Saint Paul Cross-Cultural Dialogues Project

Timeline: April, 2014 - January, 2015
In 2014, five Saint Paul district councils (District 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8) received a grant from the Saint Paul Foundation to launch the Cross-cultural Dialogues project with training and support by Everyday Democracy.  Each participating council hosted cross-cultural dialogue sessions with community members in their district to discuss problems of racism and inequity. All participating district councils and community members convened in an Action Forum in November 2014 to share action ideas that came out of the neighborhood dialogues.  These four top ideas were chosen to be carried forward in 2015:

1. Cross-cultural dialogues between City Departments and community members - especially between the Police, youth, and their families.
2. Voter education for St. Paul residents on local elections
3. Intergenerational dialogues between youth and elders
4. Establish an Ambassador Team to encourage other district councils to have cross-cultural dialogues in their neighborhoods.

In January 2015, all teams came together to plan how to implement the chosen ideas. Ideas one and two originally came from the dialogues held in District 1.