EASTHAMPTON – On Sept. 16, the city council voted to elect residents Myra Oyedemi and Gabriela Stevenson to join the Community Relations Committee (CRC).

A Springfield native, Oyedemi recently moved to Easthampton from South Africa where she lived for seven years.

Since Oyedemi became a resident of Easthampton, she has become a member of A Knee Is Not Enough (AKINE) and the Equity Steering Committee.

Oyedemi first learned of the CRC after AKINE  members were invited to attend one of the meetings. She found that in her perception, the committee was calling for more members, more diversity, and a more focused purpose. She said it was a group trying to figure out how to interact and engage in these times of COVID and the spotlight on racial justice and racial injustice.

“My interest in the committee is being one that can serve. One that can provide a unique perspective. As you can I am a diasporic African, I have lived, I have been an immigrant, I’ve been an undocumented immigrant, I’ve had a whole lot of life experiences in which a lot of people may not have. So I think I bring diversity, not only for being a diasporic African but also through my travels, living, and working around the world,” Oyedemi said.

Oyedemi said her contribution to the committee would be to continually analyze and take the temperature of the climate in the culture of the city while understanding that it’s a dynamic process. She said when a committee is diverse and many groups are represented, it feels more welcoming for those who have potentially been marginalized and not heard.

She shared that her experience with the METCO program, while she was in school, gives her an understanding of what an environment feels like when it is not diverse. She said that oftentimes she was the only person of color in her class.

Through her profession as a therapist, she can bring her empathy, compassion, and the ability to listen to others. She said she listens without prejudicial thoughts and lets her thoughts be formed through analysis and her view of the world.

Stevenson who is originally from El Paso, TX, has lived in Easthampton for almost 10 years.

“I grew up in an environment very different from Easthampton. Not only do I bring a perspective from growing up in a border city, after college I taught bilingual kindergarten for a year and bilingual third grade for two years,” Stevenson said.

After teaching, she ended up at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) in their sociology department and is currently going for her Ph.D. While at UMass, she has taught courses around race relations and diversity. She is also a part of a diversity and inclusion workshop at Greenfield Community College (GCC).

Stevenson is a senior research analyst and works with community organizers across the state to evaluate programming that is focused on breaking educational and health barriers. She will bring her expertise in both qualitative and quantitative data analysis to help bridge any gaps in understanding community issues.

She first learned of the CRC when Mayor Nichole LaChapelle invited her to be a facilitator for the Easthampton SPIRIT Committee, the precursor to this committee. This was an all-day meeting.

“I met and worked with a wide range of the population with varying opinions regarding the next best steps for the community. This workshop resulted in a report that highlighted that like the high school, Easthampton as a community also has serious issues with racism, ethnocentrism, and anti-immigrant sentiment which creates and reinforces barriers to civic participation. The CRC was created as a means to break down those barriers and address the issues highlighted during the day-long workshop. The work that happened on this day was powerful and meaningful and set the groundwork for the important work that CRC is charged with,” she said.

Due to personal reasons two years ago, she could not volunteer her time but she was still a strong believer in creating a board that would ensure all members of the community had a safe place to express their voice.

“I think the fact that I have continued to participate in Easthampton government, I participate in Easthampton fundraisers, I support a lot of Easthampton organizations, I have had weekly meetings with the mayor and chief of police, I am going to be a part of the mayor’s workforce working group so I have shown my commitment to Easthampton,” she said.

Stevenson is also a member of AKINE and she said right now they are working on police transformation and focusing on making their city a more welcoming space for people of varying identities.

“For me, the CRC just seemed like an appropriate space for that since it was founded after the racist incident in the high school in 2017. Part of the mission statement is to bring forth these conversations that Easthampton desperately needs to be having in efforts to make Easthampton a welcoming, safe space for everyone,” Stevenson said.

CRC?Co-Chair Patti Dougherty said they welcome the addition of both Oyedemi and Stevenson to the committee and are glad to now have all 11 seats filled.