Mobilizing Olmsted Voices for Equity (M.O.V.E.) team attending IAP2 Midwest Spring Conference

Members of the Mobilizing Olmsted Voices for Equity (M.O.V.E.) community council will be presenting at the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Midwest Spring 2025 Conference April 23-25, 2025 in Omaha, Nebraska. About 200 attendees from across the Midwest and beyond are expected to be in attendance. 

At this meeting, Olmsted County M.O.V.E. staff members Muse Abdi and Lisa Morris-Helmstetler will discuss how this community council helps Olmsted County effectively engage our diverse community by:  

• Building relationships of trust with community members. 
• Empowering historically underrepresented community members to share their stories, highlighting the root causes of systemic disparities.

Specifically, they will be sharing with IAP2 conference attendees: 

• How to organize people and resources to positively influence/impact decision making arenas. 
• Practical steps for creating a sustainable, long-term community engagement model centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion. 
• How this type of engagement can impact community members’ and decisionmakers’ conscious and unconscious perceptions. 

More about the M.O.V.E. Community Council

See our M.O.V.E. Community Council webpage and an October 15, 2024 Olmsted County website article for more information about M.O.V.E. 

More about IAP2

As stated on its website, the mission of IAP2 is to “promote and advance public participation/community engagement globally through targeted initiatives that are guided by culturally adaptive standards of practice and core values.”