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Decatur Diary | December 4, 2015

City Commission to Receive Better Together Community Action Plan Monday Night

On Monday night, December 7, at 7:30pm, a year’s worth of effort will come to a close as representatives of Decatur’s Better Together process present the city commission with a comprehensive draft of content for the Community Action Plan.

Over the past twelve months, the effort’s organizing committee has planned and then convened a broad community conversation around differences — in culture, race, age, abilities, politics, economic resources, and more. Not just to explore the city’s diversity-related challenges but, more importantly, to collectively determine what we might do about them.

Support for and interest in the process has been evident. Comparatively speaking, outside of the city’s extensive Strategic Planning initiative in 2010, Better Together has been Decatur’s largest public participation exercise in 15 years. Hundreds of residents representing myriad facets of the community have come to the table, completed community surveys, and engaged in face-to-face conversation to develop a list of steps — action items — that the city, nonprofit partners, and even individuals can take forward to help preserve and foster diversity of all kinds.

That series of proposed actions forms the crux of the Community Action Plan which, overall, operates on two levels: active content and passive content.

Active content involves the core calls for action — the recommended policy and implementation measures generated by the community in August and subsequently vetted and prioritized during the public review and comment period, November 12-30. No action recommendations not previously reviewed by the community are included in Monday’s submission.

Passive content involves background and support materials such as the rationale for and history of the Better Together process, the role of the Leadership Circle, and relevant appendices.

What’s Next?

Come Monday, the city commission will be presented this comprehensive draft of the plan’s content and will determine what, if any, action they choose to take. Any revisions or additions they might provide, during or subsequent to their meeting, will be included in a finalized, formally laid-out document expected early in the new year.

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