Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Municipal Government

Integrating DEI into municipal strategic planning helps to establish diversity, equity, and inclusion as a priority and springboard a whole-of-government approach to ensuring that all municipal operations are looked at through the lens of DEI.

All of our communities have different residents, needs, and backgrounds. Our goal is to create a resource for all 275 municipalities of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus and our region to use.
Village of Hanover Park Mayor Rodney Craig

To understand what is needed in a community, it is important to engage the community in all of its diversity. This is not just the work of a DEI Manager. To get to inclusive policies and procedures, the whole of the community must be engaged. Knowledge gleaned in this manner helps to shape the appropriate direction. There is no one size fits all in DEI work.
Dr. Geneace Williams, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Manager, City of Naperville

The people with privilege in the system must be brought into the process. In Flossmoor, those with the historic privilege in the Village are the white residents. Although people of color have lived in Flossmoor for decades, there has been a more recent increase in the Black population. These families did not have the same level of influence over decision-making. We needed the white residents and Village leadership to feel ownership over this work, too. It is still a team effort at the end of the day.
Trustee Rosalind Mustafa, Village of Flossmoor

We developed our pilot program using the case studies and practices shared through the Caucus toolkit. Together, we’ve created a homegrown approach to equity by local officials and for local officials.
Dr. Kathleen Yang-Clayton , UIC Great Cities Institute