Culver City hosted a community information session Wednesday in collaboration with Keen Independent Research at the Culver City Senior Center. This meeting, the latest in a series of events open to the residents of Culver City, aimed to gather feedback for the development of the city’s Racial Equity Action Plan (REAP).
Culver City contracted Keen Independent Research, a firm focused on research supporting community operations, in January 2024 to develop an Equity Plan that would provide recommendations intent on removing inequities found in the city’s policies and programs. After working with the city to understand its guidelines and policies to develop a framework for the plan, Keen has focused on gauging community needs in several public events held since the beginning of April.
While the REAP had initially focused on improving decisions and conversations exacerbating racial inequities, many had voiced their discontent with other inequities in past meetings, such as the city’s accessibility for people with physical disabilities. Prompted by the feedback, Keen is exploring changing the name of the REAP project to better reflect the concerns raised. However, the main focus of supporting Culver City‘s efforts to become more inclusive remains the same.
Wednesday’s event was held at the Senior Center as part of the effort to reach a larger sample of people willing to provide feedback. Dr. Nicole Yates, a Senior Consultant at Keen directing the REAP program, noted that many people who decide to participate in research tend to come from similar backgrounds.
“That [group] doesn’t always include people who are 55 years and older,” she added, “So it’s really important for us to get that group of people, and it’s important for us to go where people already are.”
The information session was an open-house style event that welcomed people to drop-in anytime during the five hour event to ask the Keen consultants questions and participate in workshops. These workshops ranged from inviting participants to answer an in-depth questionnaire to contributing to a chart tracking the number of people who are interested or have heard about events the city has held in the past few years.
According to the chart, there was an especially high amount of interest in events centered around hate crimes like “The Rise of Hate Crimes and Target Groups”, or the release of the Los Angeles County Hate Crimes Report 2023 and 2024. Despite the interest, there was a lower number of people who reported attending.
Participants also had the chance to leave comments on post it notes to voice concerns or express their opinions on the city’s progress. Multiple comments emphasized the importance of spreading awareness about the events the city held.
“Do more promo in places where people gather (parks, library),” one comment suggested.
“Haven’t heard of any [events],” another comment read. “Suggest incentivizing spreading the word-of-mouth advertising.”
However, many comments also praised the events and discussions that Culver City organized, signaling the importance of continuing to foster discussions about pressing social and political issues.
In reference to past events like Transgender Day Remembrance 2021 and 2022, one person wrote, “I thank you for doing this! Everytime [sic] we tune in we are hearing of deportation, racial bias, transgender being discarded from [the] military. Just not right.”
Will Rickards, a Culver City resident who worked as a researcher evaluating student learning and teaching in college education and was on the Parks and Recreation Commission, believes that Culver City has made an impressive effort to present opportunities to improve itself. He stressed the importance of civil discourse, explaining that there’s a difference between civilly discussing topics when in disagreement with others and having differing opinions while collaborating on a solution.
Culver City resident asked, “Does anyone know how much we paid the research firm for this outreach.”
“I would like to see a little more of a situation where civil discourse is oriented towards trying to learn from one another and create a better community,” Rickards said. “Not just ‘Me [sic] lose, you win, or I win and somebody else loses.'”
The project will soon shift into the development phase, with more concrete details of the Racial Equity Action Plan expected to come mid-summer. The completed plan is scheduled to be presented and eventually implemented in the fall.
For more future opportunities to provide input on the project, Keen said they will be hosting another event at the Culver City Teen Center. While the exact date is unclear, Culver staff said to expect the event to be sometime in late May.
To learn more about the REAP project, visit the official page at: https://www.culvercity.org/City-Hall/Get-Involved/Diversity-Equity-and-Inclusion-in-Culver-City/Current-and-Upcoming-Equity-Events-Projects-and-Initiatives/Culver-Citys-Racial-Equity-Action-Plan-REAP?ref=culvercrescent.com.
Silver City resident Will Rickards views a foam display board with feedback from previous workshops on the interest and awareness levels of residents in events related to equity at the Racial Equity Action Plan (REAP) Open House held at the Culver City Senior Center on Wednesday, May 14. ||
Photo by Christian May-Suzuki