When Johns Creek Councilmember Erin Elwood learned of George Floyd’s death while he was in Minneapolis Police custody in May, she was shocked and hurt.
Concerned constituents contacted her immediately, expressing hurt and asking if their children were safe in Johns Creek. “We are a diverse city,” said Elwood, who was elected to the city council last fall. “More than 40 percent of our residents are non-white.”
Residents asked Elwood if the city council had undergone diversity and implicit bias training. Elwood acknowledged she had not.
“The residents said to me,” Elwood said, “that if city administrators and elected officials do not have diversity training, how can they expect the police department to emulate policies they don’t follow themselves?”
In June, Elwood asked if GMA provided diversity training for its membership. The answer was no.
But GMA’s leadership responded quickly and decisively. They crafted an online race and equity toolkit for members in June, formed an ongoing equity and inclusion commission made up of city officials in June, and then partnered with Georgia Public Broadcasting in early August to host a town hall on race and equity. Addressing equity, inclusion and diversity in cities became a priority for GMA’s officers.
The Harold F. Holtz Municipal Training Institute, which GMA manages in partnership with the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government (CVIOG), chose veteran instructors to develop a class on diversity.
Freddie Broome, a GMA member service consultant, and David Key, a CVIOG senior faculty member, collaborated to create Making Cultural Diversity Work. They designed the six-hour course to help city officials identify and promote diversity, avoid discrimination, gain skills for inclusive conversations and better understand emerging issues in their communities.
The Municipal Training Board approved the course in July and Broome and Key taught the first class online in September. The training institute has scheduled the next class for Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020, online.
“I’m so happy GMA was able to have a class ready so quickly,” Elwood said.
“We learned over this past spring and summer that many in our society are ahead of government when it comes to talking about diversity,” said Key, who is well-versed in inclusion training around race, culture and LGBTQ issues. “They are looking for governmental leaders who can frame a discussion to move our cities forward in constructive ways. Hopefully, this class can begin that process.”
While diversity training may be long overdue, Broome said the time is right to discuss diversity, inclusion and racial injustice.
“Now is the time our society is ready to listen and understand instead of creating feelings of disparity,” said Broome, who has undergone specialized training in diversity recruiting and retention over the last ten years. As a municipal fire chief in Valdosta and South Fulton, he also served on the International Association of Fire Chiefs Human Relations Committee, which focuses on developing tool kits on diversity, inclusion and equality.
Class participants will learn that everyone is diverse.
“When you walk into a room, you enter an environment of diversity,” Broome said. “You observe differences in ages, height, religion, politics, nationality, ethnicity, educational background and implicit biases. The list can go on and on.”
While conversations about cultural diversity can be difficult, they are necessary, both Broome and Key maintain.
“As we work to implement changes in our organizations and communities, it is essential to embrace cultural diversity,” Broome said. “However, before we can embrace cultural diversity, we must
take the unwieldy steps of having courageous conversations and be willing to listen, learn and engage. Most are ill-equipped to discuss due to implicit biases. When we look at the events transpiring today, it is inevitable that not having the conversation is detrimental to our organizations and communities. The goal of this class will be conforming skill sets to mold the conversations.”
“We need these conversations so government will function at an even higher level,” Key added. “Diversity is strength. We need to tap into it.”
This article appears in the September/October edition of Georgia’s Cities Magazine.