Black Mayoral's Conference

Concept 1: Access to technology including free broadband for all. Work with the public housing authority to design wi-fi into housing and even use the school busses as mobile hot spots offering wi-fi to students. 

Concept 2: Transportation combining wi-fi and messaging. Partner with universities to address funding and to staff studies and benchmarking efforts to design fair, equitable & inclusive transportation that includes underserved communities first. 

Concept 3: IoT Creating a center of excellence with citizen benefits at the center of value. Focus on technology but not at the expense of the human element.  This led into a cyber security discussion about protecting assets and emerging technology.  Let us help you achieve a depth of view into the security status of your information assets. Leave a comment below or reach out to me directly to get started.

Concept 4: Working together by thinking inclusively, collaborating, including more public-private partnerships

In general, when setting goals, commit & ensure accountability. Concerns about access to dollars including PPP, over mentoring, not enough investment, better understanding criteria for investing and working with the private sector.

Concept 1: Job/Skills Training including investing in high demand jobs & skill development, apprenticeships & OJT, transferrable skills, bring job applications directly to the people – in all work to create more high-paying jobs.  Make sure people know how to access the resources they need to be successful. 

Concept 2: Community Programs making sure services are included in youth Summer jobs programs, align with community partners and outreach to at risk populations

Concept 3: Black Businesses including mentors for youth, making sure entrepreneurs exist in the neighborhood, direct capital investment funds, business incubators and focus on understanding the business landscape for when to advise and develop. 

Concept 4: Black Banking & Financial Literacy making sure the unbanked become bankable and teaching financial literacy in the community.

In general, the group discussed how to use technology to cut down the budget, using dashboards & open data to make real time decisions, shared safety index best practices and the notion that reallocation & preventative resources do not equal defunding.

Concept 1: Family Resources including family violence survivors are a resource, intervention with shooting victim family friends, use technology & resources to break family cycles of violence, cities need a marketing plan for family violence support funding, citizens are not aware of the resources for addressing family violence and you do not have to pull from traditional public safety to fund these programs.

Concept 2: Community/Communication including template for community engagement at patrol level, recreate public safety messaging from mayor's office and enlist community business stakeholders and capture video conversations with citizens on what safety looks like.

Concept 3: Economic Development including education, pre-K and K-12 alternatives to education and second chance.

Concept 4: Metrics including designing key metrics to be shared across agencies, assess community policing with metrics internally and externally, neighborhood safety index based on feedback, safety index customizable by neighborhood and look at international data.