East Providence forms board to address injustice, racism
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva has announced that he has formed an advisory board to help fight racism in the city.
The Mayor’s Community Advisory Board will increase communication between communities, promote diversity and inclusion, and reduce systemic racism and bigotry, DaSilva said in a statement.
“What I am hoping this does is, we will have a wide group of people from all over the community who can bring issues to us, sit around the table, discuss ways to make it better, how do we fix these problems, so we can implement some changes that would benefit them,” DaSilva said.
The board will be made up of 15 city residents from diverse backgrounds and will meet monthly.
In conjunction with the board, Elmer Pina was named as the city’s new municipal integrity officer.
He will be the point of contact for residents who think they have been subjected to “social injustice, systemic racism within the community and any other complaints regarding city operations.”
Pina will be responsible for investigating complaints from those who feel they’ve been mistreated and help link residents with state and federal organizations that can assist.