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CORRIDOR
Rebooting diversity
Reporter: Tim Kenyon
tim@corridorbiznews.com
Diversity Focus is prepared for a year of expansion.
The organization, founded in 2005 to enhance diversity in the region by several major Corridor employers, recently hired two professional staff members and will soon move into a permanent downtown Cedar Rapids location just around the corner from its pre-flood home.
Executive Director Hazel Pegues said the community will benefit from the organization’s expansion through increased workforce diversity.
“It creates strategic economic opportunity for the Corridor,” Ms. Pegues said. “Future workforce demands will require a different pool of people than the baby boomers who are starting to retire.”
Diversity Focus Board President Robert Becker said the organization must take on the tough job of making environmental changes to advance the inclusive attitudes of Corridor residents.
“These are big issues. For a small group it’s a big task. There are a lot of rewards to be had and that’s what I find interesting and other sponsors feel as empowering,” said Mr. Becker, Guaranty Bank president and CEO. “We’re not just putting on a show here. This is a challenging endeavor where people get involved and learn what cultural diversity is about and people get excited to learn something new.”
New staff
Valerie Nyberg will lead program development, while Paula Kula will serve as executive assistant. Both will start Dec. 1.
Ms. Pegues said she looks forward to the professional staffing boost that will help her reduce a workload that has led to 18-hour days and provide her more time to focus on strategic executive leadership of the organization.
Much of her first five-plus months on the job focused on keeping programs operational in a frequently moving office. Ms. Pegues was en route from her former home in Cincinnati when the June flood hit that destroyed the organization’s furniture, equipment and most of its records.
Diversity Focus relocated initially to LaSalle Middle School. A few weeks later, it went to her hotel lobby for a week. In early August, it moved again to an office on the Rockwell Collins campus in Northeast Cedar Rapids. After several weeks there, the organization moved to its final temporary quarters – the second floor of the Dows Building in downtown.
By late December or early January, Diversity Focus will move to the ground level of the building at 210 Second St. SE. The new spot will feature double the space of the organization’s original location on the west side of the building at 205 Second Ave. SE, she said.
The office design will be more user-friendly as a large public area with computers and other resources will greet visitors as they enter. The space will also include staff offices and a board room. The extra space will allow use for some smaller program activities.
Finding a place so close to the old office and the most recent temporary space provides continuity and proximity important to a still fairly new nonprofit organization, Ms. Pegues said.
Program analysis
She expects initial results from a cultural climate study by Vernon Research Group soon. Ms. Pegues said the report, which examines the ability of Diversity Focus to affect change, is well timed. “I’m very anxious to see it as we will use it as a benchmark for the next year or two from now,” she said. “Moving the needle will be exciting and important in setting our direction.”
The study surveyed 600 participants split between Linn and Johnson counties.
“It will give us a good idea about the attitude of diversity and inclusion,” Ms. Pegues said.
Several of the organizations programs will soon be enhanced, she said.
The “Crash” dialogue program, which involves viewing and discussing the film about race relations in Los Angeles, will be expanded. New facilitators will be trained and the number of sites will be expanded with the hope of attracting more participants.
“We’ve received major kudos for the ‘Crash’ program,” Ms. Pegues said.
In addition, Diversity Focus plans to:
— Recruit more leaders for the Spanish conversation circles to increase site options and meeting frequency.
— Engage trained facilitators to instruct others in the cultural competency program.
— Recruit leaders for brown bag discussions to increase frequency, location and time-of-day options.
— Develop a speakers bureau (possibly from cultural competency trainers), an older adults program and primary and secondary student programs.
Ms. Pegues also wants the organization’s professional leadership conference revamped to become “a quarterly economic case for diversity national speaker series” that ends in an annual celebration event.
Diversity Focus’s web site will soon show off a major makeover.
The redesign will be unveiled in late January or in February, Ms. Pegues said.
Adding more flexibility so “quick fixes and constant changes” can be made easily is a primary redesign goal, she said.
On a related matter, the organization will strengthen public relations strategies. For example, more e-mail chains may be used to increase activity awareness rather than rely on newspaper calendar listings, Ms. Pegues said.
Mr. Becker said the multi-prong approach is essential to reach more people effectively.
Ms. Pegues added it is critical to reach business and other organizational leaders at high levels to encourage diversity. That can set an example beyond the Corridor.
“We can be an incubator model for other communities,” Ms. Pegues said. CBJ
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