Hi, I'm Peter Demling and I'm running for re-election to school committee honored to have served for the past two and a half years. There's more to what I value than I can cover in a few minutes here, so please do see my website at demling4sc.org. So in my 11 years living in Amherst and sending three kids to our public schools, I've seen that the real strength of our schools is the people. The many devoted, creative, and kind teachers and staff working hard to meet the needs of our students every day. I believe the role of school committee and the public, therefore, is to support their work. So I'll talk about three ways we can do this, fully fund our public schools, fix charter school funding, and compromise on a solution to Fort River and Wildwood. So first school funding. Our state chronically under-funds almost all public schools and there's a great bill in process right now to fix part of this, but even if passed, we'll still receive less than what we're owed and far less than what it takes to meet the needs of all students. Fortunately, we enjoy strong support from our town every year, but it's wrong for the state to abdicate its responsibility and shift the burden to local taxpayers in this way. School committee should therefore take a lead role in advocating for the state to pay its fair share. For example, earlier this year, I proactively provided data and analysis to our state representatives that helped defeat the governor's proposal to cut reimbursement of charter school tuition increases. I also chaired the Amherst Pellum Regional School District Planning Board for more than a year, more than 50 meetings, public forums, letters to state boards, leaving no stone unturned in efforts to be as efficient as possible with our funding. I'm very grateful that our residents value investing in schools that meet the needs of all students and so I will continue to work to ensure our spending is efficient and our state funding is as robust as possible, which brings me to charter schools. It's not okay to educate some kids at the expense of all others. That's the core issue with charter school funding today and it's why Senator Cumberford calls it the brutality of a zero-sum game. And brutal it is. For example, if an Amherst student goes to Hadley Public Schools, it costs a flat fee of 5,000 a year. That's the state's school choice program. But if that same student goes to a charter school, it costs our district four times that. All told, 3.4 million lost last year at Amherst and Region. Our committee has successfully opposed local charter school expansions three years in a row. I stand with our school committee, Amherst Town Meeting, the MTA, the NAACP, and many others. Charter schools cannot be allowed to expand until the funding laws are fixed. So finally, Fort River and Wildwood. I believe our town understands the clear and urgent need to replace both buildings as soon as possible. The question is how do we accomplish this? And more importantly, what constraints are we operating under that frame what's possible? First, we have to minimize cost. Whatever the solution, the day will come when we ask all residents, most of whom don't have kids in schools, and many of whom lived on fixed incomes, to vote to raise their taxes. And we all know about the other capital needs. We therefore have to go through the MSBA, the state grant program, to help pay for this. Second constraint, we can't leave Fort River or Wildwood behind. Today, we sent two-thirds of our elementary kids to school in substandard buildings. That's completely unacceptable. Both buildings are long overdue for replacement. We can't let the situation go on indefinitely. The superintendent proposes to be done within six years, and I wholeheartedly endorse that as a requirement. A commitment to not making either Fort River or Wildwood wait indefinitely, therefore means one MSBA project, and one MSBA project means one building to replace both, which brings us to the final and most important constraint. We need to compromise. However you felt about the last building project, about half of the town disagreed with you, and with me. That should give us all a dose of humility, and a recognition that if failure is not an option on the next project, we're going to have to compromise to get this done for our kids. In rejecting our application last year, the MSBA asked us to demonstrate consensus to improve our chances of acceptance this year. The superintendent then proposed a compromise, supported unanimously by both school committee and town council, and strongly supported in public forums. One MSBA project, one building, 600 students, K5 or K6, and community surveys prior to binding decisions. I believe the divisions of the past on this issue are behind us, and I'm confident that our community is ready to see this done. Thank you for listening, and I'd appreciate your vote on November 5th.


BC Libraries includes a total of seven libraries. O'Neill is the main library for arts and sciences, and there are six special libraries. We have robust collections you're welcome to browse and borrow, but our most important feature is our staff, including specialist librarians for every subject of study. We're here to help. Ask us anything. At O'Neill's circulation desk, you can check out books, technology, and miscellaneous items such as umbrellas and bicycles. For research or any other questions, drop in at the reference desk in the main lobby, or we are here for you virtually. Use our chat or email reference services to connect with library experts. Also available virtually are research guides created by subject librarians. They're a great place to start exploring resources. When you need more help, contact information and chat are just a click away. On the main entrance floor, O'Neill Level 3 is a variety of study spaces. Also available on O'Neill Level 3, just past the sunny atrium stairs are printing, scanning, and help with personal computers by appointment. Our print collections are shelved according to the Library of Congress, or LC, call number system. With over three million volumes at your disposal, you'll probably find what you're looking for. If you need a book we don't have, Interlibrary Loan, ILL, is fast and free. We borrow material from all over the world. The ILL office also fulfills your requests for scans of articles and book chapters. We also have a significant print reference collection, which includes encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, handbooks, commentaries, and biographical sources. Most of our periodicals are available electronically. Our subscriptions to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post are especially popular. We do still subscribe to print versions of some journals and newspapers, also available on O'Neill Level 3. The media collection includes subject-related and popular films on DVD and music in an array of genres on CD. The collection is open for browsing and materials may be checked out. The popular collection in the O'Neill Lobby includes contemporary fiction, nonfiction, and film, intended for leisure reading and viewing. On O'Neill Level 2 is our digital studio, where you can use specialized software to explore resources for analyzing data and creating digital media. In the Connors Family Learning Center on Level 2 near the digital studio, you can find tutors in most subjects, including writing, or make arrangements for accommodations for exams. Also on Level 2, the Center for Teaching Excellence, the CTE, works with academic departments to support their efforts to enhance teaching. In spite of the digital age, many resources are still on microfilm or microfiche. You can find them on O'Neill Level 1 in the Microforms area. Also on Level 1 are book displays of graphic novels and new books, a gallery space, a collaborative study area, additional printers, a service checkout desk, and of course the night book drop next to the first floor entrance. On Level 4, you'll find the biggest portion of our collection area, E to P in Library of Congress call numbers, and a wide variety of study spaces. On Level 5 are collections A through D, group study rooms, quiet study, a food free space, and a new study area, both for group and solo study. I hope you don't have the impression that there's only one library. There are four others on the Chestnut Hill campus, another in Brighton, and of course the Law Library on the Newton campus, which is part of the BC Law School. The Theology and Ministry Library, the TML, on the Brighton campus, serves the School of Theology and Ministry, STM, and St. John's Seminary, SJS. It has a collection especially rich in Catholic theology and history. A hallmark example of mid-1960s architecture, the TML features a beautiful atrium where exhibits, receptions, formal dinners, prayer services, and performances are routinely hosted, and a wide variety of very quiet study areas. Vapst Library, an English collegiate Gothic building, houses collections in art, architecture, museum studies, and photography. The stained glass windows in Gargan Hall illustrate major courses of study in Jesuit colleges and universities. There are approximately 400 quiet study spaces in a combination of individual carols and tables. Located in the basement of McGuinn Hall, the Social Work Library provides collections and research assistance on subjects including social work and other mental health fields. You can also find printers, a scanner, and check out laptops. Find them at library.bc.edu slash social work. The Educational Resource Center, the ERC, is an academic curriculum library housing diverse instructional and curricular materials like textbooks, manipulatives, children's literature, and educational technology. Thanks for joining us on this tour. If you remember one thing, make it this. The most important feature is our staff. We're here to help. Ask us anything. We look forward to meeting and working with you. Oh, and by the way, the John Jay Burns Special Collections Library made an introductory video of their own. Be sure to watch that one, too. Thanks for everything mentioned in this video or in the video summary.


The study found that exosomes from mesenchymal stem cells, master of science, have a beneficial effect on acute lung injury, ALI, but the effective components need further investigation. The study used an LPS-induced ALI mice model and in vitro inflammatory model to evaluate cell proliferation, apoptosis, and lung injury. The results showed that mere 132-3P negatively regulated TIF6 by direct binding and potentiated proliferation and suppressed apoptosis of LPS-induced MLE-12 cells at least partly dependent on targeting TIF6. Treatment of exosomes alleviated the LPS-induced ALI in mice and LPS-induced inflammatory response in MLE-12 cells, an overexpression of mere 132-3P promoted the protective effect of exosomes in LPS-induced MLE-12 cells injury and LPS-induced ALI. The study suggested that mere 132-3P mediated the protective effect of MSC-derived exosomes on LPS-induced ALI via targeting TIF6 and inactivating PI-3K act signalling. This article was authored by Chen Huoliu, Chen Li, Liang Cao, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


It's a beautiful crisp morning in Wanakar and a fresh dusting of snow on the hills, couple of gnarly stages this morning and then off to Highland Motorsport Park and that's it last day at the Silver Fern 2014 absolute marathon event and the question this morning is will Vince Bristow's car hold up for these last couple of stages? That's all he's got to do. He's got enough buffer there to win at his fourth attempt. Let's wish him luck. What do you think Vince? Not a lot to do now. There's still lots to do. You've still got to win. That's what we're going to do. Well they've made it a little shorter for you so theoretically it's easier. Are you just cruising? No. No point in cruising. It's hard to control the car well when you're cruising so still needs to push on fairly hard but we're going to enjoy the last stage which is now not timed so we'll give it a bit of a demonstration. What are you going to do today? What's the objective? We're just going to try and consolidate a position and do nothing silly you know just try and maintain the status quo. Cars sounding pretty good? Yeah no it's good. We got our get out of jail card last night so we basically rebuilt the car.


Welcome to the July 14, 2021 meeting of the Safety and Wellness Task Force. We call this meeting to order at six o'clock p.m. This task force has been jointly appointed by Durham's Board of County Commissioners, Durham Public Schools Board of Education and Durham City Council. We are a community-led task force charged with examining the public safety and wellness needs of Durham residents and communities. With educating residents on existing public safety and wellness resources and to provide recommendations for additional programming to ensure and enhance public safety and wellness that rely on community-based prevention, intervention, and reentry services as alternatives to policing and the criminal legal system. You'll hear more about this mission later in the agenda. Since we last met, we have divided into committees that we're calling roundtables. These roundtables have been meeting in the interim and are focusing on four specific areas, the criminal legal system, school resource officers, the 911 call system, and violence interruption. We will hear preliminary progress supports from these roundtables this evening. Prior to these reports, our Fuse fellow, Dr. Dwayne Campbell, will review the roundtable guidelines now that they've actually had a chance to start meeting and they may have questions about their charge. We are also supported by Ryan Smith, who is our newly appointed director of Durham's brand new safety and wellness department. We congratulate Ryan on this disappointment and we look forward to hearing from him also just prior to Dr. Campbell's presentation. I'd also like to acknowledge the ongoing support of Dr. Anjane Clemens, who has offered so much insight on community safety and she has recently just been awarded her PhD in public policy from Duke University, Sanford School of Public Policy. We congratulate you, Dr. Clemens. James Spears is also with us here, we're checking those for us and we thank you for his presence here and at our roundtables. In our own Task Force member, Manju Rajendran will be monitoring our chat. Task Force members, as much as possible, we ask you to actually unmute and ask your questions with your voice to our presenters as opposed to placing questions in the chat. We know also that there are moments where you just got to get it written down and if that's the case, Manju will be available to acknowledge any important chat questions before we move on to the next agenda item. So thank you for your patience during this long opening, but it's been a while since we met and I kind of wanted to go back over while we're here and who's supporting us. Marcia Owen is gonna review our values but before she does, please join us in a moment of silence centered on the safety and wellness of our residents and community. Thank you, Marcia. Good evening, it's so good to see everyone. And Dr. Ajenu Clemens, I just have to say how pleased and proud I am. I'm just, that's just fantastic and I look forward to hearing you sharing your dissertation, the lessons that you have learned being in Durham with us in another meeting. Every meeting we begin with our values and as we begin in our roundtables, interviewing folks and listening to people and reaching out deeper into the community, one of the values that just keeps coming up for me is respect. And so I was reflecting on in our wall of values that we all created together, what are the values that respect requires? And what came up for me on the wall was dignity, solidarity, gratitude, graciousness, listening, belonging, and one value that is not on our wall that just to me is what I feel when I'm respected is trust. So this evening, do we all agree that we could add trust to our values? Thumbs up if that's good. Beautiful, thank you. So, so good to be together. And now as we begin our meeting, I would like to introduce once again, used to be the head of innovation team and now the director of our new department of community safety. I wanna thank you for your Ryan Smith, for your presentation at our last meeting. And I also just have to do a shout out for what you've also done already in the criminal legal system with Judge Maris, Judge Cardavis and D.A. DeBerry on the DEAR program, the expungement and relief in resolution work that you did for so tens of thousands of term residents. So thank you for the work you've already done and we welcome you this evening to hear more about now that we have finally and formally a new department of community safety in the great city of Durham, Ryan. Thank you, Marcia. Thank you, Xavier. And thanks to everyone else. It's good to be back with you again, again tonight. I'm gonna provide a brief update and then just open it up for questions because a lot of things that I presented the last time are still just very relevant and exactly where we're at. The first thing that I want in this new role to say again is to state how excited that I am that we have a community safety and wellness task force, how genuinely appreciative I am of your service and how much we needed. And the community safety department is very committed to supporting you. And I really wanna put the emphasis on support. As you know, we have staff in the department. So Dr. Dwayne Campbell is in the department and a full-time intern, James, and we will have other staff, but we will have staff dedicated to supporting. And when I say support, I mean that you are leading this effort that we need your leadership in identifying other investments that the city or other governments might make, other things that we can do together. And our job is we come with no agenda for this group other than to do anything we can to support your work. And so if that is, again, helping with research, I'll talk about some of the resources that I think are available to support this work in just a moment. But I just want to reiterate that I'm very, as I intend to lead in a very collaborative way, very open and transparent. I really want to find opportunities to work with you. But even more than that, I want to be a part of my service and the service of the department is to serve this group and to do whatever we can to help you succeed in the important charge that you've been given. And I just, you will, I intend to hopefully and demonstrate that to you all across our time together. And I'm really also just want to thank Dwayne. Dwayne is the full-time staff lead providing this work. And I appreciate his thoughtfulness and care that he is bringing to it. And I want you to know that as there are additional things that you need, if there are needs and things that can support this work that you don't currently have, I want you to reach out to Dwayne and myself and that we will do what we can to figure out how to resource that. And on that topic, I want to talk about a few things that we have been working on. One is I'm working to hopefully finalize a contract for language justice services so that this task force will be able to provide a translation interpretation. Also just to work the plan is to contract with Tilday Language Justice Co-op which we have worked with in the past in the city. They do great work. They have a history of working with other task force. And they are really excellent and I really appreciate the thoughtfulness they bring to language justice. And I know that they will be great partners in as much as this task force. And I'm sure that you all will need that type of support. I'm hoping that we will have that capacity available and resource available to you in August. We're working on finalizing those details now but I just wanted to share that as soon as it is available I'm sure it'll be something we can talk about at the next meeting and how you can make use of those services but it will be available to you for your roundtables for town halls, for other things that you might need. Another thing is I know that Dwayne has been reporting to me from your roundtable discussions of ideas and ways that you want to be supportive of residents who are engaged in your roundtables and in town halls. And I think that we have funding to support that. I'm very supportive of that. What I've asked Dwayne to do is to provide some type of not a detail, but some concrete sense of what it is, how many individuals we might want to provide stipends or incentives or compensation for and some proposal from you all that can help move that work forward. But I think that's absolutely something we can do and something that the city has done at different times in the past. Another thing that I wanna share is that this city has set aside my understanding and I'm working to provide a final confirmation but approximately $1 million to support this work, to support your work on this task force. And that money sits within the community safety department but it is money that is reserved to support this work and to advance ideas that you bring forward. One thing that I wanna also just kind of set expectations around is having a million dollars to support work that is related to the city. So I'm just thinking about what that process will look like and on a previous task force that I've served on, I imagine that this group will move forward proposals at certain times and that those proposals will have budgets attached to them. And so we'll just imagine that you all have a proposal that you bring forward for something that you think can advance safety and wellness that that proposal is appropriate for the city. So if it's something for public schools or the county we will need to talk with those government agencies about what their process is. But if it's something that is appropriate for the city and staff can support in that then I would expect to receive a proposal from you all. And then that proposal would have to be would go before a work session of the city council where I would expect task force members to be available to talk about the proposal but there would be funding set aside pending support from the city manager and elected leaders which is just true of any public dollars that those go before an elected body. But the good news is that there is already at least a placeholder that can support some of the early work and proposals that you move forward. And the staff in this department will help move those things through the process as you and your work in the community and in your due diligence identify really promising things that are again appropriate for the city that there are those funds that are going to be available to help support them. And we will work on creating a maybe a process to help support you all in that. And as we've done for similar task force and we'll be, I think it's probably too early I wouldn't expect that you would all have proposals yet but we also are not looking for you all to wait till the very end for proposals and are hoping that things will as you surface really promising ideas and initiatives that you will bring them forward when they are ready at the appropriate time. Those are the things that I really wanted to stress in terms of priorities for the department they remain as I discussed at the last meeting that we have three broad priorities one is in piloting alternative responses to a subset of 911 calls where we would dispatch unarmed trained civilians to respond to a subset of calls that might involve calls relating behavioral or mental health needs calls involving calls for general assistance calls related to quality of life concerns that these things would be places we would start it will take some months of planning and again, this is work that I'm hoping that we can collaborate with the round table on but that is work that we're committed to putting into action at least in a initial small pilot this year that we can build on. So that's one area of priority and I know that I'm fully open and ready to begin working with the round table and I'm waiting for you all to say we want to engage but we're ready to do that. The second party which I've already talked about is a full commitment to you and your important work and that looks like having staff dedicated to support you as you need it and then any other thing helping you collect data we've already gotten a request for example I know for the data that was part of the 911 analysis and we're working on getting that together and we'll be providing that to all of you and if there is data that you would like from other government agencies, our staff are happy to help in that if it's something that you need help with and then the other area is that the department has a number of contracts that we are responsible for managing the contract process for working with those partners to understand how that work is going to be thinking about what recommendations to make back to elected leaders for additional investments. These include things like the Bolsa United Violence Interrupter Program that Durham County leads includes the Durham Expunction and Restoration Program that Legal Aid of North Carolina leads and collaboration with others and I'm happy to provide an update on other contracts I'm still getting up to speed on some of the contracts we also have for example, a couple of contracts with the DA's office so that is our other kind of hat of responsibilities this year and I'm hoping that this group will give us additional work to do that you will identify really promising things that we can work together on and I'm excited for your work and I'll pause there for any questions you might have or comments. Ryan, if you started reaching out to relevant stakeholders and it can be like the Fire, Durham Police Department, Sheriff's Office, et cetera, Criminal Justice Resource Center, how are you going to start working with them on figuring out this alternative response system? Yes, so we're beginning to form who you want to talk to when how you want to talk to them, that sort of thing. Sure, we're beginning to form planning teams for all of these that include it includes behavior and mental health experts and includes folks at Alliance Health. It includes county agencies. It includes other first responders with experience. One of the things that I'm really committed to do and this is one of the areas that I am hoping and that we can begin working with the task force on is how we can engage more with community members to understand their experiences of interacting with first responders. So that we can be, hey, so that we can be working as we are thinking about and designing these pilots. I really want to be working closely with our community on that as well. And I think, and hoping that's a big area of collaboration with the task force. But all of the folks that you mentioned, Mike, are folks that we are working with and in conversation with because they, and folks in the 911 call center, they're obviously going to be really important stakeholders in this because we will likely be utilizing that capacity initially, which is consistent with other models we see across the country that calls would come in there and then be dispatched out through that system to an alternative team of responders. But yes, to all that. So you've already started that process of reaching out to them about when and how to meet. Yes, sir, we have. Yep. We have questions from Andrea Muffin and then Jennifer. Okay. Yes, so I have a co-conspirator that works at DermTech, which is Ms. Rashada. And so I was wondering, with the programs that they have for folks who be able to get certifications, the older folks, the older adults and put that way, who have been justice involved, is there a plan to get those folks trained up to be able to get those certifications and to be part of the alternative to calling 911? 911. Muffin, I really love that idea and I would be happy for that to be something that we could talk about. We will have time and we're not gonna be posting the responder positions right away because we have still planning to do. So I do think, and I also think that that pool of employment opportunities is going to be growing that we'll have more positions like that. So I would certainly, one of the things I'm really committed to is I really want to, as much as we possibly can to be hiring individuals from the community, hiring exactly the individuals that you have named. So I really appreciate you lifting that up. And if there's an opportunity for, to begin talking about that now as part of the planning, I would really welcome that. So thank you. Oh, yes. We can set up a meeting with me, Mr. Rashada. That sounds good. Thank you for answering my question. Thank you. Jennifer and then Wanda. Thank you. I wanted to ask briefly, you mentioned that you were gathering some 911 call data. And this is something I'm on, I'm on the 911 round table that we were hoping to ask for. So I wanted to clarify what you were already doing, please. I'm doing what I understand is your request, Jennifer. That's exactly what I was referencing, which is giving you the, giving at least what I heard from Dwayne was a request for the raw data. So the, you know, the data. So that's what we're working on getting to, to you and to that round table. And if there are additional clarifications you have, again, I'm a big believer in open data and transparency around data. So long as there are no other types of privacy concerns, and if there are ever any concerns for something that we can't, that we think we can't give you, I will, I will communicate that to you. We can have a conversation about if something we can resolve, we can. I will, I want to get all the data that we can out to you all. But I think that that should be ready soon. Thank you. Yeah, I didn't want to question your responsiveness. I think I'm not used to systems working this quickly. And as long as we have Dwayne on board, I need to get over that instinct. So thank you. Me too. Quick follow up question. I'm on board, so. Quick follow up question. We were also hoping to get a hold of call data or dispatch data specifically for the sheriff's department. And this brought up a question for me about our capacity to, obviously there's cooperation among all parties here, but my understanding is that this department is part of the city. The sheriff does not work for the city. The sheriff works for the county. So do we anticipate any, any challenges? Will we be able to access that data? I guess that's my question. I'm just, so my initial answer to you is that I'm going to be very optimistic that we will be able to access that data. And if you would, if you were Dwayne, if you just send that specific request to me, I'm also happy to reach out to sheriff Burkhead with this request and figure out it should be a data that we should be able to get for the task force and I will work on that. And certainly been able to get data related to some of those things in the past, but I don't know how long that will take given that it's not within the city, but I'm certainly happy to, to work in addition to other things that the task force will do to see if we can get that data. That's helpful for me and I appreciate your candor. Thank you. Sure. I also be CC'd on that public records request so I can monitor it as it's ushered through. I don't foresee it being a problem because at the end of the day the sheriff's office like public health, like the hospital, like the mayor is a public entity. So it doesn't matter that it's not the city, it's a public records request. So if you could CC me on that as well and I also monitor and make sure that it's ushered in through the sheriff's office. Thank you. So first I want to thank you for your openness. I am not accustomed to this kind of openness than cross collaboration. So it's really refreshing and I'm hopeful that it will continue. One of the things that I would like to suggest is that has to do with untapped resources that are within our city in community spaces that may not be known by the city, the county, the board of education. So how can the city determine or gather that information? I mean, we will. So that's one way. But then the expectation would be that folks that are in districts one and four, two, three, five are actually participatory and embedded in what we're doing because they're community. We're community. And then also community health workers are another resource. So as you're looking at staffing up and thinking about ways to get the community involved, I just wanted to lift up those two collective impact type organizations that are doing this work. Thank you. I appreciate that and happy to follow up more with you on that. But those are great ideas. Thank you. Any other hands? Thanks, Ryan. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. And we look forward to giving you lots of ideas, lots of ways to spend that money to protect, to keep this community safe and well. Thank you so much. Nothing's not going anywhere till you give me ideas. Okay. I love it. I love it. The pressure's on. Fantastic. Thanks so much. Thank you all. And now I'll pass it to Xavier. And before we go to the next agenda item, mind you, is there anything else we need to, in the chat that we might need to raise? No? Okay, good. All right. So then we move on. As you see, this is really a round table centered meeting. You've been in the work. You've got questions. We want to see you move as efficiently as you can. And so we're going to review some of the guidelines that we talked about earlier and Duane is going to handle that for us. Hello everyone. Just before we begin, I want to point out that James and I will be presenting today. And the presentation is also supported in the background by Dr. Pellman's. I ask that we view this presentation as just additional guidelines for the round table. We're trying to make sure that the round tables have as much resource to them as possible so that at the end of everything that we have all the recommendations that we want that are most efficient for Durham and creating the safest community for all of Durham's population, especially those who are most vulnerable. To begin today's presentation, we will start with James. Real quick, I'm going to get my, can you all see my shared screen here? And is it not in that weird presenter mode or is it? We're seeing it properly. You're good. All right, perfect. So yeah, as Duane kind of pointed out, we're just here to kind of give some clarification and guidance, specifically around the round table discussions, the listening sessions, and just provide more clarity in large groups, communication when there's separate groups underneath that can be hard to come by. And we've recognized some patterns that we think might be helpful to address in this presentation. Let me see if I can actually change the slide. So I'm going to go over the basic mission function and duties of the safety and wellness task force in the first section. Then we're going to talk about the round tables and listening sessions in the second portion. And then Duane will cover the approach, the work that y'all are doing and how to evaluate those through various methods. So beginning with the safety and wellness task force, just kind of to reiterate the mission that has been laid out in the bylaws. The fact that we are a community led task force addressing public safety and wellness needs in Durham in our community and educating these residents on what is available. And the end goal of this is to provide a set of recommendations that we can use to enhance public safety and wellness in our community. So just kind of want to bring those front of mind as we kind of lead through this presentation, just based off of the initial guidelines and documentations, the function of the safety and wellness task force as a large entity is to do a review of the existing institutional and community-based public safety and wellness resources to really understand what is at our disposal in Durham, what we need in Durham. And then to identify those needs and provide specific targeted recommendations to address these areas. And we've laid those out in the round tables that were created already. So those specific target areas will have target recommendations to address those things. We've talked about the three listening sessions in the first 90 days and we've already had them for the larger task force meeting. And then those options are also available at the round table level as well. So we'll have a public meeting after the formal process of recommendations are completed. And as is noted in the agenda for today's meeting, there are public quarterly reports to assess the progress and the work that y'all are doing on the task force. And then as I said before, you're gonna evaluate and make those recommendations. And these are gonna come across various community or city and county levels as well. So just to kind of set the stage, those are the functions and the duties of the round tables. We really wanna hammer into the groups for the round tables and how those listening sessions should be formatted and set up moving forward. So to begin, it's helpful to view these round tables as a ad hoc committee of the larger body itself. That way we can kind of center the work that we're doing in each individual round table as it relates to the whole group. And a big part of this of the round tables is to gather data from subject matter experts from the community. We really wanna understand those stories of people going through the criminal legal system. What areas for opportunity are there? What areas do we need to address? And the focus of this should be what is already in place in Durham? What are the practices that are involved in those? And then we need to identify those gaps and suggest those resources as needed. And this is as stated before, this is all for the round table. So one of those ways that that comes to fruition is to recommend alternative responses for each individual round table target area. And finally, I wanna mention that it is important to include non-task force members on these round tables. So as round tables, you all have the ability and the power to increase membership in those round tables that will come to those meetings regularly, that will contribute, that will also help with the work and the requests and stuff that are needed to come out of them. And one of the things you all have been working on very diligently are these listening sessions. And we've heard various iterations of how you all envision these happening. So we just kinda wanna center it around the foundation of what they're supposed to be. So the listening sessions as stated before could be at the full task force level or the round table level. And it is expected to be a space where people most affected by the legal system may voice their concerns and tell their stories because we need to understand the context behind how these systems affect the entire community, specifically for people whose voices are not traditionally heard by decision makers. So that's an important area of the listening sessions to be mindful of when creating these opportunities, these public forums that we're going to be engaging the community in. Now these listening sessions can also be conducted with members of professional organizations, service agencies, such as we just have one with Bull City United for one of the round tables. So keep in mind that these are the options that you all have for you at your disposal when doing these listening sessions. And we've heard a lot of really good ideas come out of that. And now when centering ourselves around the work, we really need to understand the context behind the stories we're listening. So if we don't know how someone moves specifically through, so if we don't have a Durham specific sequential intercept map where we know where the inputs and outputs are, where the areas of opportunity are for us to work on, then if we don't have that understanding, then we won't really come to an informed conclusion. So we just need to remember that context is key here and that we need to assess and evaluate these systems, factors and components. So I believe here I'm going to turn it over to Dwayne to go into more detail about how we go through this. And so there are many different approaches that we can use to understand the context that residents face regarding many of the issues that the round table groups are looking at. To look at the context of the situation, it is not just what meets the eye immediately, it is also what is beneath the surface. And so the next slide, please James. And so when we look at the system iceberg here, you'll realize that we have at the top the events, which are things that really happen that grab our attention. What is it that cause our interest to be piqued at this moment? An example of this, and I'm going to try and use example to go through so you could follow. An example of this event could be a shooting, a shooting that occurred on X street. But it is not just a shooting in and of itself, there is something that has caused that shooting. And so what James and I are suggesting to you is we can't just look at the event alone that occurred. We have to ask appropriate questions to see what had initiated or caused the shooting. And that's when we are going to now look at patterns of behavior. And patterns of behavior, as it says, is now looking at what particular trends have been taking place in the same region where the shooting took place. So we're assuming it is Durham for the purpose of our conversation. But then we realize that there is a trend where or there is an increase in shooting occurring in Durham. And so we recognize that this shooting that we saw on X street is not an isolated incident that occurred because of just one unique reason. There could be a myriad or a multiplicity of factors that contribute to that shooting. So we look at the pattern after that. Then we try to look for the structure. And what that means then is what has influenced that structure. And when we talk about what has influenced that structure, some of us would say, well, it might be COVID because there are different crimes that are happening as a result of people being locked in. Other people will look at the data and realize, oh, actually the shootings are taking place because of the gentrification that is happening in the city because people have been displaced and there becomes a domino effect that is happening across the city and affecting community safety. And then we look beyond that, we look at the mental models which look at the many assumptions and that people hold about the system. One assumption that I have heard consistently across all the roundtables is racism. That racism is the root of many of these different things happening or is it racism? We've also heard that. We've also heard about greed for wealth where we have people just wanting more and more money and disregarding the most economically modest people or residents in our community. And when we look at this system's iceberg, it is important that we're going to try and do a factor analysis. And when we talk about factor analysis in this case, we're not talking about the statistical factor analysis. We're instead more concerned about the qualitative factor analysis. Next slide, please, James. And that's where we're going to, that is what story is going to allow us to see the real trends that are happening. So as we deal with the different topics that you have, whether it's the SRO or the violence de-escalation or the 911 on-arm responses, responders, sorry. You know, we're going to look at each thing and see, okay, what exactly is happening in Ornishir? Is there a decline when it comes on to violence across Durham? Or is there an increase when it concerns violence across Durham? And even before then, we have to hold ourselves accountable to ask, how do we know what we think we know? Because many times we, you know, because of the assumptions that we've made using the systems iceberg, we make assumptions that we know so many things. In one recent round table listening session, we had one person who was telling us how impactful a particular program was, but this person was not telling us how this member knows that this program is being affected. But this is where we, you know, as task force members, because we will ultimately be putting forward recommendations to the city council. And we want to make sure that we have solid recommendations. And for this reason, we'll just have to push ourselves to ensure that we show the receipts. In other words, prove that we know what we know and that our assumptions are not just simply mirage in the middle of the highway, assuming that there's a water right there. And as soon as we get closer, there's no water. Next slide, please, James. Now, when we talk about the factor analysis again, like statistics, we'll be simplifying the data or reducing the noise or extracting variables of interest. But in our factor analysis here for the qualitative purpose, we'll just be asking lots of why question. It's the baby talk, essentially. We know children ask a lot of why, but why, but why? And that is where we're going to, again, challenge each other in a very respectful way and ask the why questions to solicit the best answers to the many challenges that we experience. At this point, we're going to use an example. Xavier and Marsha had volunteered themselves. And so Xavier and Marsha, do you mind using your example now, please? Certainly. Xavier, why do you believe Durham is unsafe? Well, I believe Durham is safer for some than for others. And why is Durham safer for some more than others? Well, Durham's reflective of oppression in our society as a whole. And why is society as a whole seen as oppressive? Well, oppression was an effective means for suppressing others' rights and opportunities based on race and class. And why has oppression based on race and class been effective over so long? Well, because society's gotten away with it over time. And why do you think we as a society can get away with oppressing people? Because oppression has been baked into our laws and our policies for a very long time. Amen. The five was. Thank you, Xavier and Marsha. And so there we saw an example of Marsha pushing Xavier to really highlight what he thinks he knows. And he was pointing out many factors and he went beyond just what the eyes see and into the systems of oppression that have been embedded in our society for a while. And then in this case, if they wanted to address the challenges of violence in Durham, then it would be pertinent for them to try and develop recommendations or policies that would include addressing this system that has perpetuated or created the violence. Next slide, please. So now we're combining the factor analysis as well as our systems iceberg. When we talk about the mental models, we talk about the implicit biases that we have. Again, so many of us have come to the table and we have already our own biases about so many different things. Are these biases coming from real lived experience? Of course, do we abandon these real lived experience? No. What we do in many of these situations is we try to make our experiences become more than just an anecdotal evidence or an anecdotal experience to something that there is evidence. We share experiences, we talk with each other. And for that reason, we want for each roundtable, even with divergent viewpoints, that each roundtable allows each member on that roundtable group to contribute meaningfully, even when those ideas may contradict the ideas that we hold dearly based on our own experiences. We also want to talk about the mental modes with regard to smart goals because these mental modes, again, are the assumptions that we have. But when we look towards how we fix this problem, next slide, please, James. We're going to be looking at how do we ensure that we create policies or create recommendations, sorry, that are understood by everybody, that is easy to follow. When we're creating, in ultimately creating the recommendations that will be sent to city council, we're asking that we use very clear language so that there's no nuance or ambiguity with what we're suggesting. That we call a spade a spade, but that we say exactly what we want. And next slide, please, James. And the next slide, please. And then this is where we're going, I want to pay some attention to the smart goals that we had, that in addition to being mindful of our own assumptions when we approach the different topics for our round table, that we develop strategies or we develop recommendations that are also abide by the smart goals. Many of us are accustomed to the smart goals or the smart objectives, but here we have deliberately the smart goals because we want to move beyond just ensuring that we're being specific, that whatever recommendations we have are measurable, that they're really realistic and are attainable, that they're relevant and just relevant to Durham. We're not talking about what's happening in New York City or Orlando. We're talking about Durham. We're going to talk about it being time-bound. And the other two constructs that we have here are inclusive. When we talk about inclusive, we're talking about, are we allowing everybody to join the table? I remember for one task force group, they were being very strategic and wanting to make sure that they use strategies that will allow everybody, especially those people who are affected by the different topics we're dealing with. And they're being very innovative in ensuring that these vulnerable populations are brought to the table. So I encourage you, please try to be inclusive to even in your listening sessions. The same two, sorry, is true with regard to ensuring that we have equitable policies or equitable recommendations because we want to know that what we're doing is addressing the structural racism in society while advancing racial equity because we know that the history of Durham underscores an urgent need for or goals to move from just smart to smarty and include inclusivity and creating a more equitable society. Next slide, please, James. We can also another suggestion that we have for you is you can use your own theory of change which is essentially your logic model. And what this is, it's a really detailed mapping of the strategy that you have and how you intend to move from your goal to what resources you will need. An example of this would be on the next slide where we start from the outcome. What are the outcomes? What outcomes, sorry, are you expecting? And after the outcomes, you then ask yourself, then what the outputs are there? And these are just the indicators, those things that are measurable again that you will use to make sure that the outcome, the long-term goal, the short-term goal, the medium-term goal that you have are in fact being achieved. But before we get to the output, you have to include activities and the activities to our different interventions that you will use. We can think, for example, somebody preference earlier voted to United but they I'm sure have activities that they're using to do the work they're doing to ensure that they reach their outcomes. And before the activities, we have to look at input. What inputs are there? The city is providing some inputs here because I undercount you and DPS and those inputs could include the human resource. And so I want you to think about those things too. Locations for meetings for different residents or participants, and then we talk about the situation. What exactly is the situation that we're living in Durham and that we want to change? And so the situation on the right would ultimately be improved to give you the better outcome or goal that you have on the left. And next slide please James. Now the process essentially is what most of you have been doing, but just as a reminder, we're asking that you collaborate not just with each other but also with other external stakeholders whether it is the most vulnerable in our community. Keep it in mind that these people are also experts. It's not the experts are not just people who are in the academy, the experts are people who live their experiences, the present experiences to historically and even in today's society. And so we want to collaborate with them. We want to define exactly what our problem is. So you have your own special interest group. Start defining a problem. What exactly is the problem there? And I think that will help many of you. Yes, you are in a round table called X, but what exactly is the problem there? Try to make that in a statement or two. And then you listen, listen to as many people as possible. What innovative strategies can you think of or strategies you've been using, used elsewhere to address this problem? Say when you look to, you have James and you have me and we will go and do research for you. If you want to explore, okay, what interventions have been used, for example, in Denver or in Eugene, we can go and do that for you. And does this strategy fit? Because not because a program works well in Boston, it means that the program is going to work well in Durham. Because we have to recognize that context does not fit. How much it costs is less relevant to our purpose here, but what do residents and other experts think about your strategy? So yes, you have your strategy, but try to also check in with what other people, the residents and other experts think about your strategy. And after you hear from them, refine your strategies and your idea and come back to the larger task force and we can put everything together and send to City Council. I think that's it for question and we're now at questions. So any comments, questions or concerns? I think that's it. So I'll turn it over now to you, Marcia. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, I do have a comment. I apologize for jumping in late. So some of us are familiar with logic models and some of us are not. So Dwayne, would you and James and Marcia, will you be the ones to assist with logic models or since that's being brought up, what's happening with those? Yes, whatever support any member of the task force needs or any realm table needs, we will provide. Thank you, Dwayne. That was very helpful. It's got a lot to do. A lot to think about, a lot of information to gather and a lot of discernment before us. And that was very helpful in helping us have the tools to do that effectively and efficiently. So thanks so much. Now we get to hear our round table reports. It's great that we have these and like to begin. I'm sorry, Marcia. I'm so sorry. We didn't have our hand up. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see it. We've been having a very good discussion in chat as well. Oh, okay, please. Yeah, and that's all I was highlighting that we're having a discussion in chat and wearing the chat hat. I wanted to name that, but we don't have to derail the process. We could circle back to it. We could just document that there's this conversation happening and create a space for it or if it feels useful to name what we're talking about. I can. We can circle back. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Marcia. So the first report will be from Andrea Muffin Hudson from the criminal legal system round table. You're muted, dear. Very good. Thank you. Let me pull up my nose. So we have had two round table meetings so far. And our first one, we were discussing how the recommendations will be used and if there's a body that reviews complaints against officers, if there's any data for that, we talked about adding new RT members, which we have. And I'm not quite sure of if I'm gonna be pronouncing the name correctly, but Leslie Knightick and Marion Bailey are now members of the round table. Also, we have started doing a process of beginning to end like from when someone is first encountered with the police, the process of them being incarcerated with like going to the magistrate, having their first appearance and where there can be interventions other than them being incarcerated for an extended period of time. Where can there be an intervention if something else can happen other than incarceration? And yeah, we talked about how the process for someone who has been incarcerated, that the trauma that lives in their bodies on a daily basis and how they can navigate life with this trauma every day. So when I hear people say that we need to sit down with the police or we need to sit down with the Sheriff's Department, I don't think that folks realize how traumatizing it is to someone who's been incarcerated by the police or someone who has sat in that jail with those same sheriffs being verbally abused and dehumanized on a daily basis. So yeah, that's what we were trying to get people to see with our round table is what it's like to be in that situation without having to actually go through that situation themselves because we know mistakes happens but we can learn from other people's mistakes because we don't live long enough to make all those mistakes ourselves. So if we can just be mindful of that, I think we'll be really, really successful. I don't know if I left anything. Thank you. What if I have, let me know. I think it's great. The one thing that struck, as we do that sequence of what happens, get arrested and then what is the economic inequality is just stunning. And I just wanna thank you Muffin for the work that you do on bail. That's just so in our face and something that I think we can do something about. Well, you're doing something about and we can do even more. We can follow your lead. Jesse. Muffin, can you just repeat the two community members that you mentioned that we're joining y'all's round table committee? Yes. Leslie Knightick, NYDICK, and Marion Bailey, B-A-I-L-E-Y. Thank you. And Leslie is a defense attorney and also doing immigration law. And Marion Bailey is a survivor. Her grandson was shot and killed and she reaches out and comforts and provides services for families who endure fatal violence. And if we can also lift up that Mrs. Bailey's grandson Kenneth was shot by police. Her grandson? Was it Kenneth Bailey's grandson? No, no, it's a different person. But there's, yes, there's so much there. And her relationship, anyway. We're just so, no, no problem. She'll, we're just very grateful for both these fine, fine folks. And Muffin, you're suggesting it also been to see if we could get somebody from a magistrate's office either a current or from a magistrate to help talk with us too, right? Especially about that early intervention. Yes, because the magistrate has a lot of power on whether or not someone might just in a cage or if someone gets to go to treatment and go home. That's like the first, the second place because the police have the first, but the magistrate is the first like judicial official. For us to be able to hear from the people like you've been through the process, but then also hear from a magistrate about how the process could be made much better and divert as much as possible. And also to deal with the bail issue to the extent that as you were pointing out, we have some leeway to do that in the bond process. Thanks. Jesse, would you like to tell us, give us an update on the SROs, please? Yeah. I'm sorry. Isaac, get his hand up first. Before it, Isaac. Sorry, thanks so much. I've got to find the hand. Sorry about that, Isaac. Muffin, just a question. I was wondering if you all, if your round table has thought about how receptive the courts are like basically how to communicate your recommendations to the courts and how receptive they would be. Cause it feels like any recommendations that you all come up with aren't directly to like the city or county or school board, you know, the three groups that have kind of called us into being here. And it feels like all your recommendations are probably going to go to the courts. And yeah, I'm just wondering like if you all have thought about how to negotiate that part. I don't think we've gotten that far as far as negotiating that, but we have spoken about that, you know, be the senior chief superior court judge and the senior district court judge that will make the decisions around, you know, the bail scheduling things like that, but we haven't discussed how we will present it to them or even if we will. Any other questions for Muffin? If not, I'll keep us moving. Okay. For context, I'm on the SRO round table committee with Alec, Tyler and Nori and Tanya who are the two of them are not present right now. The five of us are there. We've also met twice. We have our third meeting scheduled and have been meeting essentially every two weeks. It's been our first meeting, just establishing process agreements. We have five, which I'll read to you. We will respect our identities and hold space for each other. We will step up and step back accordingly. We will offer comprehensive support, which is both loving encouragement and accountability. We will be okay with difficult conversations, disagreements and stalemates and we will function together cooperatively. We also shared why we wanted to be on the SRO round table committee. Some of the thoughts were just our experiences with law enforcement while in the context of education, concerns about making SROs the primary or only option for safety in schools. They shared belief in the collective power of youth, parents, teachers and community members. The desire for working cooperatively and collaboratively with all community members, principals, teachers, TAs, custodians, students, parents and more. Naming service of SROs as well as harm and hurt due to SROs, particularly in the high school setting. Imagination for police-free schools and thinking about the alternatives, what needs to be in place instead of SROs, being pro-liberation, being pro-students and maintaining an ethic of care and protecting our more vulnerable folks, or historically targeted folks. I don't know that folks are inherently vulnerable sometimes, but centering those who are most impacted by SROs and addressing systems-level issues through research. We spent our second meeting discussing how we would begin coordinating our listening sessions, a dynamic conversation we had and we named some of the different populations that we wanted to hear from and some of the different formats for receiving that data, collecting that data and the considerations we would take for inviting other community members to support our SRO roundtable work. I think our approach since we have five Task Force members, which is, I think, the largest of the roundtable groups, is really kind of trusting our capacity to divide and conquer, if you will, and the spirit of working cooperatively and collaboratively. Nori and Tyler are taking point on our youth listening session and have already worked to help us identify youth leaders to help with organizing. So hopefully we'll be able to name a couple of youth that will join our roundtable specifically for the listening session for youth and then Tanya, Alec, and I are taking point on a listening session for principals, not as dynamic in terms of a process since there's a smaller number of principals and their information is a little bit easier to access given the way they function. So that's kind of where we are right now. I think we have some imagination for other listening sessions. I think we've named parents. We've also named SROs. And so there's some active conversation around the purpose of that, particularly SROs. And I think that just sits with our process agreement of being okay with difficult conversations and disagreements and stalemates and continuing to function together cooperatively. So really grateful and just want to echo while I have the mic, Muffin and Manju's comments in the chat around other tasks forced that exist and other resources that have already been in play and the importance of creating space for community members to participate in this process from a place of autonomy and agency. So continuing to figure out what those other listening sessions will look like. I'll open space for questions or for Tyler and Alec to chime in if I've missed something. I think you've got it focusing on what the questions are going to be, what are the things you want to dig into trying to focus on principles during the summer because they don't have school and then get ready. Yeah, we were big. I think this is a big thing Alec brought up was to have youth lead the youth listening session, which I think will take about a month, maybe a month and a half for us to get a good group of youth together, walk through what the purposes are and help them organize their own listening sessions within their school. So just really excited about that. Appreciate that, just. Yeah. Manju, would you like to have... I just wanted to lift up Mike's comment from the chat. So beautiful, Mike, do you want to share that aloud? Oh, you mean about the... Not that you don't already have enough to do but talk about so much overlap between what these roundtables are doing. As we were talking in ours about the criminal legal system, we were noting the lack of support for family members of people who are incarcerated and the lack of support for people who are victims of crime or their family members of victims of crime and how important that is especially to be there for young people as in students and what an opportunity perhaps that the schools could provide that kind of support as a real definition of community wellness and safety instead of SROs. But that might be beyond what you guys were at already. You've already bitten off a lot. You may not want to take that on as well. But that engages the issues of mental health, which you've all said is informing all of our roundtables. Yeah, I think we recognize that we needed to start with youth and we expect that starting with them will help inform the listening sessions that come afterwards. And so everything that you're talking about, I think is a part of what we anticipate will come afterwards. It just feels important to start with youth and I echo what Tyler mentioned in terms of the way you want to go about doing that. Well, they're the first ones you'd want to hear from because they're the ones who can tell you what they need because they're the ones who have family members in jail. They're the ones who have family affected by crime. You can say, this is the kind of thing. If I had this in the school, this would help me. Yeah, I'm hopeful that that kind of data is what will gather in the listening session for youth and that will continue to guide us. There's nothing else. Thanks. Thanks, Jesse. Thanks, SRA roundtable. Samuel, would you like to share our violence interrupters de-escalation roundtable? Yes, of course. And similar to all of the other groups that have already presented and shared out, we have also met two times and we plan on meeting a third time. I believe it's July 19th. Is that a Monday? I could be wrong, but I might need to check my calendar on that anyway. In our first meeting, we started to kind of establish what I would define as conjunct methods of analysis that we believe will properly and accurately assess the condition of violence and its effects on Durhamites in the current moment. So we can get a pretty good scope of where things are and where things might need adjustments at. And so one of our methods will specifically revolve around contacting other departments and agencies like the sheriff's office, the DPD and even the Department of Public Health to receive access to and examine their contemporary data on things such as, let's see, the amount of patients that have been admitted to a hospital because of a gunshot wound, for example. And so throughout this process, we also were seeking to find out where and when acts of violence are taking place and in particular, who are committing these violent acts and why. And so we hope to build trust with these departments as we would like to use this information to create a visual representation of violence throughout Durham so that we can directly locate areas where violence is most prevalent. And while on the subject of visual representation, we also established that we might plan to embark on sequentially mapping, excuse me, out different violence intervention programs, organizations and services to basically get a sense of what resources our members of the community have at their use and how effective those resources are. And so this directly leads me into our second meeting where we met with some individuals, well specifically one individual from the organization called Bull City United and in speaking with them, we were able to gain a brief understanding of what BCU does for the community and how they provide their services to the community along with the areas within Durham that they serve in. And so we plan on reaching out to them again so that we could see data and gain more insight into how their work specifically has left an impact on Durham. And lastly, we also look forward to convening directly with the community so that we can center them in our efforts as our efforts are centered around them and designated for them. And so that's basically a general recap of our first two meetings. And then our third meeting, we plan on expanding on these kind of concrete, I don't want to say building blocks that we've already established and start that analysis and start actually trying to figure out ways we can engage with the community and stuff like that. Did I cover everything or did I miss something? I think it was perfect, perfect. Is that, Wanda, do you have anything to add? Just a little bit, thanks, Samuel, you are a shining star. So we learned in terms of Bull City United that there have not been any homicides, gun violence in the areas that they participate in, which basically include adults in public housing areas. So that's the main focus of Bull City United. The other thing is that they work with adults and the work that Project Build does has more to do with gang and gang violence. So we're going to invite them next time as well. So there are lots of pieces here and we'll continue to move forward. Any questions? Yes, Jennifer. I just wanted to mention super briefly, I doubt this will be an issue because there's already so much talent and so many resources on and connected to this roundtable. But you had talked about looking at EV data, which is like, you know, syndromic data, surveillance data, blah, blah, blah. If ever you need someone who has been neck deep in that stuff before to help offer insight as like, what am I looking at and why is the data so hinky? Or because that stuff is super messy, my time is your time, let me know. Oh, great, great. We'll be in touch. Thank you, that's very generous. Please make me regret my offer. I would love to hang out. Okay, great. Anybody, any other hands? I'm trying to learn how to find them. I don't see any. Hi, today's hands up. Oh, golly gee whiz. Thanks. Thanks, Xavier and Marcia. And thank you, Samuel, for that presentation and Wanda, I was wondering if Bull City had mentioned the timeframe that they had been in the neighborhood's monitoring and so what they're counting from and then what do they consider as adults? Is it literally 18 and up or is it some other number? Well, correct me. If I'm wrong, thanks for the question. We really, if that came up kind of at the end of our conversation, so adult was mentioned. So, I don't wanna make assumptions but the assumption is adult could be 18 to 20 or 21 and up. The timeframe, the presenter actually was talking about work that had begun, I wanna say in May or before. It was a 90 day as I remember in the last 90 days in the two census tracks that they are committed to, that there had been no shootings. No one had been injured or killed is what I understood. And specifically again, they're looking at public housing, specific public housing communities in East Durham and Southside. So Oxford Manor, Hoover Road, Hoover Road and Horn Wallace and MacDougall Terrace. So those are the areas specifically that they are working in. So, if we are thinking or we're thinking that they are working all over Durham in all aspects of Durham, that is not their focus right now. They're focused on communities where the data has shown that the most assistance was needed for their services and they not only prevent acts of violence, gun violence, they also support the community and other ways connecting them to mental health resources, providing food and clothes and connecting to those kinds of resources as well. Yes, I do wanna clarify that those new places that the two places that they were referring to though is the MacDougall Terrace community and Southside. That the other areas you mentioned wanted, that's where they're going to be going to as they expand with this new funding is what I understand that there were two census tracts, MacDougall Terrace and Southside. All right, any other questions? Saviour, do you see any hands? I don't. I don't see any hands, but there was a question from Manju in the chat about just how can we possibly get some cross-pollination really around the reports and the good things that are coming in the roundtables? Cause we've already seen where some information for one round table could really inform the work of the other roundtables. So I think that's something that Marcia, you and I need to work with Dwayne and James on to make sure that everybody's getting information and lifting each other up. You know, I spent some time at the beginning of this meeting, talking about how much we appreciate the support we're getting from the department and the people working with the city. The expertise in this task force is just as awesome. And I've really been enjoying, I'm definitely gonna go back over the recording and look for things that I and you, Marcia, can follow up on with Dwayne and James to make sure that things keep moving. I do wanna reiterate that Marcia and I have kind of split to make sure we have the capacity to really be supportive as well. And so the SRO and 911 roundtables are connected to me and Marcia's connected to the criminal legal system roundtables and the Valence Center of Russia. So we are supporting you in the same way that Dwayne and is supporting you and don't want it to be in a confusion. We are task force members along with you. And you can always talk to, speak to either of us about those areas as well. So we do need to make sure that we get information out as quickly as possible once the roundtable has submitted its minutes to Dwayne. Absolutely, I agree. And we will work on that, like a library for us. Absolutely. I've shared documents. Tyler, would you like? Yeah, just one I forgot to mention that folks know of specific youth that may be interested in hosting a roundtable at school, we're looking at middle school and high school. Pretty sure we're gonna have Jordan and Hillside, like I'm pretty sure that's not gonna be difficult. I already know youth above, but yeah. So just if you know youth who may be precarious, they got the energy and they, you think these may be good folks that could round up youth who are actually impacted by it. So we love those, you don't have to give the name in contact info. Well, just the names who provide the name to then send the information out because you're the one who has the relationship. And the information will be simply, if you're interested, then sign up for a separate meeting. And then in that meeting, we will organize that specific group for you. But so you can just feel free to email me and Dora Norrie, McDuffie of the name and I guess school and grade of the youth. And we'll be sure to follow up with you. I have a pitch on, we're also gonna work with David and Dr. Campbell on sooner or later we'll have a stipend. We'll know what the money amount is for the youth that organize these individual businesses. So I forgot to say that first. That's great. So folks who have contacts with great student leaders get in touch with Tyler and Norrie. That's beautiful. Great. And Manju, would you share with us the 911 crisis response round table? News. Absolutely. And so in awe of the report backs from all three other teams. Just really amazing work already and so good to have the ball finally rolling. I would like to share my screen. I'm gonna be quickly reporting back from our team and inviting our team to share anything I missed. This is a report back on behalf of ISAC, Jennifer, Shanice, me, Dwayne and James. We talked at first about what are some of the reasons why we needed this body or why we need a different kind of crisis response. Why do we need a different kind of response when our neighbor is suffering a mismatch of responder skill set to the request for help? So really trying to understand by looking at the data of the calls for service, what are the requests for help and what are the appropriate skill sets? Just at a glance, the data says that at least a third could easily be addressed by other kinds of providers, likely two thirds. Likelihood of increased escalation possibly resulting in harm or even death. And then the pipeline that we see into the jail system and the struggles that follow incarceration. Right now, the Office of Community Safety and Wellness is building a team of skilled, compassionate, unarmed responders and solution builders and they're seeking our task forces input on what the new role of crisis responder could look like. And as we understand it, the mandate for our round table is to try and work with them to really channel community input to make that a glorious solution building thing. And to make that possible, we are listening. So listening is really core to our work. Our round table is eager to understand more about how Durham residents view 911 and the existing crisis response resources. We wanna talk with residents and crisis responder staff. We wanna be precise and purposeful with resident time. We will support participant needs as the budget allows, language access, mental health support, childcare, stipends. So these are some of the things we were talking about. We weren't expecting that the Office of Community Safety and Wellness would come in already figuring out how to budget for these things. And it's just so awesome. Really seeing how valuable it is to have staff from the office inside of our task force round tables listening and immediately getting working on making it happen. And then our goals as we understand them, check us if we're wrong, to study research and existing models, especially in the South, to offer recommendations on an ongoing basis to the city, the county and the school board to listen to as many stakeholders as possible, especially those who've been directly impacted. How do residents view and experience 911? What types of support are residents seeking for what types of challenges? What skills are needed? Develop and present specific texture detailed policy and practice recommendations to city council, county commissioners and school board and present supporting evidence for our recommendations to the extent we're able. We did talk to about this awesome model that Dr. Jennifer Carroll brought to us, the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative in Atlanta where this is like just a core description of their model. They respond to community calls for service through the number 311. When a caller refers an individual, someone from the response team does outreach to meet that individual assess their needs and provide ongoing support. So it's less of like a one-time encounter that feeds someone into a system and more like building a relationship. There's also a channel of providing an immediate alternative to arrest. So through training law enforcement officers to shunt appropriate calls to 311, the 9-1-1 of Atlanta is holding a much lighter burden by rerouting many of those calls. So that's the diversion aspect and then direct services and care navigation. So really helping folks identify what their needs are and access housing support, direct basic needs assessment, long-term case management and really building relationships to support participants in achieving goals. And so for us, our next steps are, we wanna meet with y'all, the Office of Community Safety and Wellness. We wanna host a learning session with Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative Atlanta and as we talk about cross-pollination, it might be nice to extend that invitation to all of you on the task force or even to the public and say, come learn with us. And we'd like to plan and publicize our first community listening session. So if I missed anything, fellow round table members, please pipe up. Oh, and yes, thank you for naming that. Dr. Carroll, there's black Latino trans formerly incarcerated leadership that is at the helm of this PAT initiative work, which is probably really critical to how effective they've been. They have been profoundly effective. And actually I'll just go ahead and chat into the chat box, the link to the report that we study, that we're studying in preparation for getting to listen to them. It's been so effective that it's expanding into new districts and taking on new types of calls for service. Thank you, that was great. Any questions, any comments? That is extremely inspiring. Thank you for this good news and for all you're doing. We're rocking and rolling now folks and can hardly wait to hear at the next meeting what we've accomplished. So thank you, thank you. If there's no other comment or question. I just wanted to praise one quick thing about the 911 round table. So I'm not familiar of a lot of conversations about police alternative crisis response or 911 response that is really beginning to have the conversation in a way that focuses not just on community need but the specific skill set that is required to meet that community need. 99% of the time the conversation is like should it be psychiatrists or social workers? And the reality is like maybe both, maybe neither, maybe something totally different that we haven't created yet. And so I just wanted to like celebrate and really just express my deep gratitude for that openness and the round table to have that really, to have the harder conversation that I hope will produce something more meaningful for the people of Durham. Beautiful. I can't remember one other thing we talked about that I forgot to highlight, which was this idea of hosting deliberative dialogues. Does someone who knows more about that want to share about that model? Yeah, so I'm familiar with it in that I was, I've participated in deliberative dialogues as part of the, this is not the formal name of it but it was essentially the opioid task force in Alamance County where I was previously employed, not by the county anyway, it's late, it's been a week. And essentially it is a type of scripted structured conversation that allows for people from multiple viewpoints, multiple stakeholders to gather, learn information, identify gaps in their information and discuss solutions to a particular problem. And it is in my experience when it's done well, it is as useful in ensuring that multiple perspectives are heard and that people feel heard as it is effective in helping to build consensus around particular solutions to community problems. So I've seen it operate well, dealing with slightly different social issues and it was suggested as a possible tool and our tool belt should the need for it ever come up. Should we have the inclination that it might be useful as part of this process? Well, as we imagine a new way of doing things, the way that we converse is also should be part of that. This is a new culture I see being created in this town and there needs to be new process and new approaches to the way that we do engage with one another. So that's wonderful. I'm very interested in that. Thank you. With that, I'll turn it over to Xavier. And so I'm reminded again that this task force in itself is a new approach in what we're doing in this community which leads me to circling back to some areas in the chat that Muffin and Mindjer had mentioned earlier when we were speaking. We talked about the mission statement, it was reinforced with James that this is we're looking for alternatives to policing. We also were given bylaws that had an advisory council for us to listen to. So it's really up to each round table to determine how that happens for that particular round table. And definitely want to acknowledge on what Muffin was saying earlier about the fact that bringing someone from law enforcement is not always the best way to get information from them for that particular round table. So definitely want to really center ourselves in the fact that this is about community solutions. And then we have a department that's supporting us in that. Also what I recognize Mayor Pro Tem Johnson who's with us tonight and Commissioner Burns was with us earlier as well. And I always thank you for being here as LA Zones. Do the last part that we have here when next last and as we get close to our closing time is the, we're at, believe it or not just about at 90 day mark. And so we have a speaking of bylaws a quarterly report. And so basically the three things that have happened up to this point is that we've had organizations come and present to us give us reports. And Marsha and I will take the lead and put in that part of the quarterly report together. We have had some discussion about how we organize ourselves and for whatever's, for posterity sake, if nothing else we will make sure we list how that was done how we put together the structure with round tables listening sessions. But we also need one page submission by July 21st from each round table that we can add to the quarterly report. If your next meeting comes somewhat after that but before the 28th, let us know so we can delay that for your round table. But we do wanna get just a sense of where you are that we can add to the report that we send up to the county, to the city and to the Board of Education. And we are, that report should be finished by July 28th. We will of course make sure that it's on the city website that's dedicated to this task force. And whatever other means that reports like this go out I would defer to Amber, who's of course is our host tonight always keeping us allowing us to come together in this virtual way. And we thank you so much for Amber for all you're doing and I'll get more information from you about what that means as far as getting it delivered. But I did I miss your name earlier and I missed that and I do apologize. So every round table should have a head convener a convener in chief, a chair. And for those that don't love you to make sure that happens in your next meeting so that we can coordinate those reports with those persons. Okay, so we're asking a delay for the next now on one meeting, 7.25 be fine. And because what you get us we're just gonna put it into the report and correlate it so it'll be fine. Thank you. Any questions about this other questions about the report or anything that I misspoke that needs to be corrected because that's very possible. Okay, great. And so of course our next task force meeting is on the 11th and just again reminder for getting those one page summaries in. And so we'll close with Marcia. Well, we'll close as we always close with the word, if you could share a word that describes what you were taking from this time together. And I am taking gratitude and I'll pass it to Manju. Taking strength and passing it to Dr. Wanda. I'm taking trust and I'm passing it to Alex. I'm taking eagerness. I will pass it to Samuel. Taking excitement and I'll pass it to Dr. Campbell. I'm taking dignity that we treat each other. And I'll pass it to Ms. Muffin. And I will say, Exhausted. And I will pass it to Manju. Pass it to Toya. I'm taking foundation and I'll pass it to Samuel. It's to the Dr. Carol. For me, I think efficacy, effectively getting stuff done. And I will pass it to Isaac. I'm taking inspiration and I'll pass it to Tyler. I'm taking mutual support and I'll pass it to Wanda. I went already, so I pass it to Jesse. I am taking the value of teamwork to make the dream work. I think everyone went, or maybe, oh, we gotta get James in there. And Amber and May. Okay, so I'm gonna pick James. Hey, everybody, sorry. I'm trying to get internet issues, but I'm gonna take passion because I've been so astounded by the passion that y'all bring to this task force. And I'll pass it to whoever hasn't come yet. Mayor Pro Tem. Jillian. I am taking energy. And I think Amber hasn't gone, Amber. Hey, y'all, I'm taking purpose. Beautiful. Beautiful. Well, with that, I'll say goodnight and thank you all so much. Onward and upward. Failure is impossible. Peace is with us. Good night.


Have you ever been swayed by a box of cookies that say they're healthy and natural? Or maybe a TV ad that shows a soft drink as refreshing and also that the person is having lots of fun? And when you listen to your teacher, a person in authority, they can persuade you to do something, like sign up for limited spots for after-class tutoring. Those are just a few examples of everyday persuasion. It's found in all areas of life, from school to work and everything in between. One of the main reasons behind persuasion today is social proof. We want things that we see other people have. It's how Instagram influencers get you to buy stuff. According to the website, Sideplayer, persuasion plays a part in everyday life, such as when you're applying for a job, getting people to listen to your ideas at work, or asking for a raise. Apart from everyday instances, there are also unique situations where people use persuasion. In this video, we'll be looking at how persuasion works. The fascinating ways cults persuade people to join them, how advertising uses it to get people to buy things, and the power of authority. But it's not all bad. There's also positive persuasion, too. And of course, we'll tell you how you can resist it. So without further ado, here are three ways persuasion can happen and how to fight it off. So how does it work? Psychologist Robert Chaldini, an expert on persuasion, spent three years studying how people persuade others to buy things or do things. In an article in Stanford Social Innovation Review, he says there are six rules to persuasion. Rule number one, reciprocity. If someone does something for you, you'll feel obligated to repay them. Number two, scarcity. Things seem more valuable when there isn't much of them or much time. For example, in sales, when you see only five left in stock, buy now. Number three, authority. There's an expert or someone with authority around, you will often go with what they say. Number four, consistency. People are often pressured to continue to stick with something once they've committed to it or made a choice. Number five, liking. People say yes to people who they like or who are similar to them. And number six, social proof. When others are going along with something, you are more likely to as well, cults. Very well-mined defines persuasion as when a person or entity tries to influence others to change their beliefs or behaviors and coercive persuasion, aka brainwashing, is what may occur in a cult. According to the New Yorker, the term brainwashing was used in connection with cults in the early 1970s. Some believe that people join cults in proportion to the perceived uncertainty of an environment. The more out of control we feel our situation or our life is, the more likely we are to put our beliefs into others. And people are attracted to cults because it has an idealistic vision that's appealing and keeps people in them longer than you think. People have a hard time leaving these cults, possibly because of psychologist Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance. He outlines how we feel uncomfortable or unpleasant when something contradicts our firmly held beliefs. Psychologist Kelton Rhodes says the environment or immediate situation exerts an overwhelming influence on our behavior. There doesn't seem to be any reliable personality trait that predicts people who join cults, but there are situational factors that make people more susceptible, such as loneliness, like moving to a new place, depression and uncertainty or upheaval in life, like starting college. These situations cause us to look for simple solutions, which cults provide through authority, structure, and social closeness with others. These are all things that most of us look for in our lives without realizing it. According to psychologist and cult expert, Margaret Taylor Singer, cults thrive when society is in turbulent periods, such as social and political unrest, and when the rules and structure of society have broken down. Advertising. According to The Guardian, companies use persuasion to get you to buy things by making you think you're getting a bargain when you're really not sneaky, right? They set a high price on purpose and then put it on sale so you think you're getting a deal, but really the company is getting the price they originally wanted. They also make you wanna buy more things by having a scarcity rule in place. You know, those popular shopping websites, when they advertise there are only five left in stock, it persuades you to buy the item because this might be your last chance to get it before it's all gone. Advertising companies urging people to buy things is persuasion. It has a powerful influence on our daily lives and society in general. Authority. When it comes down to it, we respect people who are experts. We're influenced by toothpaste that says dentist recommended because dentists are experts and so we trust their recommendations. It saves us time and energy when we don't have to be an expert on a subject and can rely on those who already are. And if the item you got wasn't as good as you were told, then you also have someone to blame it on. Psychologist Stanley Milgram, famous for his well-known shock experiments, discovered that we're all surprisingly obedient to those in a position of authority. According to Simply Psychology, in part, obedience involves a hierarchy of power. So the person ordering you to do something has a higher status than you, receiving the order. How to resist it? According to Psychology Today, not every persuasion technique will work every time. It depends on the context and requires careful planning. But simply knowing these principles of persuasion can help you not only become more persuasive yourself, but to recognize when you're being influenced. And just a reminder from Very Well Mind that persuasion isn't all negative. It can be used for good, like getting people to recycle or improve their health by quitting smoking. Learning more about persuasion can help you be more persuasive too. Research has shown that having a confident tone of voice makes you more persuasive, even if you don't feel like you are. Sounding like you are will make people more likely to go along with what you're saying. As the father of influence, Robert Cialdini says, understanding the rules of influence, how they work, and how to use them can help you be more persuasive and avoid being taken advantage of. Do you have a story to share about persuasion? Let us know. And as always, look out for Si for more fascinating psychology content. Thanks for watching.