GREENFIELD — The town’s Human Rights Commission is seeking volunteers to join an ad-hoc committee established to identify issues of racism and diversity in town, and draft policies that would address those issues.
The committee was created in response to two commission forums on overcoming racism, which were held in January and March. Four subgroups were created this month to address issues specifically relating to law enforcement and public safety; education and school policy; cultural sensitivity training; and diversity celebration.
Human Rights Commission Chairman Lewis Metaxas said the working groups are in the beginning stages, and some details are still being hashed out, but that the ultimate goal is to identify issues in Greenfield and come up with policy proposals to address them.
“What we hope to do is formal policy proposals that we can give from a human rights perspective to the mayor and the Town Council and the School Committee in terms of positive, productive, citizen-town government interaction,” he said. “I think there will be an interface here, and I’m hoping a chemistry of sorts, between the town government and the community at large that will lead to some policy proposals.”
The law enforcement and public safety group will be lead by commission member Philippe Simon, who said he hopes the subcommittee will be able to get residents more involved in community policing.
The group will also look at the police department’s training program to see if there are any gaps, and if so, how the commission may be able to help fill those needs in terms of race-related police work, Simon said.
“The overall purpose and one of the reasons why I’m pushing for this is I think through community involvement and more transparency, we can make an effect in all of these departments by keeping the public eye on what’s actually going on,” he said. “These incidents pop up and then we have some kind of response to them, and then they just kind of go away, but the real problem doesn’t go away.”
Metaxas said the education and school policy group was an idea that came from Greenfield Public Schools Superintendent Jordana Harper.
“The initial idea of this, as far as racism and social justice in the schools, was pretty much the superintendent’s idea when she came on,” Metaxas said. “She said she wished she had more time to devote to it … I think it’s more of something we’ve taken on from the superintendent.”
Metaxas will chair the cultural sensitivity training group with the goal of establishing community-wide education akin to what the town of Montague is doing. He said it made more sense to recommend the training for all town employees rather than just police officers.
Members of the police department and those involved in the school system are welcome and encouraged to attend the group meetings, he said, which will occur monthly. About 20 people who attended the commission’s May meeting expressed interest in joining the working groups, according to Metaxas.
“I think we have a good core to go forward, but it would be terrific if we could have more people,” he said.
Commission members Penny Ricketts and Gregory Corcoran will co-chair the diversity celebration working group. Metaxas said one of the group’s goals is to work with the Greenfield Business Association to incorporate a diversity celebration into SummerFest this July.