Colleagues' Memo
Study Session on City Support for OrganizingCommunity Events.
Asacity knownfor itsvibrant diversity, Sunnyvale takesgreat pride in supporting and celebratinga wide array of community events.These events serve asvital platformsfor bringing our communities together and fostering deeper understandingamong residents. This isdirectly in line withthe Diversity, Equity and Inclusion council strategic priority. Moreover, community events provide an excellent opportunity for the city to engage in outreach efforts. A prime example oft hiswasthe Climate Action Plan outreach conducted during the Diwali event, wherethe city demonstrated itscommitment to engaging with residentson important issues.
At the same time, we have heard complaintsfrom residentsthat workingwith the City to organize large events istoo difficult, that City processesaretoo cumbersome, and that the City's requirements can beunreasonable.
The purpose of thiscouncil study session would betwofold: One, to do adeep dive into current city processesand requirementsfor puttingon medium to large events.Two, identify opportunitiesto make organizing community eventsmore accessibleto more groupsand organizations and easier for all community members. In addition to understanding our statusquo, we proposethat we also consider studyingthe following:
"Pain points" for groupsand organizations planning and hosting events Opportunitiesfor the city to streamline or clarify complex processes such asacquiring insurance, coordination, and permitting, etc.
What kindsof additional supportscity staff may need to engage and assist the public in holding and organizing events
How the city can improve the community'scultural competency and accessibility tothose of all cultures, languages, and backgrounds in Sunnyvale
How we can leveragethe expertise of our Human Relations Commission in this process Other areasof interest identified by council or staff
We envision thatt he outcome of thisstudy would be to provide additional information to the community about how to effectively coordinate with the City to hold large events, and to identify areas wherethe City cansimplify and improvethe processfor holding such events. hlinger Alysa Cisneros
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Murali Srinivasan
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