more. I'm happy to share some more information. and I think I'll kick it back over to Christian for the Comp plan. Is this a iniciativa de para los juvenes jovenes que tenemos estan perdidos en estambien for Cape West. Ay muchos de ellos que porgenidad Latina, que seque dan solos porque los padres trabajandre masiado vecs. Yes, there it's a info can que estan vienbrada comotrogas alcolismo you're okay que magusa verma esta initiva.

[72:17] Sure. Well, I'm happy to we can schedule if you all are interested, or Carlos happy to meet with you, offline just another presentation. We've done that before. For child, friendly cities, initiative, but happy to share a little bit more certainly as we go through the spring, winter, and spring. Once the youth put together that Youth action plan will be. It'll be very public. We'll want that report to go to city Council and and and enable others in the community to read it as well. I don't know that there will be opportunities right now for people who are not already engaged with the young people or our young person to get involved in that process, that a lot of that engagement happened

[73:12] at the kind of in the the summer and fall leading into winter in 2024, where we were announcing those workshop opportunities if any of you wanted to join, but again happy, happy to share again more about it. A little bit later on the spring, when the Youth Action Plan is being developed. If that sounds good. Do your best. Yes. Cool. So I'm I'm going to just briefly share.

[74:00] the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan. We've discussed this in the past. The opportunity to give feedback towards this plan as they're doing. the kind of typical update to it. There are 2 events that are very soon upcoming. In partnership with the Modis playback theater who has been involved in this gathering input from the community in a interesting and interactive way. on January 25, th from 7 Pm. To 9 pm. At the Main Library, the Canyon Theater. The bull. Bolder, bolder, better with modis playback. Theater will be happening. And then on February 8.th In this building upstairs from 2 to 4 in the City council chambers. 2 opportunities to provide input to the comprehensive plan and see that acted out by modis playback.

[75:03] So I will also share that my follow up with you all. but the sort of phase in which the Comp plan is being updated is still very much the community input. Sure. Did you see any, Elizabeth? For for the information? Okay, no progero estan oce vivomos. Las actualizations de los commissionados. I have a couple updates. I was able to go to the Modis Theater Mlk. Day event. Yesterday. They had both monologueists from their Criminal Justice series facing people who faced the criminal justice system. They had a monologueist from the transforming gender monologue series of someone Who's trans. And then the amazing duo from Colorado Springs, the reminders who, if you all have not heard the reminders.

[76:26] please listen to them. They're an amazing, conscious hip-hop group, and One of them shared their experience being undocumented in this country. I also want to share. And Christian, I can forward you this email right now. But related to immigration Carlos Modis, which has their own series of undocumented monologues called the Undocu monologues. I believe. They're having

[77:02] a it sounds like a press conference tomorrow, but one of their monologueists will be performing their monologues. At the State Capitol tomorrow. They're a Daca recipient. Their name is Christian. I can't remember his last name. Solano Cordova. He's a staff member as well. And he's gonna be performing along with our district attorney, Michael Darty. So very cool event I'm hoping to tune in virtually, if we can. I will forward that to Christian. But I just think in terms of raising awareness about people who are undocumented in their experiences. I think Modis is doing a lot so.

[78:00] and I'm excited to go to the event on the 25, th I think that is the those are the updates that I have. Very cool. Yeah, I love the modus events. I won't be able to do the 25th one. But I'm planning on being there on the 8.th one update for me. I'm working with a group that's hosting an event starting one month from today. February 21, st 23rd called G. Felt like the general forum on ethereum localism. It's bringing together some people from the distributed technology crypto scene who are really interested in creating better tools that help local communities organize and relate and create mutual aid networks and things like this. And so I'm working with them to try and bring different local community leaders and community organizers to bring the perspectives that are needed to help understand what technology would really be supportive of that and so there's a number of scholarships that we've created for local organizers and local leaders. So if any of y'all are interested or know people who'd be interested to be in that conversation. Then I'd love to just be in conversation about that.

[79:20] Can you send along some more information to Christian about that, so that we could spread the word. No updates. I haven't been to any events the past couple of months, but hoping to get out there, as the weather warms up soon. Devices we give Comprehensivo elevena email, the progress I

[80:18] I cannot sit, I mean, I'll where e plus esperas que es. Where's go? See what? Okay? So my organization, para casas prefabricades in boulder if we go

[81:04] the process. So metro segmento y sierra de esta revenue. Okay, tempra noy. I will go and say emails. Yes, so I have here. I'm going to. I will confirm the open space mountain parks, community space for the March 18th lab to combat human trafficking presentation. I will also send the information that information, plus our logo to Kara Beaker and Emily. So we could start generating some outreach materials. Once they are ready, I will print off make sure that we have translated copies and print off physical copies for you all and make sure we have. Electronic copies available.

[82:17] We will also follow up with Aaron on the difficult dialogues. Kind of like, what ha! What happens with the pilot session there? Given our constraints on public meetings and everything. So i the ink that is it. I will also just send you sort of just the general follow up with the immigrant resource materials that I have and the upcoming events. So I'll get the work plan updated for you all as well. And I think that is it.

[83:02] One more thing. One thing. Sorry one thing unless you said it, Christian. I missed it. The city is still recruiting for board and commission members through the end of the month. So just 10 more days. So that includes the Human Relations Commission, as our friend Jaeh is going to be rotating off after his term. So If you have, we can, Christian, I can send the flyer around. We now have it in English and in Spanish, for you to circulate to people, you know, who are in boulder, interested in getting more engaged in our city business and serving community, and and not just for the Hrc. There are a wide range of boards and commissions that are looking for more eager members. So if you can help spread the word that would be fantastic.

[84:07] If you yes, yes, info. 5, th Eliade. And move to adjourn the meeting. I second. Noches. Y estamos gracias. Thank you, Carlos. Thank you. Everybody. Take care. Bye, figure. Bye, speaker. Yeah, it's gonna see us. Thank you to the interpreters.