Metropolitan Mayors Caucus Releases New Policy Toolkit For Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion

New Website Profiles Practices and Programs to Help Jurisdictions Grow Welcoming and Inclusive Communities

Today the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus released a web toolkit for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to help suburban officials collaborate on DEI across town boundaries. Over the last two years, the Caucus has established an interjurisdictional learning network for DEI through a working group, website, and pilot program taught by the UIC Great Cities institute. The toolkit, available at http://dei.mayorscaucus.org/, helps individual communities understand how to integrate diversity and equity into service delivery, external engagement, internal administration, and other functions of day-to-day government.

“All of our communities have different residents, needs, and backgrounds.  Our goal is to create a resource for all 275 municipalities of the Mayor’s Caucus and our region to use.” said Village of Hanover Park Mayor Rodney Craig.

The toolkit represents a first-in-the-region resource to help municipalities develop homegrown approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Each participating municipality has its own unique history, demographic characteristics, and socio-economic profile. The MMC toolkit profiles all approaches. Regardless of the specific local need, this toolkit has case studies or practices that many other towns can utilize.

“To understand what is needed in a community, it is important to engage the community in all of its diversity. This is not just the work of a DEI Manager. To get to inclusive policies and procedures, the whole of the community must be engaged. Knowledge gleaned in this manner helps to shape the appropriate direction. There is no one size fits all in DEI work.” Dr. Geneace Williams, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Manager, City of Naperville

The Caucus utilized its work on the toolkit to directly inform the curricula of the Learning and Operationalizing Racial Equity (LORE) program, taught by the UIC Great Cities Institute. This pilot program, designed by municipalities for municipalities, provides academic teaching and peer coaching for municipal administrators to integrate equity into government practices. It is a partnership between UIC, the Caucus, and the Illinois City County Management Association.

“We developed our pilot program using the case studies and practices shared through the Caucus toolkit,” said Dr. Kathleen Yang-Clayton of the UIC Great Cities Institute. “Together, we’ve created a homegrown approach to equity by local officials and for local officials.”

Most municipalities in the Chicago region are in the very early stages in understanding and operationalizing equity principles. The Caucus toolkit and LORE program will be the beginning resources for an ongoing collaboration on this important topic.

The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus is a membership organization of the Chicago region’s 275 cities, towns, and villages. Founded in 1997, the Caucus pushes past geographical boundaries and local interests to work on public policy issues. The organization provides a forum for metropolitan Chicago’s chief elected officials to collaborate on common problems and work toward a common goal of improving the quality of life for the millions of people who call the region home. For more information, visit mayorscaucus.org, and connect with the organization on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.