July 8th, 2010
I have been thinking about community a lot lately. I recently finished participating in a learning circle that was focused on community and read and re-read some wonderful books from Peter Senge, Peter Block, Margaret Wheatley and others with really wonderful perspectives on community. I have also been struggling to clarify part of my role within the community that I live in.
I do work with a number of organizations locally, but most of my diversity and inclusion work, both working with client organizations and contributing to conferences, takes place outside of Omaha. I think that this will always be the case and that makes sense to me, but beyond my paying work, I feel an obligation to advocate regarding issues of diversity and inclusion in Omaha and I am struggling to determine how to best do that.
Something that continues to make me scratchy about Omaha, is that diversity and inclusion simply are not a part of the conversation on the community level here. There are people, organizations and events very dedicated to issues related to diversity and inclusion, but those issues rarely get attention on a community level unless somethig bad has happened. There are a few times of year when business and community leaders have very happy and shiny things to say about diversity and inclusion, but on the other 352 days, these issues are simply not among the talking points.
Omaha has a lot of things going for it. I really like Omaha and I believe in its potential, but it also has some serious work to do when it comes to diversity and inclusion…and we are not likely to change what we do not acknowledge.
So.
Help me try to figure this out.
How do you change a community conversation?
How do you change what a community pays attention to?
How do you contribute to a community examining what it values?
Thanks.
Be good to each other.
I came in contact with your LinkedIn profile via Chris Huertz.
I work for Desert Ministries and I too have been thinking about community and inclusion. For some reason I have not been able to escape the thoughts of the subjects lately, which in my opinion, are intersecting. What is real community lest it is inclusive?
Since I am a promoter of the institutionalized older adult you might be able to understand that, in our society, the constituency that I serve is a rather ‘uncool’ one. However, we keep doing what we are doing.
You asked the question about how to change values in a community.
This is a question Paul Falkowski, Executive Director at Desert Ministries, and I are always mulling over. It is not an easy one to answer. But I think the answer is painful and time-consuming: person by person.
Just keep doing what you are doing.
That answer really pissed me off when people say it to me, but looking at your profile man, it seems that you do a lot of speaking. I am sure that after those speaking opportunities you get the chance to talk to people one-on-one. I find that those opportunities are, well, the most ‘opportune’ of times to spread your gospel, to start to change the perceptions of those that may not be the most inclusive.
I guess you also continue to find people that think like you do as well, that speak similar language as you do and you help promote one another. Although we promote diversity and inclusion, the only way to do so is to promote those that promote diversity and inclusion. That seems sort of backwards because then we are supporting those that think like ourselves. However, we must seek to collaborate with those with similar vernacular.
Also, in the Desert Ministries gig, with the widow as our focal point, we have found that she must always remain our story. Therefore, personal stories about her become the most powerful thing to promote change within our community and within the world.
These are just some thoughts, but I love the fact that you are supporting diversity and inclusion.
Desert Ministries is in the process of putting all of its training materials into modules and then translating all of these modules into Spanish to include include those that can only speak Spanish. Interestingly enough, we have found that those that don’t speak Spanish are as great of companions to the elderly as those that speak the greatest of English. It only makes sense. Also, very soon, our entire website will be in Spanish as well.
Let’s meet sometime. I would love it. You have my email.
I would love to hear more about what you do.
Check us out at http://www.desertministries.org
In Service,
Andrew S. Dungan, MA
In the spirit of our recent communication – I would refer you to Pirsig: Ideas Kill Societies
If you are looking at a community or organization and want to contribute to it’s "diversity" and "inclusion" that indicates that you are either not a part of it, or on its fringes. That and your passion to change it make you an emeny (though it’s members will never admit it).
From that position, you have to come to terms that you may not live to see the fruits of your efforts (consider John Coltrane):
And finally a heads up from Pirsig – taken from a section about insanity:
On a personal note – my wife and I had made much continuous effort to connect with the society and communities in which we live (and have lived) – and we’ve given up. Our efforts are now at aimed at finding a home
Thank you both for reading and for your thoughtful posts on this topic, Andrew I would love to connect…am not able to track down an e-mail for you for some reason. If you have a minute, please send it to me at joe.gerstandt (at) gmail (dot) com. Ronen thanks again for pointing me to some great information, I finally had a chance to sit down and read "Ideas Kill Societies" …its been a while since I have read Pirsig and I think I need to re-visit one or two of his books. I love your site, full of really, really good stuff. thanks and good luck to you in your efforts to find home.
-joe