Apr 15, 2021 | By: Destiny Wiggins
Beltrami Area Resiliency Team Creates Conversations on Inclusion
The Beltrami Area Resiliency Team is made up of community members that are passionate about building a self-healing community. The team has worked the past year on 100 Cups of Coffee, a community effort to listen to voices that are not always at the decision-making tables.
Volunteers conducted over 100 interviews with community members and now have come up with four key findings:
- Interviewees described the area as a family-focused place with resources for individuals and families;
- They identified division in the community, especially racism, as a barrier to progress;
- They wanted a space where they could connect and recreate, learn, celebrate, and gather together;
- And less than a third of interviewees said they had a voice in community decisions. That number was lower among Native American interviewees.
The resiliency team will be hosting a Zoom conversation on April 27 for the community to hear the next steps in the process.