Event

Civic Life International and the Dayton Human Relations Council worked closely with other local partners to hold a very powerful screening of Greensboro: Closer to the Truth on November 9, 2009. The screening and discussions following it between Dayton Police Recruits and members of the community at large were fruitful. Executive Director Tokunbo Awoshakin expressed surprise at just how much resonance there was between the Dayton community and the Greensboro story. At times the conversation was tense and challenging, he explained, but it was real and people spoke freely.

There have been a variety of exciting outcomes from this particular screening and dialogue event: a new coalition of local organizations has been built and strengthened through it; an initiative is being revived to bring together the police department and families of the victims of gun violence in the community on a monthly phone call to discuss pressing community concerns; there is talk of screening the film in the local Peace Screen film festival so that the larger Dayton community can view it; and it is possible they will be using the momentum from the Closer to the Truth Project to catalyze a collaborative initiative for the Greater Dayton area to continue to address community and law enforcement relations. To begin to build out this latter idea, the groups involved in the Project made plans to meet with the Dayton Police Chief to figure out how to use sections of Greensboro: Closer to the Truth to further engage law enforcement officers in some part of what they hope will be a six-week series of workshops.