Diversity & Inclusion in Berwyn

A word from the BDC on Diversity & Inclusion in Berwyn.

The Berwyn Development Corporation has never simply been about economic development, marketing, or business relationships. We are, at our core, a community organization. Since the BDC’s inception, we have grappled with how best to communicate our community’s values. Berwyn is a place that celebrates its diversity. Since the launch of the WhyBerwyn? marketing campaign over 10 years ago, we have highlighted our openness and tolerance for members of diverse communities – be it our Latinx neighbors, LGBTQIA+ residents, or our budding artists. We recognized that priorities, like our community, change over time. This is why we work diligently each year to listen to resident feedback and adjust our campaign messaging. One of the best ways we know how to measure the community’s values is by simply asking. This is why we launched the Community Survey in the summer of 2019 with three main goals: (1) engage the community; (2) gather information; and (3) identify steps that the City can take towards addressing priority areas. From this survey, the community identified diversity and inclusion as both a success and an opportunity. Survey results led to the scheduling of a Community Strategic Planning Session; BDC staff went to great lengths to ensure participants accurately reflected the diversity within the community. From this process, we drafted a Community Strategic Plan (available on our website) and identified 10 action items to specifically address our deficiencies with diversity and inclusion. We value investments in our community and have dedicated philanthropic dollars to a number of causes over the years. These include the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. mural project, the Berwyn Public Art Initiative, senior food service drive through, teen impact, and Youth Crossroads, Inc., among others. While these steps have been proactive, we recognize that the BDC has not done enough. In May of 2020, our country faced a reckoning on race relations that created a national dialogue. Berwyn was no exception. Since the protests, the BDC has taken steps to respond to and better address our own shortcomings. Our efforts since May have been largely driven by BDC staff suggestions and resident feedback. It’s important to listen, collaborate, and set a path forward that we can stand behind. This summer our staff worked diligently to rewrite and present a new mission statement we all felt proud standing behind. This newly accepted mission has continued to spur dialogue and action. We also began conducting quarterly diversity and inclusion training for all staff and semi-annually for our Board. We’ve identified the need to solidify loose partnerships with organizations that put in the long hours to support our minority-owned businesses. We published a “Diversely Owned” section on our website to provide resources to minority-owned businesses and to specifically list entrepreneurs that have self-identified as minority-owned. Not all businesses wish to go public about their self-identification and we respect that. In August we celebrated Black Business month, and in September-October we celebrated and highlighted Hispanic Heritage month, and Women in Small Business month in October. We accept that these visible actions are seen as symbolic, but we feel strongly in our core that these are just a few steps forward in a long road ahead. Perhaps the largest step we have taken to engage with the community on diversity in the past 4 months is a follow-up to our Community Survey. In September of 2020, we released the Diversity and Inclusion Survey to measure community sentiment on a more specific set of questions. We partnered with the national polling firm Polco on this survey for a number of reasons: Polco offered this particular survey free of charge, the survey was professional and standardized, and we knew the survey worked based on the feedback from other communities that had used it. We look forward to sharing the results of this survey with the community before the end of the year. Our hope is that the information gathered can assist in shaping our community’s programs and services moving forward. We will continue to accept feedback about our WhyBerwyn? Campaign, whether positive or negative. At the end of the day, this is a campaign that needs to be a true representation of who we are as a community. In the last two years, we have continued to shift the placement of the campaign to communities beyond the north side of Chicago. We need to allow all of Chicagoland the opportunity to see the assets that Berwyn holds, and the potential for new residents to contribute to our community. We’ve worked hard to highlight a better representation of our residents in the campaign. These individuals aren’t just a flashy marketing ploy; they are our neighbors. We see them for the unique character that they contribute to Berwyn, and we need to value them as such.

The BDC has taken many steps, both proactive and reactive, to address the challenges of diversity and inclusion in the community. Our work is not done. We hope you will join us in building a better, stronger, and more inclusive Berwyn. BDC’s Mission: To lead and promote those activities that support equitable economic growth for all community stakeholders in Berwyn. BDC’s Vision: We will endeavor to develop policies and procedures that all Berwyn residents and stakeholders can contribute to and benefit from economic opportunities. We seek to identify and address any barriers that minority-owned businesses face in attaining economic opportunities. As a result, the BDC has developed programs and partnerships with community organizations to specifically assist minority-owned businesses and will continue to expand on those as appropriate.

BPAI Installs BLM Mural in Berwyn

In light of our efforts we were excited about BPAI and the community to lobby for a BLM mural in Berwyn. The Berwyn Public Art Initiative held a series of Listening Session in collaboration with the City of Berwyn’s Office of the Mayor to gather feedback to guide the public art installation. Residents voiced their personal experiences, concerns, and hopes for the BLM mural installation. Private donations exclusively funded the project. Seventeen artists collaborated for two days to install a mural that inspires hope and the vision for a world built on love, justice, and equity. The mural, completed on October 4, 2020, can be viewed in the east side parking lot of City Hall, 6700 W. 26th St., Berwyn, IL.

Photo by Josel Tolentino