FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 15, 2008

Contact:       Tammy Trojanowski, Community Services, 203.385.4095 
                    Heather B. Habelka, Office of the Mayor, 203.385.4001

Stratford’s Citizens Addressing Racial Equity (CARE) Program Receives National Recognition

Stratford, Connecticut (January 15, 2008) - Stratford citizens and organizations, with the leadership and support from the Town of Stratford, have been working on issues of racial equity for many years. In 2006, Mayor James R. Miron reinvigorated local efforts by providing town management personnel with cultural diversity training, requiring each department to submit a diversity plan, and tasking the Community Services department with developing a plan to engage the community.

Phase One of the community plan centered on bringing citizens of diverse backgrounds together for dialogue to address racism and inequities. It began with the Community Conversation on Race, sponsored by the Office of the Mayor in cooperation with the Stratford Youth and Family Advisory Board, the Stratford Clergy Association and The Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport, Inc.

Attended by nearly 100 Stratford residents, it launched the study circle dialogue groups that involved over 60 residents during a six-week period, culminating in the Community Action Forum on Race in May 2007.

From the dialogue, citizens began to develop ideas for action to promote racial equity and cultural competence. The discussions about how to make Stratford a stronger, healthier community for everyone laid the foundation for the second phase centering on action. During the action phase, three action teams are engaged in problem-solving and strategies to enhance the educational experience for all Stratford children, improve police community relations and engage more community leaders that reflect the diversity of Stratford.

CARE ACTION PLAN

The action phase is being implemented by 50 citizens engaged in the Citizens Addressing Racial Equity (CARE) sponsored by the Office of the Mayor in cooperation with the Stratford Youth and Family Advisory Board, the Stratford Clergy Association and The Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport, Inc.

· The Police Community Action Team is working to foster mutually respectful relationships between police and community with the goal of enhancing race relations, trust and public safety through proactive education, open-minded communication and understanding with integrity and accountability.

· The Leadership Action Team is a group of Stratford citizens who volunteered to gather data on the diversity of our town’s leadership and identify perceived inadequacies. This data will be presented to the town leadership (officials who are elected, appointed and employed in top management positions) and to the community.

· The Education Action Team is supporting the Stratford Public Schools’ efforts to increase the pool of qualified minority candidates for both administration and teaching positions, enhance diversity training for all staff and students system-wide and promote system-wide diversity celebration and acknowledgement.

“The growth and success of our CARE program is a direct result of a group of dedicated members of our community coming together, united by one common goal – to strengthen the relationships in our community,” said Mayor Miron. “The work of the members of CARE is truly exemplary and is affecting real, positive change in our community.”

CARE RECEIVES NATIONAL RECOGNITION & SUPPORT

The Study Circles Resource Center has selected the Town of Stratford to take part in a national initiative aimed at helping communities create and sustain public engagement and community change on issues around racial equity.

The Study Circles Resource Center is a national organization that helps local communities find ways for all kinds of people to think, talk and work together to solve problems. The Study Circles Resource Center works with neighborhoods, cities and towns, regions, and states, helping them pay particular attention to how racism and ethnic differences affect the problems they address.

Stratford’s Citizens Addressing Racial Equity (CARE) is one of eight programs selected to work with the Study Circles Resource Center (soon to be Everyday Democracy) over the next two years as part of the Communities Creating Racial Equity initiative.

The eight programs will work in their communities to reduce persistent inequality among racial and ethnic groups that show up in areas like education, housing, health care, the justice system, immigration and jobs. The programs also will form a national learning network, and will meet together twice over the course of the initiative. The Study Circles Resource Center will provide technical assistance to the programs, and use what it learns from their work to generate new tools, advice and resources that will be available for other communities around the country working on racial equity.

“Our CARE program was selected by the Study Circles Resource Center as a direct result of the strength of CARE’s proposal to work on racial equity, its commitment to long-term community change, its ability to bring many people from diverse backgrounds into conversations about racial and ethnic inequities and how racism is affecting the community, and its capacity for sustaining inclusive public conversation and problem solving so that these democratic processes become a routine part of how the community works,” said Mayor Miron.

“CARE proposal to work with us showed its commitment to examining the roots of inequities, and to setting new standards for success that go beyond just getting along better,” says Martha L. McCoy, executive director of the Study Circles Resource Center. “We look forward to helping the Town of Stratford create opportunities for all kinds of people to talk and work together to close racial gaps and solve public problems.”

Programs included in the initiative are Stratford, Conn.; Syracuse, N.Y.; Montgomery County Public Schools, Md.; Lynchburg, Va.; Burlington, Vt.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Sacramento, Calif.; and New Haven, Conn.

With funding provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the C.S. Mott Foundation, the Study Circles Resource Center will provide each organization with in-depth technical assistance and stipends for travel to the learning exchanges. Each organization will have a chance to apply for a small grant to help them implement their community’s ideas to achieve racial equity.

The first learning exchange will be April 22-24 at the new Everyday Democracy office in East Hartford, Conn. More information about the Study Circles Resource Center can be found at www.studycircles.org.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The Stratford Clergy Association will host it annual Martin Luther King Celebration Sunday, January 20, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2310 Main Street, Stratford. The Reverend Doctor Frederick Streets, former Yale University Chaplain, will join members of Stratford Clergy in leading the ceremony. Dr. Streets, a Stratford resident, is an adjunct professor at Yale Divinity School and Yeshiva University in New York. As a 2007-08 Fulbright Scholar, he is researching and teaching at the Department of Practical Theology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

# # #