In early spring this year, the City of Newton released an online Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) survey for residents and employees to complete. Open for community input until May 31, the survey included questions about various experiences regarding race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, disabilities, etc., and it was a result of an increase of awareness and interest in promoting DEI within Newton through policy and specialist positions.
Newton’s Director of Community Engagement and Inclusion, Hattie Kerwin Derrick, said that the survey is the marking point for a program of DEI initiatives that the City of Newton has been developing since 2021.
“Before we started, things have been happening, but there’s never been anything formal,” she said. “It’s part of the process … It’s been probably a year-and-a-half long process. So this was one step along our journey.”
This audit seeks to consider DEI within new policies like educational workshops for City staff and providing interpreters to people whose first language is not English. Following the death of George Floyd in 2020, various cities throughout Massachusetts began to hire DEI officers with the intent of creating systemic change and cultivating equity. As experts have noted, these positions largely lacked support. As such, the struggle to implement new policies and make significant change was a common theme among these DEI roles. Recognizing these issues, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said that she aims to prioritize DEI in the coming years to ensure that all Newton residents, employees, and all who use services within Newton feel supported and represented.
“I want to increase the diversity of our workforce and boards and commissions and help the City deliver services in an equitable, caring, fair and inclusive manner,” Mayor Fuller said in her weekly newsletter on August 27, 2021. “I want to build support for diversity, equity, and inclusion by working closely with people in all our City departments. I want to increase our staff’s cultural responsiveness through training and discussions to build excellence in communication and customer service for everyone in Newton.”
According to Kerwin Derrick, that update by Mayor Fuller marked the beginning of this longstanding project.
“We just posted a Request for Proposals for groups who have experience helping cities expand diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives and develop and implement comprehensive, meaningful DE&I actions.” Mayor Fuller said in her newsletter, “I want to ensure the creation of a plan and take the actions to institutionalize equity and social justice, reinforce inclusion, affirm diverse identities, and experiences, support victims of hate and bias, foster respect among all of us and celebrate differences.”
The City of Newton partnered with The Racial Equity Group, a consulting firm in Irving, Texas, to develop a survey that appropriately represents different groups in the community. Bird Guess, president and CEO of The Racial Equity Group, said that the objective of this DEI audit is to highlight areas where there are disparities and inequities in various demographic groups.
“Do all residents have a sense of belonging and inclusion? Does everyone have equal opportunity whether it’s employment with the City or obtaining being a vendor or contractor having access to city services and programs being treated fairly?” he said. “We wanted to ask City staff, how do you feel? How would you rate the City’s commitment to DEI and the whole purpose of that was to establish a baseline? So the City has a baseline DEI commitment score.”
However, because the survey is facilitated by a second-party institution, the City of Newton will not receive the results of the survey until this fall, at which time Guess said that The Racial Equity Group will begin using the data collected in the surveys to back up the initiatives that they plan to launch.
“Once we look at all the data and all the components, our firm is going to make overall findings and recommendations for the City and also recommend an actual implementation plan that we would work with the City collaboratively to understand what we should prioritize,” he said. “We’ll make our recommendations, but then the City will have to look at budgets, resource constraints, and current teacher priorities and figure out how to implement those action items that we recommend.”
Janie Blumenthal is a Fig City News intern and a rising senior at Newton North High School.