Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center Action Summit January 12th & 13th, 2018 Feedback from Attendees
All photos courtesy of Aaron Alvarado - https://aalvaradophotography.com/
Data collected, analyzed, and presented by
The PCRC Action Summit
The Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center hosted their first annual Action Summit on January 12th and 13th, 2018 at the College of San Mateo. Community Partner Day on January 12th convened leaders from throughout San Mateo County to share their experiences, learn from each other, and design innovative change to improve their communities. Youth Day on January 13th brought together young people from communities across San Mateo County to encourage dialogue, trust, and empathy. More than 400 people attended each day of the Action Summit.
Strengthening Communities
The 2018 Action Summit was the culmination of more than 18 months of work on PCRC’s Strengthening Communities Project. During this project, PCRC has taken on community divisions in Silicon Valley driven by recent events involving communities of color and law enforcement, deteriorating civility among neighbors, and a national conversation that has thrown ideological and political fault lines into sharp relief. The Strengthening Communities Project is helping targeted populations band together and mobilize to make their own communities stronger and safer. PCRC has been building capacity among networks of new and existing leaders including youth, faith, business, and education. They are also collaborating with community partners including law enforcement agencies, service agencies, local businesses, and schools. PCRC has conducted trainings throughout San Mateo County on basic skills in communication, conflict resolution, meeting management, creating change in the community, and the value of volunteering and community engagement. They also conducted community dialogues that gave stakeholders the space and tools necessary to identify and address issues dividing their communities. In June 2017 PCRC hosted ADRx, a regional Strengthening Communities Summit, featuring a “TED talk” style conference bringing together experts in bridging community divides. In order to maintain the momentum from these trainings and dialogues, PCRC hosted the Action Summit. The goals of the summit were to strengthen relationships and transform divisions into community building action. With these goals in mind, PCRC made the theme of the Action Summit “Inspire. Design. Change.”
One of three live sketches composed by Christine Waller during the first day of the PCRC Action Summit
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Feedback
During the Action Summit, participants were encouraged to take action and give feedback using My90’s textmessaging platform. Attendees of both Community Partner Day and Youth Day were asked to give feedback twice during the course of the event by texting either the keyword “PCRC” or “Action” to 72803. All questions are listed in Boxes 1 and 2. At the beginning of the event, respondents were asked a series of demographic questions and a baseline question about their ability to take action in their community. At the end of the event, respondents were asked what action they would take in their communities and a series of questions encouraging feedback about the Action Summit.
About My90
My90 is an independent communication platform that allows government agencies and nonprofit organizations to solicit direct feedback from their communities via text message. My90’s partners can then use their platform to send follow-up text messages to keep their communities engaged by asking more questions and sending information about resources to improve their communities.
Master of Ceremonies Ben Trefny encourages attendees to text My90 Box 1: Questions at the beginning of the event 1. Let’s get started! First off, which day of the PCRC Action Summit are you attending? 1. Community Partner Day on January 12th 2. Youth Day on January 13th 2. Thanks! We have one quick question to get started. Right now, how confident are you in your ability to take action to improve your community? 1. Very confident 2. Somewhat confident 3. A little bit confident 4. Not at all confident 3. We’re going to ask a few questions about you. Remember all responses are anonymous and you can decide not to respond to any question. First, where do you live or work in San Mateo County? 1. North 2. Central 3. South 4. Coast 5. All of the above
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4. How would you describe your gender identity? 1. Male 2. Female 3. Other 4. Prefer not to say 5. How old are you? 6. Which ethnicity do you identify with most? 1. Asian/Pacific Islander 2. Black/African American 3. Hispanic/Latinx 4. White/Caucasian 5. American Indian/Alaska Native 6. Other 7. Prefer not to say 7. Have you ever attended a PCRC event before today?* 1. Yes 2. No *This question was only asked during Youth Day
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Which day of the PCRC Action Summit are you attending? n = 100
Of the responses collected during registration, around 62% reported attending on Day 1, the Community Partner Day and 38% reported attending Day 2, the Youth Day. These numbers simply reflect the number of attendees who responded to this question.
Right now, how confident are you in your ability to take action to improve your community? n = 96 Community Partner Day
Youth Day Overall, respondents from Community Partner Day felt more confident entering the Action Summit than r e s p o n d e n t s f r o m Yo u t h D a y. Particularly notable is that more than half of the respondents at Community Partner Day were Very Confident, while just more than 20% of respondents at Youth Day were very confident.
Where do you live or work in San Mateo County? n = 92 Community Partner Day
Youth Day A higher percentage of the respondents from Youth Day lived in San Mateo County, with 88.2% responding that they lived or worked in either the North, Central, South, or Coast regions of the county. Community Partner Day had a higher percentage of respondents who either worked throughout the county or were not from San Mateo at all.
1.9%
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How would you describe your gender identity? n = 89 Community Partner Day
Youth Day
1.9% 1.9%
Which ethnicity do you identify with most? n = 89 Community Partner Day
Youth Day
2.0%
Respondents during both Community Partner Day and Youth Day were more likely to be female than any other gender, with an overwhelming majority of 82.4% of respondents during Youth Day identifying as female. Youth Day also had a higher percentage of Hispanic/Latinx and Asian/Pacific Islander respondents, with more than 40% of respondents identifying with e a c h e t h n i c i t y. T h e p l u r a l i t y o f respondents, 43.1%, during Community Partner Day were White/Caucasian although more than 10% of r e s p o n d e n t s w e r e A s i a n / P a c i fi c Islander, Hispanic/Latinx, and Black/ African American. While Native American/Alaska Native was an option on the survey, no respondent identified with that ethnicity during the Action Summit.
How old are you? n = 88 For Community Partner Day the mean age was 41.9 and the median age was 42. For Youth Day the mean age was 16.5 and the median age was 16.
Have you ever attended a PCRC event before today? n = 38
Only attendees during the Youth Day were asked this question, and the vast majority of 87.5% had never attended a PCRC event prior to the Action Summit.
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Box 2: Questions at the conclusion of the event 1. Let’s take action! After today’s summit, what is the primary action you will take in your community? 1. Research new ways to engage 2. Talk to someone new 3. Join a group or organization 4. Influence government policies or practices 5. Encourage dialogue on social media 6. All of the above 7. Something else 2. Great! We’ll be in touch within a few weeks to see how it’s going. How are you feeling now about your ability to take action in your community? 1. Very confident 2. Somewhat confident 3. A little bit confident 4. Not at all confident 3. During today’s summit, did you engage with someone you had not met before? 1. Yes 2. No
4. How do you feel about the future of civil discourse in San Mateo County? 1. Very optimistic 2. Somewhat optimistic 3. Somewhat pessimistic 4. Very pessimistic 5. Overall, what did you think of the Action Summit? 1. I loved it 2. I liked it 3. I didn’t like it 4. I hated it 6. What was your favorite part of the Action Summit? Please respond in your own words. 7. Any suggestions for how the Action Summit could have gone better? 8. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Anything else you would like to add?
One of three live sketches composed by Christine Waller during the first day of the PCRC Action Summit
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After today’s summit, what is the primary action you will take in your community? n = 87 6.9% 5.8%
After the PCRC summit was over, participants were asked what type of action they will take in their community. 19.5% of the participants who responded to the question indicated that they would ‘talk to someone new’, 11.5% said they would ‘Engage in dialogue on social media’ and about 34.5% indicated that would do all of the mentioned suggestions which were ‘Research new ways to engage, talk to someone new, join a group or organization, influence Government policies or practices and encourage dialogue on social media’. Around 13.8% indicated that they would do ‘Something else’. Of respondents who selected ‘Something else’, a few attendees mentioned that they plan on engaging in dialogue with diverse groups of people towards community and decision making. A couple of participants said that they would try to host events like movie screenings and dinners which would lead to diverse participation and conversations. Some other attendees mentioned wanting to co-author books on community engagement and create events designed to foster dialogue among the youth.
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I will host a dinner that includes people of other cultures/ backgrounds to encourage dialogue and share different viewpoints.
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Right now, how confident are you in your ability to take action to improve your community? n = 83 While respondents at both Community Community Partner Day
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Youth Day
Partner Day and Youth Day showed more confidence about taking action after the event than before, the largest change was in Youth Day respondents. 73.5% of Youth Day respondents felt “ Ve r y c o n fi d e n t ” o r “ S o m e w h a t confident” about taking action in their communities before the Action Summit, with just 20.6% feeling “Very confident”. After the Action Summit, 93.1% of Youth Day respondents felt “Very confident” or “Somewhat confident” about taking action in their communities and 51.2% felt “Very confident”.
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During today’s summit, did you engage with someone you had not met before? n = 79
3.8%
The survey also asked participants to indicate if they engaged with someone at the conference, who they had not engaged with before. 96.2% of respondents indicated they had interacted with someone new at the summit.
How do you feel about the future of civil discourse in San Mateo County? n = 75
When asked about the future of Civil Discourse in San Mateo County, 52.0% of the people who responded indicated feeling ‘Somewhat optimistic’ while around 40.0% said they felt ‘Very optimistic’. Roughly 8.0% of respondents said the felt “Very” or “Somewhat pessimistic.”
Overall, what did you think of the Action Summit? n = 69
Finally, when the attendees were asked how they felt about the Action Summit, of the respondents, 71% said that overall they ‘Loved it’, while 27.5% said that they ‘Liked it’. Attendees were given the option of responding “I hated it”, but none chose that option.
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Qualitative Feedback - Highlights Participants were also asked to share what their favorite part of the event was. Participants frequently mentioned both learning from the panelists and interacting with other participants. Wade Davis’s speech struck a chord with many attendees, who said they were inspired by his words. Similarly, the stories and conversations by the other panelists were appreciated.
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In the words of one attendee “My favorite part was listening to the speakers, especially Wade Davis.”
It was a great event. PCRC knows how to work with youth in a contemporary and engaging way.
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Several attendees also commented that their favorite part was engaging in meaningful conversations with others around them, hearing diverse stories, spreading awareness and taking part in small activities. Overall, participants of the survey expressed thanks and good wishes towards the PCRC event. Many responses congratulated PCRC for hosting this event. Additionally, some attendees appreciated the use of text messaging to engage with participants at the event.
My favorite part of the summit was when we broke off into groups and had a discussion. It was really nice to talk to others and hear their different perspectives.
Qualitative Feedback - Suggestions
Questions towards the end of the event were open ended, allowing qualitative responses. A full list of qualitative responses can be found in the Appendix. Participants were asked for suggestions for what could have made the event better. Some of the prominent responses were centered around allocating more time towards conversations, sessions and panels.
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The event was very well run…maybe more advertising and social media presence, would have been better.
Participants also indicated that they would have liked better audio, prizes and overall organization of the rooms and panel discussions. Several participants mentioned that the event would have benefited from better marketing and publicity. In terms of alternatives, participants responded to the survey with requests for small group interactions which would lead to more engaging conversations.
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Conclusion & Recommendations
Overall, the feedback shows that the PCRC Summit was well organized, lead to inspirational talks, encouraged conversations and left a mark on the attendees. The data shows that the event had a positive eect on those who were in attendance. Respondents indicated feeling more confident in their ability to take action after the event and had clear ideas about how they would find ways to engage with their community. A strong majority of the attendees interacted with new people and qualitative responses show that engaging with other people was one of the highlights of the event. Allowing people to connect through PCRC social media and providing resources to create meetups and join clubs will be instrumental in keeping the conversation going. PCRC can share research on community activism, information about local events, and updates on their work to continue inspiring action from Action Summit attendees. Another aspect of the summit which was well appreciated were the talks by the speakers and panelists. Their stories were inspiring and fuelled conversation at the event. Sharing stories of success and hard work by PCRC on their social media and marketing collaterals will help keep the inspiration going. Quotes and suggestions by people like Wade Davis included in collaterals, along with a presence online, will help strike a chord with people who are looking to take action. In terms of future events, PCRC should continue to bring in panelists and speakers who resonate with the community. Prior to the events, better social media and marketing will not only increase attendance, but will also help like minded people connect. Organizing smaller break-out groups and conversations, will help every participant speak and learn from each other. Organizing raes and prizes could also help increase attendance.
(From left to right) MC Ben Trefny leads a discussion between Andrew Thomas, Chris Hsiung, Saeed Mirfattah, and Lisa Putkey during Community Partner Day.
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Appendix I - all responses to “Any suggestions for how the Action Summit could have gone better?” • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
It was excellent. cannot think of anything Perhaps bringing people together by regions in the county. create a roster of attendees. suggestions for follow up and next steps. Being able to send questions via email and get data at the conclusion of the day on the info collected woulda been phenomenal!! More marketing More time for one on one conversations, relationship building, hearing each other’s stories, different cultural/ethnic food over which we could “break bread together” Not everyone can see so make it so people can Raffle lol Less forcing to talk about subjects we don’t know how to answer More group activities Facilitator consistency May be good to separate second debrief section into two and basically force people to swap? More guests Mard to hear in breakout session. needed better circle so we could we and hear each other better. People can connect if we open our mouths and talk! Everything was perfect and the people were so nice :) It would be fun to talk a bit this with the summit team... my intention and commitment is to do so in the immediate future. Maybe more chances for questions More engaging. Nope, very successful Better prizes lmao Nothing really maybe cut the time for the panel Be more organized A bigger event I think everyone should’ve talked a bit more and should’ve been more open. publicity earlier If it was more engaging and a bit more active, it’d be better so people wouldn’t lose focus More outreach to the street youth. Breakfast could have been better Maybe shorten the schedule It was actually very well planned No it was very well run...maybe more advertising and social media presence
Appendix II - all responses to “What was your favorite part of the Action Summit? Please respond in your own words.” • • • • • • • • •
Wade Davis was hugely inspiring to help send us on our way Keynote speaker The table exercise and sharing out. When people told us their story’s The panel dialog and the afternoon group session. Getting to hear the different perspectives from people i’ve never met. i also enjoyed watching the reactions of others to the video by kelly moreno because i saw the poem first hand. :) Sharing from speakers and people at my table. The part where we didn’t have to talk in groups Group discussion
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Appendix II continued - all responses to “What was your favorite part of the Action Summit? Please respond in your own words.” • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
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The panelists My favorite part of the summit was sharing at our table. conversations were intriguing & innovating. you Being able to engage with people that are excited for taking action in san mateo. Wade davis keynote and last breakout session (action) Getting to hear people’s experiences Not in our town Spread awareness I was only present for the small group session but we had important discussions Keynote Conversations on challenging topics with open minded partners with a focus on potential actions and solutions. The engagement The fact that i got to meet new people, have awareness of my community spirit, and learn new things to do for myself and others!! Hearing from other people! Today's panel Being able to hear from our pannel. this year we had a bomb pannel. everyone on the pannel had something to share & it was worth the share! its amazing how much the speakers were very motivational Everything The people talking and making a difference The cookies and things Connecting deeply with a team of people that are dedicated and committed to a shared vision and ultimate destination... one that we get to with many different paths, perspectives, projects, and shared principles... to create bonds of connection that inspire new possibilities and create hope and belief in something of real service, that is founded on love, peace, and justice is an end in itself… My favorite part was listening to the speakers. listening to their experiences how they over came their trails with a positive mind set. Panel presentations and discussion Wade Davis, very inspirational. Hearing the perspectives of others. a very enthralling, thoughtful experience I particularly enjoyed the little group talk we had. My favorite part of the summit was when we broke off into groups and had a discussion. it was really nice to talk to others and hear their different perspectives. the vibe throughout the summit has been hype Learning more on what's going on in every part of the world All of it! The concert and when we had the panelist Dialogue with strangers When Davis Wade shared I think my favorite part was the small group dialogue. Seeing youth in action NOIT Being able to talk to people in small groups and engage in respectful dialogue genuine dialogue Small group discussions and panel presentation. It was an honor to be part of it. i liked seeing the pcrc team working together. i thought the speakers were all excellent. i appreciated the discussions. i liked the visuals. altogether exemplary work Small group discussions
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Appendix II continued - all responses to “What was your favorite part of the Action Summit? Please respond in your own words.” • • •
I like that we got to have our own discussions in smaller groups conversations with many interesting people who were willing to share their stories. i also liked some of the speakers, especially sawed and wade davis Getting to meet so many people and to hear the stories of those on the panel
Appendix III - responses from people who replied “Something else” when asked what action they will take in their community. • • • • • •
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I’m co-authoring a book about better engaging communities through I will be open minded to people Host a movie screening of a NIOT movie Talk to someone new Create new events designed to be venues for open dialogue among college age youth. Working together with a diverse team in a collective impact practice, the implemention of a comprehensive infrastructure and ecosystem for civic engagement and community building. this scalable and sustainable system is designed to realize a vision of the world that is masterful at collaboration, teamwork and conscious leadership... to ignite and unleash the world's collective genius, and to positively impact and transform our shared cultures of dialogue, decision-making, community building and democracy. Two items—develop a human library in which people can have an opportunity to meet someone new and learn from them. bring my neighbors together to start the seed of a neighborhood association. Be a positive example and rise against any injustice within my perceptional schema. Host a dinner that includes people of other cultures/backgrounds to encourage dialogue and share different viewpoints
Appendix IV - responses to “anything else you would like to add?” ! • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Congratulations! Thank you for an amazing day one. Thank you You guys are the best!!!! That’s it! thank you. it was a fabulous event. Thanks for your work in the community Thank you for doing something like this! Great job! Might be nice to also structure lunch. such as giving topics for tables for people to discuss so that we stay engaged with new people and conversations vs returning to people we know and just chatting. Just keep this going to help kids and adults know what’s what Genius to have youth use their phones to text. I liked this summit. advertising could be a little better. i feel like a lot more people would be here if they knew ahead of time! Thank you I loved the art by christine walker Great event. PCRC knows how to work with youth in a contemporary and engaging way Thankful for the safe space created. Looking forward to the next one! and I appreciate the My90 check-in
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