Brooklyn Center, Minnesota moved to the national spotlight as city leaders responded to the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was fatally shot during a traffic stop at the height of the Derek Chauvin trial, sparking successive days of protests earlier this year. City leaders have responded in several ways with passing the Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Resolution, which was named for Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler, a 21-year-old man with autism and mental illness who was fatally shot by officers in August 2019. In light of the tragedies the community has experienced, Brooklyn Center leaders have focused their efforts on building trust and creating a partnership where residents across all spectrums of diversity are viewed as decision-makers in co-designing city processes and policies.
Leaders in Brooklyn Center want to normalize conversations about race through a shared language and provide staff resources to organize its operations for racial equity and community engagement.
FUSE will support the city in this by designing a community engagement action plan focused on advancing racial equity. FUSE will then lead implementation of this community engagement strategy, ensuring that the internal administrative work and external, community-facing initiatives align, complement, and engage one another when appropriate.
