Learning and Operationalizing Racial Equity (LORE) pilot – 2023/2024 

Operationalizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus and Illinois City/County Management Association partnered with the UIC Great Cities Institute to provide support to municipalities interested in operationalizing diversity, equity, and inclusion in their municipalities.

About the Program

This pilot was designed by municipalities, for municipalities. Over the past few years, the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, ILCMA, and UIC Great Cities have worked closely with elected officials and municipal staff from across the Chicago region and state of Illinois to better understand the unique challenges faced by small- to mid-sized municipalities interested in pursuing this work. Members of the MMC DEI Working Group and ILCMA Diversity and Inclusion Committee played an active role in advising the creation of this pilot.

Program Partners

Program Design & Structure

The 2023-24 LORE program is an eight-month program, split evenly between two four-month sessions, one in Fall 2023 and the other in Spring 2024. Training will be held at the NIU Naperville campus for two distinct but related sets of participants from 9am-1pm. All trainings are in-person with the exception of two trainings in the Spring which will be synchronous and online.

Part 1: Fall 2023 – 9/13, 10/11, 11/8 and 12/14 (all in-person)

The Fall session (Part 1) is open to ten executive-level public managers (e.g., CAOs, deputy CAOs, Assistant CAOs, EDs). This Fall session has been specifically designed for top decision makers to understand and make the case for DEI-driven organizational projects to key internal and external stakeholders. During this session, participants will identify two organizational leads (implementers) who will then attend the Spring 2024 session. The Fall participants will not attend the Spring session but will remain engaged through a short series of online workshops and a final in-person presentation by their Spring 2024 management team.

Key learning outcomes for the Fall session are:
• Develop a deeper understanding of the role of equity, efficiency and effectiveness in local government work.
• Build a shared vocabulary on the importance of the internal environment in local government and how that is connected to overall community success.
• Assemble an internal team that will work with leaders on building a learning culture within local government to achieve racial equity goals internally and externally.

Part 2: Spring 2024 – 2/14, 3/13*, 4/10* and 5/8 (* denotes same time/date but hybrid online format)

The Spring session (Part 2) will consist of participants who have been identified by their organizational leaders as having high relevance to the implementation of a DEI-driven process improvement project and/or program developed in the Fall session. Managers will learn DEI-driven process analysis to identify both assets and gaps in program performance and impact that can be applied to a wide range of organizational functions including but not limited to recruitment/retention, language access, procurement, community input/engagement.

Key learning outcomes for the Spring session are:
• Understand the pilot project model that helps teams learn and include key internal stakeholders in organizational culture change.
• Identify one key area of internal organizational practice (e.g., performance management, internal communications, human resources and financial management) that a pilot project can be applied.
• Learn how to make the case with internal and external stakeholders on the importance of supporting internal performance improvement driven by equity values.

Participant Eligibility

Municipal governments from across the state of Illinois are eligible to apply. Organizations interested in applying must designate an executive-level public manager (e.g., CAOs, deputy CAOs, EDs) within the municipality to participate in the fall cohort. In the fall, the lead participant will identify two organizational leads (implementers) who will then attend the Spring 2024 session.

Successful applicants must commit to the full eight-month program and commit training funds to ensure that capacity, full commitment, and likelihood of impact can be achieved. The training cost for the entire program is $800. Please reach out to cojeda@mayorscaucus.org if the cost would prevent your municipality from applying. We’ll evaluate each inquiry on a case-by-case basis.

How to apply

Application closed August 18, 2023.