Needham Resilience Network
Community Response Committee (CRC)

The NRN Community Response Committee includes most of NRN Cohort 1—a diverse mix of individuals from major identity (e.g., across race and religion) and stakeholder groups (e.g., health, business, civic groups, etc.), including officials from the Town of Needham, Needham Schools and the Needham Police. 

As a “whole of society” group of actors, our purpose is to foster community safety, well-being, and cohesion. We do this by aligning around shared risks and assets, amplifying our community’s shared values and goals, and facilitating effective community responses to hate incidents or other forms of group-based need and distress in Needham. The NRN-CR facilitates collaborative reporting of identity-based challenges (including bias and hate incidents); mobilizes across resident, town, school and law enforcement communities to increase awareness, promote accurate information, and facilitate effective response; and provides opportunities to engage in constructive, solutions-oriented dialogue to address underlying sources of community tension.  

Potential response tools include: 

• Statements on behalf of the broad NRN network
• Coordination of support to those affected by an incident
• Support / conversations with affected stakeholders through back channels 
• Vigils or other community events to offer voice, demonstrate support, reinforce positive norms  
• Preventive community conversations or forums to build awareness, or process an event or dynamic
• Workshops/Training in communicating across difference, or other salient skills.

See our protocol for more information.