City:
Carthage
Status:
Active
Category:
Engaged Citizens
Contact:
Luis Rangel
email:
Diversity & Inclusion
We need help with:
- Are you interested in helping expand inclusion efforts in our community? Please join us as we help make our community more welcoming to all of our visitors and citizens.
WHY IS THE PROJECT IMPORTANT
While in many rural communities, the population is shrinking, Carthage is an exception. One of the primary drivers of local population expansion is the growth of its LatinX population. In order for Carthage to chart a prosperous future, the local leaders must ensure that the voices of the minority populations are well represented in the community dialogue.
OVERALL PROJECT GOAL
- Add minority leaders to the GRO Core Team.
- Reopen the community survey to include more minority voices.
- Use the feedback to develop and launch targeted support initiatives.
- Work closely with other organizations to ensure we are getting the message out to that part of the community. The message being this is where you can get involved.
- September 24, 2022: Hispanic Heritage Month Festival (to help get the word out about Hispanic Culture)
ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO- DATE
- The GRO Diversity and Inclusion team added Maria Sanchez to the GRO Board.
- The team has reopened the community survey and has received approximately 23 more responses.
- The team is now analyzing the survey results and then will conduct a series of conversations with the minority citizens to review the findings. Hopefully, through these discussions, the team will identify specific additional opportunities for intervention. The effort is also being used to help recruit more minority project leaders.
- The team is working on a potential Food Crawl to introduce the majority of the community to the Hispanic community’s restaurants.
- The Hispanic Connection Group has started talking about GRO to other organizations to make connections and solve challenges together.
- The GRO team is now starting to connect to the tech center to develop videos with students to encourage and teach families.
- The team is also developing a Spanish childcare survey version to distribute to families.
- Team has written an article about Diversity and Inclusion.
GOALS FOR 2021
2022 Goals: (1) Add minority leaders to the GRO Core team, (2) Reopen the community survey to include more minority voices, and (3) Use the feedback to develop and launch targeted support initiatives.
MAJOR WINS TO- DATE
NEXT 4 WEEKS PLAN
People Working On The Project
A member of the Missouri Optometric Association Leadership Team and Dr. at Carthage Vision
