Action Team Goal:

Community members must demand the end of socioeconomic and racial segregation.
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Other APEX Action Teams:

Community Engagement and Empowerment

Funding and Budgeting

Supporting the People in Our Schools

Supporting the Whole Child

2019 meeting schedule coming soon!

​Meeting 6 Recap

• Recap of an interim meeting held in November to develop the role of facilitators and use of storytelling in the team project
• Attendees agreed on the team and local artists to:
  • be trained on anti-racism, cultural competence, and school desegregation
  • Build out a curriculum with elements of storytelling
  • Facilitate their created curriculum
  • Decide how to integrate and present this curriculum in the community 
• Team brainstorm around project implementation and preparation for the next phase with a focus on:
  • Size and demographic composition of the team
  • What types of trainings the group and facilitators should receive
  • How big a team should be
  • Who should train the team
  • What commitments the team should make to the process
  • What the curriculum could cover
  • Who a pilot audience would be
  • Where this program would be piloted
  • Overall goal of the project
• The team reached the following consensus:
  • Start with a core group of 10 to 12 facilitators
  • Racially diverse team with an emphasis on youth members negatively impacted by segregation and parents who can develop skills in responsive integration practice
  • Team to be trained in anti-racism, history, and current statistics around local desegregation and equity issues
  • Piloting the curriculum in neighborhoods most affected by segregative practices
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​Meeting 5 Recap

• Small group discussions and share outs on the concepts of complacency and complicity
• Team created questions they needed to answer in regards to what the cultural competency programming should look like
• Brainstorm ideas for project implementation, scope, and goals
• Reached consensus on what elements were essential to include in the program, such as:
  • using diverse facilitators
  • going into different communities with this program
  • having artist involvement with the storytelling component
  • creating a shared and consistent script for all of the facilitating teams
  • finding shared and transparent messaging for the program
  • having an end goal that leads to action
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​Meeting 4 Recap

• Explored common thought processes held by parents considering enrolling their child in a segregated school
• The team discussed the difference between desegregation and responsible integration practices based on research provided by national organization Integrated Schools
• After discussion, the team underwent a voting and workshopping process to narrow down project ideas proposed from the group in prior meetings
• The chosen project will focus on combining cultural competency training with a storytelling campaign to elevate the experiences of students, teachers, parents, and community members
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​Meeting 3 Recap

• Participated in an interactive mini-workshop on the historical perspective of school segregation with guest facilitator and artist Josiah Golson
• Discussed project proposals including the following approaches
  • Communication/awareness building campaign
  • Neighborhood/education based work
  • Community exchange/reconciliation work
  • Student-led initiatives
  • Integrating the arts into conversations around school segregation
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​Meeting 2 Recap

• Discussed common arguments and myths surrounding segregation in our community, specifically:
  • De jure segregation (segregation that is imposed by law) vs. de facto segregation (segregation that is a result of social difference and choice)
  • Racism as a problem of the past, present, and future
  • Myths associated with school integration being harmful and unfair for high performing students
• Reflected on how our individual choices as parents, students, teachers, and community members impact all students in Hamilton County
• Explored shifting the perspective past individual interest to the health and well-being of the community as a whole
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​Meeting 1 Recap

• Participants discussed the ways they have experienced, seen, or learned about socioeconomic and racial segregation
• The group determined the opportunities and challenges faced in achieving socioeconomic and racial integration in our public schools

Next Steps:
The group has decided to have an interim meeting in 3 weeks before the official 6th meeting to spend time 1) brainstorming and outlining logistics for training and identifying facilitators and experts in the field and 2) creating a framework for the curriculum and storytelling element of the project.