New London — The prison ministry at Shiloh New London will host its 11th annual Community Prison Awareness & Prevention Gathering on Zoom on Saturday.

The theme of this year's gathering - "A Culture Change - Policing with Accountability Respect" - is in response to the Black Lives Matter movement that rippled through the nation this year, along with the passage of Connecticut's police accountability bill. In a series of virtual panels, the ministry will focus on topics related to police accountability bill, improving interactions between police and people of color and community healing.

The gathering will be held virtually this year, as it was last year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have always tried to have some relevancy to our theme and have it timely as we actually work with the community, inviting police officers from different departments to attend and engage," said Winston Taylor, organizer of the event. "We don't want to just talk about the problems we are facing, we want to bring everyone to the table and try to be solution focused."

Though Winston said that ministry members are happy to have seen prison population sizes decline in recent years, they're still concerned about Black and brown and low-income residents being sent to prison at disproportionate rates. They hope to address that issue, and concerns about police relations and violence against people of color by law enforcement at this year's event.

This year's gathering will kick off with a four-person panel that will talk about, "how we can change the behavior and culture of police in America to end the abuse and senseless killing of Black people by law enforcement," said Taylor. The panelists will share their advice for how officers, who are invited to attend from various local departments, can improve their interactions with people of color.

"We want to talk about what can we do to change police interactions, to make everybody's lives matter so everybody can be safe when they have an encounter with law enforcement," he said.

Next, experts will talk about criminal justice reform and discuss how the new police accountability bill and the recent decriminalization of recreational marijuana will impact communities.

Another mini-panel will explore how local communities can heal from the collective trauma from violence against people of color and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Winston said the annual event brings together a diverse group of locals for important conversations.

"We have a plethora of people from all walks of life...attorneys, professors, former inmates, children and parents, religious leaders and politicians," said Taylor.

This year's keynote address will be delivered by members of My People Clinical Services, a Hartford based nonprofit that provides social services for individuals and families.

The Zoom event will run from 9 a.m. to noon and is free and open to everyone. Pre-registration is recommended. To register, visit https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OgftOB9mRo-9Mj00oSqR4A or contact Taylor at 860-889-3292 or winston_taylor@sbcglobal.net