Journal & Topics Media Group

Community Leaders Voice Concerns Over AH Diversity Project


Arlington Heights resident and community activist Karen Thomas, Prospect High School senior Ashlyn Gadson and local League of Women Voters President Heidi Graham after a Jan. 15 press conference regarding the village diversity and inclusion program.

Arlington Heights may be on track to creating a more welcoming and diverse community, but some community leaders think the approach needs improvement.

Around 30-40 people gathered outside of Arlington Heights Village Hall at 9 a.m. Friday (Jan. 15) to hear community activist Karen Thomas, Prospect High School student activist Ashlyn Gadson and League of Women Voters Chicago NW Suburbs President Heidi Graham detail concerns about the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Project recently commissioned by the village.

Trustees in September approved a $31,000 contract with the Chicago-based firm Kaleidoscope Group to complete a diversity audit to serve as the basis of the program.

“During their outreach, they did not really get the experiences of black and brown residents in the community,” said Thomas. “We want them to halt this process and really take time to figure out, one, why that was and then to adjust their tactics and start taking it seriously, to incorporate our goals.”

For example, Thomas told the Journal & Topics she was the only person of color present out of 20 participants at one of the listening sessions held to obtain data for the study.

According to Graham, the village and Kaleidoscope have not responded with clear answers to inquiries about how they are reaching out to marginalized groups in the community.

She explained that four different instances where “KKK” graffiti was painted in an Arlington Heights underpass was one of the factors leading up to the diversity audit.

“This forced the village, finally, after years of pressure from community members like Rev. Clyde Brooks, to finally do something,” Graham said.

Brooks, an Arlington Heights resident and chairman of the Illinois Commission on Diversity & Human Relations, was unable to attend the press conference due to a recent hospitalization.

Graham, who referred to the reverend as her mentor, read the following quote from him: “There is a great population shift occurring and more whites are being awakened from their base of privileges, and discussions regarding injustices are increasing. The challenge now is encouraging the government leaders to begin to take deliberate actions to help rectify the inequalities that have historical roots…especially in police and educational bodies.”

Together, community leaders submitted a comprehensive list of recommended actions to the village board to ensure that marginalized groups are represented in the project. It is broken down into actions for the village board, village manager and Kaleidoscope Group.

For the village board, community leaders recommend: creating a DEI policy and action plan; including DEI accountability in the job description for the village manager; fostering DEI representation and outreach on the village TV channel; fostering diversity of village suppliers, employees and commission appointments; DEI training for board members; creation of a DEI budget; an annual DEI report; creation of a DEI commission and sharing the final Kaleidoscope Report with community leaders.

Plans for the DEI commission called for a 20-person group that would help staff tackle diversity issues and goals. Members would serve two-year terms and be appointed in the following manner: three from the Hispanic community, three from the African American community, three from other marginalized groups (such as the LGBTQ community) two from the business community, two from faith groups, two from the Birding the Black/White Divide community group, one from the health services community as well as one appointed by the village manager and by one the mayor and village board.

Along with these recommendations, the local activists asked that the village manager and staff take official action to make sure these goals are met and that Kaleidoscope find deliberate ways to include more marginalized groups in its research.

“They also didn’t acknowledge the fact that, maybe the relationship between people of color and the village is broken,” said Thomas of why more people from minority groups may not have attended the listening sessions. “Maybe there is an issue there that needs to be addressed and needs to be fixed and it needs to start with an initiative on the village side, to bring residents back in where they feel comfortable and willing to engage in these types of conversations.”

While addressing the needs, issues and goals of people from marginalized groups who already live in Arlington Heights is important, Gadson also stressed the importance of encouraging more diversity in the village moving forward.

“There’s not diversity in teachers or students, just because of the lack of effort put into getting more people of color in the community,” she said of Windsor Elementary School in Arlington Heights and Prospect High School, which is located in Mount Prospect and serves part of Arlington Heights.

According to data compiled by the village thus far, 81.7% of the community is white, 10% is Asian, 5.6% is Hispanic or Latino, 1.7% have a mixed background, 1.5% are Black, 0.1% are American Indian or Native Alaskan and 0.1% are Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian.

As this afternoon, Arlington Heights Village Manager Randy Recklaus had yet to respond to a Journal inquiry regarding the community leader recommendations.

More information about the DEI project and current diversity, equity and inclusion efforts by the village are available on the Arlington Heights website.

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