New London — For just a few minutes Saturday morning, during an exercise on racial justice, participants in a workshop at Shiloh Baptist Church were segregated by race.

Black people stood together in one part of a classroom at Shiloh's Family Life Center on Garvin St. Whites clustered across the room in another area. A lone woman occupied the corner reserved for people of Latino/Hispanic origin, and the section for Asians was empty.

The diverse group of adults was friendly, but moderator Tara Hall, an expert on racial justice in child welfare work, was trying to make a point about how people feel about themselves and others. Participants had gone around to each of four stations and written down assumptions and stereotypes, good and bad, that are made about race. They quickly filled up white sheets of paper with negatives such as "loud" and "lazy," along with positives like "brilliant," "church-going" and "colorful." Hall asked the participants to stand near the race they identify with the most, and a discussion ensued about how some of the assumptions made the participants feel. They then wrote down how they would like to be viewed.

"It was powerful," said Bebe Norman, one of the committee members who organized the seventh annual Community Prison Awareness & Prevention Gathering. "People were able to talk about how they feel. You should not make assumptions, and should try to be aware of the stereotypes and myths. We're all from the human race."

There were 108 people, ages 6 to 80, registered for the morning session. Participants broke up into groups after greetings from city Mayor Michael Passero, who said New London is committed to racial justice, and others. More people were expected for the afternoon youth workshops, and panel discussions also were scheduled.

Winston Taylor, facilitator of Shiloh's prison ministry program, said the event was designed to come up with an action plan to create systems that work for everybody. Participants were challenged to think about how they would shape school discipline policies and break the cycle of young people entering the juvenile justice system.

"The community has been crying for the leaders to rise up and address the issue and know we have more in common than we are different," he said. "The community has been on the forefront of things like the civil rights and women's movements. It's the systems (such as education, child welfare and criminal justice) that haven't caught up."

Taylor said he was driven to become a social worker and bring about positive change after his own father and brothers were incarcerated. He said he had many mentors along the way and a quality education. He said people don't have to go through poverty to know what it is like and act to end it, and they don't have to be part of racism to speak out against it.

State Rep. Chris Soto, D-New London, led a panel as participants brainstormed ways to address school discipline, truancy and fair and equal treatments of all students and parents in order to reduce the "school to prison pipeline."

"Concentrated poverty has the biggest effect on these issues," he said. "If you're hungry, if you're cold at night, you can't learn. Everybody recognizes it, but do we actually put our money where our mouth is?"

Others said guiding young people to success is more than just budget.

"It's got to be a practice," said Gizelle Tircuit-Posey, a therapist who practices in New London. "You've got to come together and see where you can act early. The Newtown and San Bernardino shootings, the thing that linked those two is when they were 4 or 5 years old, there were some concerns in the school."

In another panel, Dr. Annie Wilder, a teacher and author, was talking about preventing behavioral problems in school and intervening when they do occur.

"Kids need somebody to work with them," she said. "It hopefully starts in the home, but sometimes it doesn't. We have generation after generation now who are part of the system. How can we help them?"

She said getting involved early and knowing that "one size doesn't fit all" when it comes to children and learning styles are key. She said sometimes the role of a helper is to listen, not lecture.

k.florin@theday.com