The plaza in downtown Healdsburg.
The City of Healdsburg took a step toward broader equity in the community last week, when city officials received 41 recommendations from a consulting firm on how to promote DEI initiatives throughout the town.
The recommendations, presented to the council at its Aug. 7 meeting, homed in on four general areas that needed the most DEI attention in the city: promoting diversity among youth; supporting the local labor force; greater housing equity; and DEI training for city staff.
Community members and city officials have been looking at ways to expand diversity, equity and inclusion since 2020, as the pandemic and murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis cast light on the marginalization of Black, Indigenous and People of Color, or BIPOC, members of society.
The Healdsburg City Council launched an official push toward inclusivity in April of 2021, with an initial goal-setting meeting and the formation of an ad hoc committee to address DEI. The city went on to contract with consulting firm Acosta Latino Leadership Partnership to construct a more thorough plan. ALLP presented an update of its three-phase DEI initiative to the council Aug. 7. As ALLP begins Phase Three, it will develop a detailed plan of action for ways the city can address the recommendations—such as launching youth mentoring programs, holding labor celebrations to honor various workers, and expanding the Healdsburg housing department to better address housing affordability.
The first two phases took place over the two years, with Phase One consisting of initial outreach to the community and city employees, and a DEI assessment completed by ALLP. Phase Two included a series of Community Equity Encuentros, or gatherings, to discuss a wide range of topics around diversity, equity, and inclusion. To date, the city has hosted nine Encuentros, held in both English and Spanish, with childcare provided at the meetings.
To help drive engagement and participation in the program, the city has partnered with community organizations like Corazon Healdsburg, a bilingual family resource center which, as it states on its website, “amplifies the local Latin-American voices, and hosts community events, trainings and discussions to promote and celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
The city council approved $75,000 for the DEI project.
