The Lane County Equity and Access Advisory Board is hosting a series of virtual listening sessions to hear from the community about what we can do to achieve racial equity across our communities.
The first session is Tuesday, August 11, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. online. (Participants must pre-register at www.lanecounty.org/listening_sessions.)
Racial equity is defined as working within our institutions to ensure that race no longer plays a predictive role in determining how well we do in American society.
The August 11 session is focused on mental health and hearing from front line workers, people who receive mental health services, or who work in and are interested in the mental health system in Lane County.
“Our goal is simple: to listen,” said Lane County Equity and Access Coordinator Mo Young. “We need to better understand the experiences of our community members so that we can work together to identify, acknowledge and address the root causes of inequities in Lane County services and find antiracist policies to eliminate those inequities.”
Additional sessions are scheduled through August and September:
- General Listening Session on Tuesday, August 18, 5:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m.
- Health Listening Session on Thursday, August 20, 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
- Juvenile Justice Listening Session on Tuesday, September 1, 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
- General Listening Session on Wednesday, September 2, 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
- Economic Justice on Thursday, September 3, 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
- Public Safety Interest Listening Session, Wednesday, September 9, 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
- Sesión General de Escuchar (en español), Miércoles 16 de Septiembre, 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
The themes and ideas shared during the listening sessions will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners on October 6, 2020.
The virtual platform requires participants to pre-register before the session begins. To learn more and pre-register, visit www.lanecounty.org/listening_sessions.
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