Golden Valley's New Equity And Inclusion Plans Bring City, Residents Together

The City of Golden Valley approved and published its new Equity Plan earlier this year.

“We’re seeking to have more equitable engagement, creating more opportunities for community to have their input in the work of the city so that it ultimately hopefully reflects those needs and has better impact,” said Seth Kaempfer, the city’s equity and inclusion manager. “We don’t want to withhold information. We want community to have access to it. We want community to be able to understand it and see where we’re trying to go as a city but where we’re trying to go with community as a city as well.”

The plan includes many changes, some of which involve specific and purposeful training and re-training of city employees on how to interact with each other and with members of the public.

“We’re kind of trying to change this idea of accountability where it’s instead of this finger-wagging and blaming and shaming,” said Kaempfer. “It’s a ‘I see you’re trying to get to this goal–how can we support you?’ Is it through resourcing, is it through budgeting, is it through general communication and getting the word out about it? So, kind of shifting that narrative about accountability.”

One way to better reach as many residents as possible, Kaempfer said, is to offer as many resources translated into as many languages as possible.

“While a majority of our city, statistically, speaks English, we do have a variety of communities out there that speak Spanish, or Russian, or a variety of other languages that aren’t English,” he said. “So having a concerted effort with creating a plan of which documents, which information on our website, our print media gets translated” is one goal of the plan.

SOURCE: CCX MEDIA