LYNNWOOD — A large portion of people in Lynnwood today are those with diverse backgrounds.
Knowing that, the city’s Diversity Task Force has created a survey that will be mailed in resident utility bills Oct. 10. (The survey also can be found within this edition of the Enterprise, SEE SURVEY on this website).
This survey, according to the task force Chairwoman Pam Graham, will hopefully present a forum for people to better understand what needs to be done to improve everyone’s knowledge about Lynnwood’s diverse population.
“Overall the idea is to get community input from people who are affected by diversity— which means everybody,” said Graham, who is also the program coordinator for the Family Support Center which serves South Snohomish County.
“We need to recognize we’re all affected by issues of diversity,” she said. “the diversity of the Lynnwood population isn’t reflected in its community leaders,” she said, meaning those in positions of city government, business/non-profit owners, public safety, teachers and more.
Graham said some positive effects diversity has on people are that “they’re enriched by different experiences and different ways of doing things and meeting people who are different from them.”
Some negative effects some might have from diversity in their communities are: “Not understanding and being fearful, there are people with negative diversity experiences who bring them into their present dealings with others.”
This happens on both sides of the fence, she said.
Because Lynnwood has grown to be quite a melting pot it was one of two cities chosen a couple of years ago by the Association of Washington Cities to promote racial justice and to be a pilot program for the state. Omak is the other city chosen for the pilot program.
From that, Lynnwood formed the Diversity Task Force which meets monthly and discusses ways to cross fine lines and get more of the diverse population involved in city government and community while at the same time answering questions for those who might be fearful of the unstoppable changes in the community.
Lynnwood Mayor Mike McKinnon has said that the diversity and the fast changes in the Lynnwood population have been a priority for him and is anxious to get the surveys back to see how the city can better serve the different communities within the city.
“We want to end up where in the city of Lynnwood everyone feels comfortable and welcome to be part of the community and everyone can choose their own level of participation and being as active as they want and improving our city,” McKinnon said.
Lynnwood’s human resources director Robin Hall is the staff person to the task force.
“This is going to provide the diversity task force some good information from the public and they will use this information to help them reach their goal of diversifying local leadership and building a since of community,” Hall said.
The survey isn’t costing the city anything, other than some staff time, Hall said and “the committee will be doing the bulk of the work anyway. The task force is committed in working on the project and are very enthusiastic about learning more about the community.
The task force wants all the survey back by the end of November and they hope to have them summarized by the end of the years and will present their findings to the City Council and public at the beginning of 2004.
The survey will be available in five different languages, English, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Spanish and Korean. Along with the general public, the task force hopes members of these diverse communities and others will bring the survey within their communities and then return them. Graham said the surveys will also be circulated at Meadowdale and Lynnwood High schools through the schools’ student diversity teams.
“We’re going to present it back to the community so they can see what their neighbors think about it and hopefully then people will take action to be more inclusive,” Graham said. “We hope those people will see this as an opportunity to get involved and share their experiences with others.”
The Lynnwood Diversity Task Force’s monthly meetings are from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month.
For more information about the survey or the task force call Robin Hall at 425-775-1971.
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