The IDEA Coalition is marking its one year anniversary of work in Chautauqua County.
IDEA Project Director Bishop Leecroft Clarke said there are now 40 organizations and businesses part of the coalition, all aimed at pursuing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (I.D.E.A.) strategies in the community.
He said the coalition’s goal is to address, prioritize, and to give a voice to the historically marginalized in the county, as well as serving as a bridge between that impacted population and various organizations that provide services to that population, “Essentially, what we’re doing, if you may think about it this way, is you have the community understanding what the concerns and barriers are for the community. And develop a process to identify solutions for those concerns. And being able to help Coalition members, who are organizations and agencies that serve the community, to better understand how to serve that population.”
Clarke said six town hall meetings were held in north and south county with the Black and Latino communities to hear concerns and identify barriers. He said there were thirteen categories defined by the 200 community members who participated in the town halls, “So the three categories we have prioritized everything down to, to work on, relative to our next step, is educational system, employment/business, and community/social activities. Now, the interesting part about it is this – woven in all three of these are racial and discriminative scenarios.”
Clarke said the next step will be to form three solution teams around these categories of concern that will be made up of coalition members, community members, and other key stakeholders.
He said the next full IDEA Coalition meeting will be held on September 21.
For more information about the IDEA Coalition, visit https://www.uwayscc.org/ideacoalition or to get involved, email Bishop Clarke at idea-director@uwayscc.org
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