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Community outreach committee: pause on large events, explore partnerships and promotional outreach
Summary
The Commission’s community outreach committee reported limited volunteer capacity for a standalone Impact Awards event and proposed revisiting the awards schedule, pursuing co‑sponsorships with local organizations, and increasing social media outreach to announce the commission’s new name.
Members of the Commission on Gender Equity’s community outreach committee told the commission on March 10 that the committee lacks capacity to run a large, one‑day event this year and recommended revisiting the Impact Awards timeline and pursuing partnerships with established local groups.
The committee reported it had tried to schedule meetings but found no single person with the bandwidth to handle logistics for events such as the Impact Awards or a proposed one‑day conference. The committee suggested several alternatives: (1) make the Impact Awards biennial to increase nominations and planning time; (2) explore co‑sponsorships with community organizations to share event workload; and (3) prioritize smaller outreach items such as social‑media promotion of the commission’s new name to increase public awareness.
Members identified potential partners including Haven (a women’s entrepreneurial network with sites in Darien and Greenwich), local chambers and business groups, WBC/WBDC (organizations active across Fairfield County), the Triangle Community Center and other Norwalk‑based venues that might host tabling or outreach. Joy offered to co‑lead a program outline the committee discussed; Shannon and others volunteered to research timelines and past schedules to inform next steps.
Commission members also suggested shorter‑form outreach activities such as tabling at multi‑chamber events in the fall, putting together one‑page materials about commission priorities to distribute at events, and coordinating with Norwalk Public Schools to honor recent local achievements — specifically recommending inviting members of the Norwalk High girls wrestling team to an upcoming meeting to recognize their state championship.
Esther (city staff) said she can pass outreach information to the city’s social media staff and that outreach logistics and any partnerships should be checked against city rules on commission partnerships.
The committee agreed to produce a proposed timeline for awards planning and to report back at a future meeting.
