Connecting Fairfax Town For All Progress Update

12/18/2020 8:27 AM

The Connecting Fairfax City for All initiative to analyze racial and social fairness in Fairfax Town is transferring forward. Many important steps have been taken considering the fact that city council’s acceptance of the initiative on October 27, 2020.

Selecting the Stakeholder Group

A varied team of 15 stakeholders will facilitate community voices and make suggestions to the mayor and town council dependent on comments gathered in the course of the system.

  • Positions have been established aside for one consultant from Historic Fairfax Metropolis, Inc., Mosby Woods Community Association, and the area Neighbors for Alter group. The remaining 12 stakeholders will be chosen from the community at substantial.
  • Metropolis team and George Mason University Jimmy and Rosalynn School for Peace and Conflict Resolution pupils collaborated to produce the application thoughts developed to solicit details about an applicant’s dwelling community, size of home in the city, age range, and information of the Civil War and how it has been memorialized in our local community.
  • Councilmembers Janice Miller and Jon Stehle (appointed by Mayor David Meyer), alongside with metropolis personnel and Dr. Juliette Shedd from the Carter School have achieved and produced concerns, requirements, and methodology to assessment the 83 applications. (This range won’t include specified stakeholders Matthew West, Historic Fairfax Town, Inc. Susan Olenchuk, Mosby Woods Group Affiliation and Laura Bowles, the specified stakeholder from the nearby Neighbors for Improve group.)
  • This critique will take spot with Councilmembers Miller and Stehle, Dr. Shedd, and employees associates. The workforce is meeting with candidates in numerous one particular-hour, compact group conferences. A matrix has been developed to glimpse at what each applicant can contribute to the method and how the applicant interacts with other folks in the tiny team placing.
  • The review staff will meet up with December 22 to formulate recommendations for the mayor and council. The proposed stakeholder team will be presented to council throughout a shut session on January 5, 2021, and put forward for council appointment on Tuesday, January 12, 2021.

Local community Listening and Learning Classes Logistics

  • Town workers and Carter Faculty professors and students carried out two pilot Group Listening and Learning Periods. The topic was an illustrated overview of the Civil War in central Fairfax and how those activities and personalities have been remembered in monuments, markers, street and community names, and visuals in the city seal.
  • 30-nine attendees participated in the virtual sessions and facilitated conversations led by George Mason College learners less than the advice of Dr. Adina Friedman. The pilot periods provided the job team observe in logistics and methodology prior to the very first Local community Listening and Discovering Sessions for the stakeholder group.

Scheduling Listening and Studying Classes

Scheduling and confirming the presenters for the Group Listening and Understanding Sessions is underway. The first two Group Listening and Finding out Classes have been scheduled.

  • 7 p.m., Thursday, January 28. Kim Holien, retired navy historian for the Department of the Army, will present “Fairfax Court docket Residence: Crossroads of Conflict.” This software will established up the historic context for afterwards sessions. A problem and response session will observe the presentation.
  • 7 p.m., Thursday, February 11. Dr. Karen L. Cox, professor of heritage at the University of North Carolina, will concentration on “The Misplaced Result in and Confederate Monuments and Memory.” Facilitated discussion will stick to her presentation.

Furthermore, metropolis workers are exploring certified presenters and panelists for upcoming subjects, researching archives and on line resources for details about avenue and community names, and examining opinions shared on the Engage Fairfax task site.


This press release was generated by the Metropolis of Fairfax. The sights expressed below are the author’s own.