Vote Nevada Supporters!
I feel like today deserves an exclamation point, or two!
All-Star Game Week is here!
Here are some updates for this week:
We kicked off All-Star Game Week with a viewing of 37 Words The History of Title IX, made by ESPN last year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the federal law that protects against discrimination based on sex in education activities that receive federal funds. If you have Hulu, Disney Plus, or ESPN+ you can watch all four episodes. It is very well done.
Tomorrow, Monday, July 10th, the Carson City Democratic luncheon features Andy Hummel, manager of the Carson City Water and Public Works. With drought on everyone’s mind, our water managers have become very important public servants. If you would like to join the presentation at 1:30 pm via Zoom, please email Rich Dunn for the link at richdunn as one word and then @aol.com.
Tomorrow, Monday, July 10th, Jody Baden will be joining us to discuss her effort to offer background checks for candidates. It would have been nice to have a background check on someone like George Santos. You can join us from 6 to 7 pm, via Zoom, by RSVPing here: https://vote-nevada.news/Background-Checks-Elections
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign will turn orange tomorrow, July 10th, for the WBNA All-Star Game.
On Friday, July 14th, from 4 to 7 pm, we are co-hosting a Celebration of Women’s Sports at the College of Southern Nevada North Las Vegas Campus. Come have some fun with us and celebrate women’s sports. You can RSVP here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-womens-sports-tickets-664947093657?aff=oddtdtcreator
On Friday, July 15th, from 9 to 10 am, Doug Goodman from Nevadans For Election Reform, is joining us to explain the referendum process. With one of the teacher’s unions announcing their intention to run both an initiative and a referendum, we want to ensure voters understand the referendum process.
You can RSVP for that workshop here: https://vote-nevada.news/Referendum-Process
You can watch the recording of our The Importance of Local News meeting here: https://vote-nevada.news/Local-News-Recording
And you can watch the recording of our Be A Civics Influencer meeting here: https://vote-nevada.news/Civics-Influencers
Here is a proposal from the Civics Influencer meeting:
We discussed the importance of ensuring that debates about public policies stay rooted in civic processes. And we discussed the need to change public discourse about policies to make civic spaces more welcoming to all community members, including new voters.
As we discussed how this approach could improve public policies we focused on how dysfunctional legislative processes lead to poor policy outcomes.
After a very energetic discussion on that topic, we decided to put our ideas into practice with the policy topic of mental health. Mental Health overlaps with many other topics, so, we can start by defining what civic processes produce better mental health policy outcomes in general and then drill down on specific areas of mental health.
For instance, we know that Assembly Bill 528 has $200 million to spend on homelessness, but the bill does not include opportunities for community input apart from established nonprofit organizations. Well, that does not stop us from creating our own process for investigating homelessness and mental health policies.
We know many teachers have left our school districts because of the lack of support services for children and the problem seems to be getting worse, so, why can’t we create a new process for addressing school violence?
We know that our jails and prisons are our largest mental health providers, so what processes could we create to address this problem?
There are many other long-standing problems with our mental health system that seem beyond the reach of our legislative processes, so, what if we created our own civics-based processes to address mental health issues?
The group yesterday said, “Yes, let’s do it!” So, here is our initial plan:
Step 1: We need a state-wide outreach strategy to invite anyone in Nevada to participate.
Step 2: Zoom meetings to discuss the rules of engagement, such as adopting Roberts Rules of Order to ensure every voice is heard and every participant is treated respectfully.
Step 3: Schedule hybrid meetings where participants can attend live or connect via Zoom to make this a truly statewide plan.
Step 4: Run the hybrid meetings to analyze the current systems for addressing mental health issues and investigating new systems.
Step 5: Create a report with recommendations that could be distributed to elected officials and candidates.
I am Vice Chair of the Nevada Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights and we run studies like this, so, we do have some of those committee’s reports we can use as models. You can read examples of what that committee distributes to elected officials each time we complete a recommending report here: https://www.usccr.gov/states/nevada
Here are two dates on Zoom to discuss creating a civics-based working group on mental health policy development. You can attend one or both to provide input on how we can start our new process.
The dates are August 4 and 5th, from 6 to 7:30 pm.
You can RSVP for one or both of these planning meetings here: https://vote-nevada.news/Mental-Health-Group-Process
Please feel free to share this information with any other groups.
Thank you for being Nevadans with me,
Sondra
Vote Nevada: Solving Problems with Civics
Vote Nevada is now qualified to receive donations through Smith’s Inspiring Donations, you can read more about how to donate to Vote Nevada each time you use your Smith’s loyalty card here: https://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/i/community/smiths-inspiring-donations
Vote Nevada is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit civic engagement organization. Anyone can become a supporter by emailing info@vote-nevada.org, we have no membership dues. We do, however, accept donations Here
Sondra
Vote Nevada 