Politics

City hosts DEI workshops this week

By Lightning Reports, Published: July 16, 2023

The city of Hendersonville and its Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Committee will host a series of Community Connection Workshops this week as the city develops a strategic plan for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

The City Council and staff have been working with Ahkirah Legal & Diversity Consultants on the plan to improve community access to local government and continue their commitment to providing quality services to residents, customers and visitors.

Workshops in August will be a variety of external and internal employee workshops. Details of the August workshops will be announced when details are finalized. Here are the July 17-19 workshops:

• 5:30 p.m. Monday, July 17, City Hall 2nd Floor Meeting Room, co-sponsored with El Centro. THE DOUBLE-SIDED COIN OF IDENTITY: This workshop challenges participants to identify, analyze and advance their personal and public expressions of identity. The activity is meant to place participants in thought-provoking situations where they evaluate and select between personally-meaningful identifiers related to social perception, community expectation and autonomy.
• 4 p.m. Tuesday, July 18, Henderson County Chamber of Commerce | 204 Kanuga Road, co-sponsored with the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Hendersonville. THE BUSINESS OF IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION: This engaging and thought-provoking interactive workshop explores the concepts of message permeation, cultural perception and corporate identity. Participants will examine the complex and nuanced role of implicit association within foundational business processes
  and will be able to develop professional practices based upon proven critical/social reasoning.
• 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 19, Hendersonville YMCA, 810 6th Avenue W., co-sponsored with the Hendersonville YMCA. LET'S LEARN A LITTLE ABOUT DIVERSITY: This workshop will examine historical and contemporary issues related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, religion, culture and other dimensions of diversity from a local and regional perspective. This workshop will also analyze the causes and consequences of discrimination, oppression, and power dynamics within society. The workshop aims to develop participant's awareness, knowledge, skills, and attitudes to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion-based practices that hold meaningful significance to the Hendersonville community.
• 4 p.m. Wednesday, July 19, Henderson County Public Library, 301 N. Washington St., co-sponsored with Thrive. MY JOURNEY IS MY REALITY: This workshop requires participants to complete a seemingly ordinary series of activities where they are challenged to confront and critically evaluate their own prevailing principles related to personal bias, agency and perception. Participants will be tasked with identifying and scrutinizing fundamental beliefs of identity, membership and bias, while developing personal mechanisms and demonstrative tools to address types of unconscious biases (affinity bias, conformity bias, confirmation bias, attribution bias, etc.)
• 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 19, Hendersonville Police Department, 630 Ashe St., co-sponsored with the Hendersonville Police Department. WE ARE ALL PROTECTED. WE ARE ALL SERVED: This experiential workshop was developed to challenge fervently held beliefs, practices and messages associated with membership and belonging. The workshop elicits serious reflection and analysis on stereotype and prejudice, while beginning a conversation and deepening our capacity to understand how we live, how we learn, and how we relate to members of our Hendersonville community.