Andover Anti-Racism Process Will Start With Survey, Focus Groups

ANDOVER, MA — Andover's official town anti-racism process will begin with surveys and focus groups to gauge the community's experiences with racism and other forms of bigotry, town officials said at the virtual community forum, Wednesday night.

The hour-long forum was attended by over 100 virtual participants, in addition to any TV viewers and a handful watching the AndoverTV online livestream. The forum was planned in response to local and national Black Lives Matter protests as well as local incidents shared on social media.

Town officials shared plans for coming months and took questions from attendees.

In addition to the survey and focus groups, the town plans to form a DIVERSE Committee with representatives from the town, businesses, faith-based organizations, youth organizations and more, including underrepresented groups.

The town panel was made up of Town Manager Andrew Flanagan, Director of Community Services Jenna Lambert, Police Chief Patrick Keefe, Select Board Chair Laura Gregory, the new "Collaborative Support Services" division's head Sobhan Namvar and consultant Rick Pinderhughes of Visions, Inc.

Pinderhughes presented the plan for gathering information from the community before making a report with specific actions to be taken. The survey may go out within a couple of weeks, Pinderhughes said, but the report will take months.

Namvar summarized his work as the town's community support coordinator and his plans for the new Andover DIVERSE office, including education and assessment.

Flanagan explained that rather than coming to the forum with a vision statement, he hoped that the town could craft one together through the coming process.

Officials fielded a few questions from the community and said they would put all answers, as well as answers to more questions, on the town website. Flanagan deferred questions about the police to a planned presentation at an August Select Board meeting by the police chief.

In response to other questions, Flanagan said that the DIVERSE committee, like almost all town boards and committees, would be volunteer-based and not compensated, and that the town tries to attract people of color when hiring but will seek to figure out how the town can do so better.

Residents can email DIVERSE@andoverma.us with more comments and questions, Lambert said.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.