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Human Rights Commission Minutes October 16, 2013 — Draft Minutes Page 3 of 10 92 community conversation with immigrants in cooperation with the organization Advocates for 93 Human with the expense not to exceed $300. He indicated Madeline Lohman 94 with Advocates for Human Rights (AHR) was present this evening to provide the Commission 95 with an overview on AHR and a presentation on Community Conversations. 96 97 Madeline Lohman, ,provided the Commission with a 98 handout noting the Advocates for Human Rights was a non - profit organization based out of 99 Minneapolis that has been in operation for the past 30 years. Migrants' and women's human 100 rights were main focuses, along with human rights education. Ms. Lohman discussed Advocates 101 state -wide v rproject called One Voice Minnesota and recentl completed 102 , and was continuing 103 encouraging communities to be welcoming and inclusive, often in cooperation with local human 104 rights commissions. In the course of this work AHR found itself training local groups and 105 developing models and best practices for organizations working with immigrants in diverse 106 communities. 107 108 Ms. Lohman told the Commission that Advocates understood the rights of immigrants to mean 109 that people can have their basic needs met and can participate in the civic and political life of the 110 community, and feel safe in their neighborhoods and able to trust their local institutions. She 111 emphasized that the Conversation model was meant to get a diverse range of community 112 members and to start making public this process of how a community can become inclusive and 113 welcoming, 114 115 Ms. Lohman then discussed her group's template for or _ anizing a Conversation; this document 116 entitled Hosting a Community Conversation was included in the Commission's meeting packet. . .e 117 T+ «T�r r„ +o She JLV 118 emphasized this evei4 organizational outline could be easil adapted to meet the local needs of 119�e`�, but the heart of the program, she explained, was the small group discussions about 120 what participants had experienced in their neighborhoods and communities. She added that it 121 was important that the white mainstream community be included in order to determine whether 122 less- than - welcoming experiences in neighborhoods was unique to new arrivals or simply a 123 response that everyone struggled with. 124 125 Lohman explained that that the ep Conversation model had often lead in 126 to future action resolving human rights issues {�+ «TOOT „- , , gi n ja ]pop] nEw►w►„r►; ♦�r 127 and community-building efforts. She was encouraged that the Roseville HRC had 128 a small budget which would be providing food and refreshments for the event. 129 130 Chair Grefenberg thanked Ms. Lohman for the., iffn , her presentation. He said he initially 131 favored this project because the Commission would be able to collaborate with 132 the AHR and take advantage of their assistance and experience with on this issue and process 133 He added that this model Ue note,a An xrpr+ ,a;r,,,,rr;e "XX .. 134 fit well with the Commission's affnK4 goals as presented to the Council last August, as 135 well as the Council's own goals. ^r Z20 3. Grefenberg added that he also favored this project 136 because it seemed a low-energy program on the part of Commission members.