Leveraging Community Partnerships
Why It’s Important
Diversity, equity, and inclusion isn’t limited to municipal government. It involves the community at large. This can be a challenge for local government because community members often wish to discuss issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion that reach far beyond the traditional services provided by a municipality such as education or social service gaps.
Building partnerships with community organizations and agencies can help address this challenge.
Partnerships offer the following advantages:
- Partnerships can help municipalities better understand the needs of diverse constituents. Partner organizations may have closer relationships with different segments of the population than the municipality. Building relationships and trust with these organizations is critical to better assessing equity for all residents.
- Partnerships help municipal government address DEI as a “whole community issue.” Strong relationships with other entities can help municipalities better respond when residents want to talk about DEI beyond the scope of what the municipal government can address. Partnering with organizations that are further ahead in their DEI work, such schools, or libraries, also allows municipalities to build upon work already underway in the community.
- Partners can leverage each other’s strengths for greater impact across the whole community. Different organizations may have different strengths. For example, a library may have closer relationships with busy parents, while a municipality may have connections in the business community. By learning what each organization does well and working together, partners can reach the widest possible audience.
- Non-governmental partners can be nimbler. While government has systems of checks and balance that make decisions move slowly, non-profits can frequently move faster. This can make for effective partnership when partners understand the pace of government.
Strategies
There are several things to keep in mind when establishing partnerships with external organizations:
- Municipal departments may already have strong partnerships, but they could be siloed. For example, police may have cooperative relationships with community groups, while community development may have engaged other groups for the 2020 Census. It can be helpful to internally assess which relationships already exist and could be strengthened.
- Getting to know partner institutions takes time and ongoing effort. Schools, libraries, and non- profits have different governance structures and day-to-day priorities, and it can take time for partners to understand how to work together well. This may be an ongoing effort, especially when staff turnover.
- Exercise caution when engaging with people who claim to be the voice of an entire community. Sometimes, an activist advocating for a specific policy change may not be fully aligned with the community they represent. It is important for municipalities to understand that every community has a diversity of views.
LEARN MORE — ARLINGTON HEIGHTS
Community Profile – Village Of Arlington Heights
The Village of Arlington Heights began looking to assess diversity, equity, and inclusion in 2019 when the Board expressed an interest in ensuring that residents from minority communities in the Village felt supported and included. The Village hired the Kaleidoscope Group to do a needs assessment and audit of the Village. Kaleidoscope looked at Village policies and programs and provided recommendations for the Village to improve its operations as an employer and service provider to the community.
As its DEI efforts continued, however, the Village began to understand that DEI issues go beyond municipal government. Other taxing bodies, including the school districts, park district, and library, were independently working on topics related to DEI and the community. To address this, the Village directed formed a Community Outreach Taskforce of representatives from these taxing bodies with these goals:
- To ensure all residents of Arlington Heights have equal access to all community services, government decision making, opportunities, and information;
- To identify and break down identified barriers to equal access;
- To leverage the unique knowledge, networks, and capabilities of each taskforce member;
- To acknowledge, promote, and engage in non-traditional methods to ensure equal access; and
- To identify and partner with other organizations that can help increase equal access
The Task Force has Two Phases
- Phase 1 –Core Group: Initially, the Task Force consists of communications and outreach staff from the school districts, park district, library, and Village. These individuals are tasked with identifying underserved areas and groups and unique, non-traditional outreach practices that have successfully broken-down barriers in serving these populations. This group identifies joint opportunities for shared services, outreach, and communication by leveraging the strengths and unique capabilities of each agency.
- Phase 2 – Broader Community Outreach: After the Core Group has been established, the Task Force will expand to include invited representatives of various non-governmental or governmental entities which have unique capabilities, networks, or access to increase communication with underserved populations in the community. This group will host community listening sessions, discuss new strategies for outreach, and work together on joint projects.
Lessons Learned
- DEI is a whole of community issue and cannot be addressed within a vacuum of just one community organization or government agency.
- It is valuable to leverage the strengths of different community organizations to reach the largest possible audience. For example, the library can host a different type of meeting than a municipality, which can encourage broader participation from the community.
- It is helpful to get started somewhere and be open to allowing the work to continually evolve as you learn more about the topic. Stay open-minded.
- It is important to strive for the greatest representation of the community possible. You may not achieve this right away and it is ok if this is accomplished over time.
Learn More
Randy Recklaus
Village Manager
Village of Arlington Heights
rrecklaus@vah.com
(847) 368-5122