You do not want to miss TOGETHER Bay Area’s Spring Summit. This will not be just another Zoom webinar! You will have many opportunities to meet new people and talk with colleagues around the region. You’ll participate in discussions about wildfire and climate change, public lands and public health, jobs and economies, equity and inclusion, and much more. You will interact with colleagues from around the region in mini-retreats, facilitated networking sessions, and a closing party where we celebrate TOGETHER Bay Area members’ essential services, frontline workers, and community support.
We will have some fun, but we’re not goofing around. Our goal is clear: we want to connect, convene, and catalyze action so that you can more effectively conserve and steward land, create healthy communities, build climate resilience in human and ecological systems, and create a more just and equitable world. We are writing a new playbook and the Spring Summit is an opportunity to write it together.
Our Spring Summit won’t be our first online conference. TOGETHER Bay Area convened its first Fall Forum on October 1-2, 2020 – building on 30 years of experience of convening – to facilitate meaningful conversations and catalyze the changes we need for healthy and resilient lands, people and communities.
Interactive program
This 3-day event will consist of multiple ways to interact with speakers and colleagues.
- Community Gatherings: Our opening session and closing celebration. Open to all!
- Community Explorations: Programmed, engaged networking opportunities. Open to all!
- Community Conversations: Roundtable deep dives into important and urgent issues. Day Pass required.
- Two challenges with prizes!
Program descriptions
Additional speakers to be announced.
MONDAY May 10 at 9:30am — Doors open
MONDAY MAY 10 from 10:00-11:00am — Opening Session: Welcome to the 2021 Spring Summit (Inter)Action (Included with General Admission)
ALL ARE WELCOME as we kick off the 2021 Spring Summit! We’ll orient you to the online conference space, and give you a tour of all the ways you can interact with speakers and fellow attendees. Our speakers will set the stage for the conversations and explorations we have planned for you, including how we collaborate for healthy lands, people, and communities.
Speakers include:
- Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh and Councilmember Monica Arellano, Muwékma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area
- Bryce Savoy, The Black Neighborhood
- Tom Robinson, Conservation Lands Network
MONDAY MAY 10 from 11:30-12:30 — Community Conversation: INNOVATION DURING CRISES (Included in Monday Pass)
TOGETHER Bay Area members have risen to the challenges of the past year through innovation and collaboration. Join us for 8 short, high-energy, participatory presentations about innovative projects led by 8 different organizations. Then, break into groups to learn more about the presentation that intrigues you the most. You’ll leave energized with new information and new contacts.
Learn about innovative projects from these TOGETHER Bay Area members:
- Relief through a Pandemic with YES Nature to Neighborhood,
- 100 Jobs to Feed People and Sustain the Planet with Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE)
- Diablo Range Revealed with Save Mount Diablo
- Parks Equity Action Team: Catalyst for Change & Embracing the Hard with Santa Clara County Parks
- Immersive Community Engagement for Coyote Valley Master Planning with Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority
- Bringing Oakland Residents’ Park Experiences and Perspectives into Policy, Advocacy, and Planning through Grassroots Survey with Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation
- Leveraging partnerships to bridge a long-standing Bay Trail gap with Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District
- Shoreline Restoration and Community Access in Bay Point, California with East Bay Regional Parks District
Click here to read descriptions of each project.
MONDAY MAY 10 from 1:00-2:00pm — Community Conversation: SHAPING A NEW FIRE PARADIGM (Included in Monday Pass)
One of the things 2020 made abundantly clear is that we need to rethink our relationship with fire. The old paradigm of suppressing it, of thinking that we need to fight it, is over. How do we describe a new paradigm? What are the words we can use? How do we center and lift up and value Indigenous people, culture, and knowledge about living with fire? How do we work across landscapes, jurisdictions, and organizations, with respect for all living things?
Participate in this big-picture conversation where we can talk about “what if” kind of questions. It’s a chance to imagine what could be, and to do so with colleagues around the region so that the ideas can spread and a new paradigm be co-created by many people.
Speakers include:
- Chairman Valentin Lopez, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band
MONDAY MAY 10 from 3:00-4:00pm — Community Conversation: BLOCK PARTY (Included with General Admission)
Joy feeds resilience. So let’s pretend that we’re closing off the street to cars and inviting all the neighbors to come outside to be together joyfully! There’s a pretend table for food potluck-style for us to gather around and catch up.
Join us for a LIVE virtual block party! You’ll meet and network with people who work in the county or counties where you work. You’ll have time to chit and chat and swap stories. And you’ll leave feeling a little bit more connected, a little bit more resilient.
TUESDAY May 11 at 12:30pm — Doors open
TUESDAY MAY 11 from 1:00-2:00pm — Community Conversation: WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE (Included in Tuesday Pass)
TOGETHER Bay Area has been championing an integrated approach to the challenges we face today. Join us for a conversation on the connection between economic recovery and climate change. We’ll address legislation that supports this integrated approach to the interrelated challenges of racism and inequality, climate change and wildfires, the COVID-19 pandemic and workforce development.
Speaker:
- Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Kevin Mullin, District 22
TUESDAY May 11 from 3:00-4:00pm — Community Conversation: BELONGING AND LAND STEWARDSHIP (Included in General Admission)
Join us for a conversation about inclusive and equitable practices of land stewardship. Small groups will discuss questions to provoke cross-pollination learning and collective growth. Please come prepared to participate!
Speaker:
- Yakuta Poonawalla, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
TUESDAY, MAY 11 from 4:00-5:00pm — Community Conversation: LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID – ADVANCING ANTI-RACISM FOR PUBLIC HEALTH AND PUBLIC LANDS (Included in Tuesday Pass)
Let’s talk about how the current crises intersect with one another. In this conversation with Rohan Radhakrishna, who was appointed by Governor Newsom to the Office of Health Equity with CA Department of Public Health, we’re going to start with racism and how it shows up in how we advance public lands as an essential service for public health. What are the lessons learned from the past year? How do we implement them? What internal work do we need to do individually, and what do we need to do organizationally? Join us for a conversation as we explore this transformational moment together.
Speaker:
- Rohan Radhakrishna MD, MPH, MS, Deputy Director, Office of Health Equity, California Department of Public Health
THURSDAY MAY 13 at 9:30am — Doors open
THURSDAY MAY 13 from 10:00-11:00am — Community Conversation: COMMUNITY & AGENCY PARTNERSHIPS (Included in General Admission)
Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) are vital in meeting the current national moment with integrity. But how do we put these intentions into action? How can we build authentic partnerships between public agencies and community-based organizations? How can we rethink community connections so that we manifest real change, not greater inequities?
Our panelists will share lessons from equitable partnerships that serve communities affected by COVID-19 and other crises. You’ll be invited to engage in a conversation with the speakers in small groups about how to align our goals, values, and actions.
Speakers include:
- Liz Darby, Marin County Parks
- Blanca Hernández, YES Nature to Neighborhoods
- Sedrick Mitchell, CA State Parks
- Jeannette Tuitele-Lewis, Big Sur Land Trust
- Kevin Wright, Marin County Parks – facilitator
THURSDAY MAY 13 from 1:00-2:00pm — Community Exploration: Birds of a Feather networking session (Included in General Admission)
Do you miss catching up with colleagues who share your interests? Walking to BART after a meeting, running into each other in hallways, having lunch together. That’s when we learned and laughed and connected.
You’re invited to connect with friends and colleagues who care about the same things you do, by joining the small-group networking session that calls to you most. Choose from the following topics:
- Forming and leading Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) committees or working groups within your organization.
- Building public awareness about the importance of fire for healthy lands and resilient communities.
- Building equity-centered partnerships between public agencies and community-based organizations.
- Planning for remote, in-person, or hybrid working arrangements.
- And more to be announced!
Note that you do not need to be a bird or a birder to participate in this session 🙂
THURSDAY MAY 13 from 4:00-5:00pm — Closing Session and Essential Celebration (Included in General Admission)
EVERYONE IS INVITED to our closing session and celebration! Winners of the Endangered Species and Social Monarch Butterfly Challenges will be announced.
And we’ll celebrate all of us! Join us for an Essential Celebration to honor TOGETHER Bay Area’s members‘ contributions over the past year in response to the multiple crises we’re facing. Our members have provided essential services like keeping parks open during COVID, providing locations for COVID testing and vaccination sites, and supplied locally grown food and clean drinking water for our communities. They have been on the front lines of responding to and recovering from the August 2020 wildfires that burned over 500,000 acres in the Bay Area. And together we’ve welcomed millions of visitors to the 1.1milion acres of public land in the region. And so much more.
There will be music and dancing. Everyone is invited! Including your family and pets!
Speakers include:
- CA Secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot