Beyond Diversity Training Opportunity

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Alison Alter
Posts: 211
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 3:52 pm

Beyond Diversity Training Opportunity

Post by Alison Alter »

Dear Colleagues,

As we well know, the violence we have seen nationally in the past few days, our community’s struggle with SB4, our local history with segregation (http://bit.ly/2v1cuLs), and the situation faced by children and families in our region (http://bit.ly/2uHXVku) are strong indicators of the degree to which our daily work is constantly affected by issues of racism. As a Council we took a strong step earlier this year in accepting the report from the Mayor’s Task Force on Institutional Racism and Systemic Inequities and delivering it to the Interim City Manager and her team for analysis and implementation.

At Tuesday's work session I spoke about developing an opportunity for my staff and for your offices to participate in the Beyond Diversity training used by the Mayor’s Task Force On Institutional Racism and Systemic Inequities. You may remember that it was a recommendation of the task force to take part in this training. I see participation in this training as one way we can move forward together and as a community.

Two trainings are being planned by the chairs of the task force for late fall and early next year. The taskforce would welcome our participation and the City Manager has committed participation of herself and her Executive Team if we participate as a Council.

As I mentioned at work session, I am committed to applying some of my FY17 office funds for myself and my staff to attend and am willing to fund additional slots from my office budget to facilitate attendance by other council offices. I also am happy to prepare a concept menu item if more monies are needed to cover all those who have interest from Council beyond what I can cover with my office budget. I am open to ideas and suggestions on how to realize this task force recommendation.

In order to obtain a clear count and cost estimate, it would be helpful to know which council members and their staff would like to participate in the Beyond Diversity training. In order to respect quorum, please communicate your interest to RoseMarie Martinez (RoseMarie.Martinez@austintexas.gov) of ICM Hart’s office or post a response to this message board post.

As practiced in other cities, the trainings are designed for executive leaders across multiple industries and we would be participating alongside business, nonprofit, and community leaders from across Austin. We are aware that scheduling is a challenge and are ironing out details. Currently, we anticipate participation opportunities in November or January for the two day workshop.

At the end of this message please find some information regarding the training entity and a draft work plan with timing still very fluid. Beyond Diversity consists of a two day training plus access to individual coaching over a 90 day period.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Alison Alter
Council Member, District 10

Background on the organization and trainers: https://courageousconversation.com/peg/

Background on the training entity’s past work with cities across the country: https://courageousconversation.com/bd-10-city/

Here is the work plan of what the task force was working on for training opportunities:
http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 31829.docx
Council Member, District 10
Alison Alter
Posts: 211
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 3:52 pm

Re: Beyond Diversity Training Opportunity

Post by Alison Alter »

Dear Colleagues,

I posted the below opportunity during a break in a Council meeting and I wanted to draw it to your attention again in case you missed it. I have heard directly or indirectly from 4 other offices that would like all of their staff to attend the Beyond Diversity training recommended by the Taskforce on Institutional Racism and Systemic Inequities. We are still trying to find out how many people are interested so I can fund what I can from my office budget and the rest can be proposed as a concept menu item. I would appreciate if you would please communicate your interest to RoseMarie Martinez (RoseMarie.Martinez@austintexas.gov) of ICM Hart’s office or post a response to this message board post by end of day tomorrow.

Regards,
Alison Alter
City Council Member, District 10
Council Member, District 10
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