HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAO-08-007 - Diversity Strategy Development
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Report To: Finance and Corporate Services Committee
Date of Meeting: February 11, 2008
Submitted By: Shelley Adams, Director, Community and Corporate Planning,
Ext. 2476
Prepared By: Abbie Grafstein, Community and Corporate Planning
Associate
Wards}Involved: All
Date of Report: January 31, 2008
Report No.: CAO-08-007
Subject: Diversity Strategy Development
RECOMMENDATION:
For information.
BACKGROUND:
In October 2006, Council received and adopted "A Plan for a Healthy Kitchener, 2007-2027"
~P4HK} as the community's vision for twenty years into the future. P4HK provided a unified
strategic approach to key areas essential to the health and vitality of the City of Kitchener. It
articulated priorities identified in consultation with the community -quality of life, leadership and
community engagement, diversity, downtown, development, and the environment. And, it also
provided high level recommendations for action in each of these areas to be completed over the
next 4 years, 2007-2010, the term of the current Mayor and Council.
In the spring of 2007, a seconded position with a one year term was created to, in part, support
the development of a diversity strategy. This report provides information on the work underway.
At this point in time, the focus is on building understanding of the threads that will be woven
together to give shape to our strategy-this report begins to identify those threads.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The activities that are currently the focus of this seconded position include:
• Development and analysis of an Internal Access, Equity and Inclusion Inventory that
captures a snapshot of ongoing diversity-related activities
• Coordination of information to be included on a web-based immigrant portal to support
and attract newcomers
• Support to Community Programs and Services in moving to action on diversity initiatives
• Support todiversity-related community and corporate initiatives including follow-up from
the Culture of Safety Forum and providing staff with information and links to community
resources.
REPORT:
Internal Access, Equity and Inclusion Inventory
While diversity is a newly identified strategic direction for the City, it is not a new focus for many
operational units or corporately. Through the City's business planning process several
initiatives were identified under the theme of Diversity, however there was wide recognition that
many more activities are in progress and ongoing. To begin to understand what a corporate
diversity strategy may look like for the City of Kitchener, it is important to first capture the
programs, projects, services and strategies that are currently underway.
Between July and November 2007 a number of staff currently working with access, equity and
inclusion activities were identified and asked to provide brief descriptions of programs, projects
and initiatives that advance the City's strategic directions for diversity, broadly considering
access, equity and inclusion for all members of the community. An inventory was compiled,
providing a snapshot of those many activities.
In a preliminary, high level review of the inventory, staff has identified access, equity and
inclusion activities across a spectrum of diversity elements including: culture, age, gender,
disability, socio-economic differences and sexual orientation. Staff has also identified a range
of approaches that are utilized by the City to support diversity related activities, including:
• direct program delivery;
• support to affiliated groups;
• collaboration and joint planning;
• financial support;
• business relationships;
• consideration in strategy development and reviews;
• hiring practices and training.
The City works on meeting diversity needs with many organizations, associations, individuals
and businesses on diversity activities including:
• neighbourhood associations;
• minor sports groups;
• arts and culture organizations;
• multicultural service organizations;
• special needs organizations;
• ethno-cultural groups; and
• businesses.
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The City's first Access, Equity and Inclusion Inventory represents an important step in
achieving the strategic directions for diversity identified in A Plan for Healthy Kitchener. In
consideration of a corporate-wide diversity strategy and related policy development, it is
important to acknowledge that, while there are many activities already occurring, there are still
opportunities for change and improvement. As the City advances its work in this area, ensuring
a shared definition for concepts of diversity, access, equity and inclusion will support the
collection of like-information across the corporation. Staff is continuing with some initial
analysis of the data in the inventory to organize it in a manner that will provide direction for
concrete next steps.
The remainder of this report provides information about activities specifically related to the work
that falls under the seconded position.
Immigrant Portal
The Region of Waterloo has received a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and
Immigration to fund the creation of a web-based "Immigrant-Portal". The purpose of the
immigrant portal is to meet a vision of supporting all immigrants and their families who settle in
Waterloo Region and will be used to attract skilled newcomers matching local employment
needs. The Region is responsible for the effectiveness and sustainability of the portal and has
invited local municipalities and townships to participate and contribute to content development.
The Region has partnered with WRIEN to continue to build on work done by other community
partners in providing information for immigrants anywhere in the process from pre-immigration
to full community integration. City staff are meeting to determine content for City of Kitchener's
sections of the portal.
Community Programs and Services (CPS)
In May of 2005, several members of the CPS management team and Manager of Employee
Strategies attended two days of Diversity Training offered through Leadership Waterloo Region.
As Council is aware, such was the impact of the training that through the Diversity in the
Workplace Committee, the same trainer was contracted by the City to provide training, initially to
all management, and eventually to any staff. As more of the CPS management team received
training, and CPS staff also began to attend, there was recognition that a forum for follow-up
discussion would be beneficial. Two District Facilitators offered to design and facilitate a
workshop for staff to provide this opportunity.
This follow-up workshop has been provided to over 30 CPS staff and management. Workshop
evaluations indicate that staff have found this to be very beneficial as it provided an opportunity
to link the two-day diversity training today-to-day operations. Staff comments in the workshop
evaluations will now be used to develop specific next steps for CPS.
Community and Corporate Connections
Creating a Culture of Safety for Kitchener, a Future Search Forum resu Iced i n a n u m ber of
action plans created by community members, businesses, cultural organizations, police and
other stakeholders that focused on community safety and crime prevention for the City of
Kitchener. Two of those nine groups directly identified diversity-related issues for further action.
It is understood that groups are often marginalized on the basis of diversity. Culture of Safety
participants suggested two approaches to decrease such marginalization: i) increased
opportunities for employment and cultural awareness, and ii) greater community involvement
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The first group identified a need for action on improved hiring processes and training in relation
to New Canadians and racialized groups. As Council is aware, there are indeed several
initiatives currently underway that support the goals of this group: City of Kitchener Diversity
Training and Diversity in the Workplace Committee, Waterloo Region Immigrant Employment
Network, and KW Counselling Building Bridges program. In addition, cultural organizations are
working directly with the public sector to build intercultural understanding. It is the intention of
this action group to meet representatives from the above named organizations to build
awareness about diversity-related employment and training activities in the community from
several different perspectives.
A second Culture of Safety action group recognized the need for community coalitions,
committees and other groups in the community to have a more inclusive membership-a
parallel to this same recognition regarding hiring practices. This action group will develop a
checklist that will assist such coalitions and groups to be more inclusive. Considerations for the
checklist include:
• statements of inclusion as part of the terms of reference or principles,
• how to bridge between informal and formal groups;
• building shared understanding and relationships; and
• recruitment processes.
Once developed, the checklist will be piloted with an interested group or committee. The
checklist will be beneficial to both the current Advisory Review Committee and the Community
Engagement Strategy Working Group.
This position has begun to work with staff and initiatives in a variety of ways including:
• providing suggestions on how to sensitively approach diversity related issues with
community stakeholders,
• providing staff with links to existing community organizations and specialized trainers,
• exploring how the City can be more inclusive through the community engagement
strategy, including inclusive communications and outreach,
• exploring how principles of inclusion can be applied to the community investment
strategy, and
• supporting the Safe and Healthy Advisory Committee in fulfilling their goals around
access and equity.
Yet, another thread of this work is the potential to partner with the Region and the other local
cities and townships to sign onto a Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and
Discrimination-an international initiative out of UNESCO in partnership with the human rights
organizations across Canada.
The community is beginning to approach the City, through this position, with a variety of
requests: guest speaker for university courses; participation on committees, boards, etc that
work on diversity related issues; to inquire about inclusive hiring practices. New connections
have been made with our neighbouring cities and the Region, with immigrant service
organizations and ethno-specific associations, and with mainstream organizations who are
working with marginalized individuals. The momentum is building, and while there are many
threads to this work at this time, they are beginning to weave together.
Outreach to community leaders has only just begun and already there are indicators of
appreciation that the City has put dedicated resources into diversity work. Community leaders
recognize that work in this area will take some time as two-way understanding and awareness is
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developed and new relationships are formed. There is a willingness to work with staff to find the
new approaches that will lead to a more inclusive, welcoming City-both as the corporation and
within the community.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
None at this time. Staff resources to support this initiative have been made available through
the CAO Secondment Program. Program support is available through operating dollars
approved in the 2007 budget process.
COMMUNICATIONS:
Internal and external communications plans will be developed as required.
CONCLUSION
Our current focus is building understanding of the many threads that will eventually weave
together and give shape to the development of a diversity strategy and this report begins to
identify those threads. Next steps include:
• Analysis of the data collected through the internal inventory
• Continued support to the identified community initiatives
• Continued outreach to related community organizations, associations and networks
• Compilation of best practices in other municipalities
• Consultation with the community on opportunities for areas of focus.
An update report to Council will be forthcoming in the spring with more specific actions identified
at that time.
Abbie Grafstein Shelley Adams, Director
Community and Corporate Planning Associate Community and Corporate Planning
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