City of Bend outlines goals, efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion

City Manager Eric King says employees received nearly 900 hours of training

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) --Bend city councilors unanimously approved goals for the 2019-2021 biennium back in March that included, for the first time, actions focused on “embedding a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the city of Bend.” 

Following the recent events surrounding the death of George Floyd, a black man in police custody in Minneapolis, and rallies against police brutality that have taken place across Central Oregon, the city shared more details Wednesday about how it is following through with its goal of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

The city of Bend hired Allyship in Action last September to support its efforts. 

City Manager Eric King told NewsChannel 21 about 700 city employees have received more than 876 hours of diversity, equity and inclusion training. He said the city’s efforts to include DEI training started about two years ago.

“When you do this work, it’s really important that you understand what you bring to the table,” King said. “Your experiences, your inherent biases -- we all have them. You dissect them, and understand them, and just really have some personal reflection. You can’t really do this work until you really look at yourself.”

As one of the city’s efforts, King said leadership started an internal book club about a year and a half ago, discussing books about the topics of race and injustice.

The city also created a DEI short-term task force to help with its goals and build toward a permanent committee focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.

However, King said there is still a lot of work to do, regarding how to understand diverse perspectives and learn from them.

“We have a long way to go,” King said. “I don’t want to paint the picture as we’re anywhere near where we want to be. It’s a journey.”

He said the city is open to opportunities to engage with diverse groups and resources.

King said the city invites members of underrepresented communities to apply for and join their citizen committees, to give their insight on topics that matter to the city of Bend as a whole.

“We’ve started some of this work before it was part of council goals, just internally, and we also have partnerships with public agencies and COCC,” King said. 

The city manager said one of the city’s priorities in diversity, equity and inclusion work is to share with and gain information from the community, and to create a permanent committee focused on sharing relevant resources.

“The best advances in humanity have come from a diversity of thought and diversity of perspectives, so it really is important when you look at it from an economic perspective that we do our best work when we have diverse voices,” King said.

For more information about the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, visit its website.