On March 13th, the PCRC hosted its first community member meeting of 2024. Many of the attendees represented organizations such as Urban Chat, G Street Action, Aqus Community Foundation, Cool Petaluma, City Council, B’nai Israel Jewish Center, Democratic Club, and PCS.
The PCRC gave a brief update about our activities, including:
- Sharing the success of Petaluma Conversations
- How input was given to the City for selecting the new police chief
- Announcing that our radio show, “Community Connections: PCRC at Work” is starting up
again this spring, and there is a radio show archive page on our website where people can listen to past radio show episodes: PCRC Radio Show Archive – Petaluma Community Relations Council (petalumacrc.org)
After the update, attendees split into groups to discuss some of the following questions:
– What challenges are you or your organization facing?
– What steps can we take together to plant seeds of renewal and grow our community? – How do we hold the community together in difficult, polarizing times?Below are the concerns and comments raised by the groups:
How to Keep Community Intact During Polarizing Times
- People need interaction with those who lead different lives and have different perspectives.
- Joining community organizations keeps them alive and provides opportunities for growth and new
perspectives
- Extra points if you join an organization that feels unfamiliar or uncomfortable to you. It helps you
learn and grow
- The community needs to spend time together, interacting in order to bridge differences and learn
about each other.
- How to respond to people or groups who don’t want to talk?
Marginalized Groups
- Racism is a public health issue
- Marginalized youth need to see representation in schools
- Support is needed for our youth, especially for marginalized groups
- Minority community organizations want to feel more like they’re part of the larger community
- Petaluma Blacks for Community Development wants to collaborate more with other community
organizations, and do projects together.
- How do we respond to hate speech in public settings?
Other Topics and Concerns Raised
- The environment and sustainability: our choices and impact
- Homelessness
- Poverty
• Literacy
- Mobile home parks in crisis
- Safe Streets
- Progress in policing since the ADHOC committee
These are all incredibly important issues for our community. We’re grateful to the people and organizations who attended, and for the feedback they gave us. We are working with this input to determine which activities and events we will plan for the year.