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A WGVU initiative in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation using on-air programs and community events to explore issues of inclusion and equity.

Kent County CIC celebrates 15 years

www.michiganlcv.org

Kent County is celebrating 15 years of what it calls Intentional Diversity & Inclusion Efforts. We take a look at the mission and areas the county will address in the coming years.

In the year 2000, Commissioners set out to make the county workplace more inclusive and diverse. It formed the Cultural Insight Council outlining a plan focusing on three areas.

First, the county would make “a significant effort to ensure that its employment and purchasing practices were open, competitive and offered equal opportunity. It would continue “a commitment and steady increase in the number of minorities represented in its workforce.” Finally, it “recognized there was room for improvement.”

The idea is simple, reflect the community served. Fifteen years later, the CIC and Kent County departments continue the push expanding inclusion efforts. These are the areas it says will be addressed next:

  • Engage in strategic planning around diversity, inclusion and equity;
  • Work to increase leadership engagement in diversity, inclusion and equity work
  • Promote greater awareness around racial, gender, and LGBTQ equity within the organization;
  • Act proactively in partnership with Kent County’s justice and legal systems in an effort to avoid any form of tension within the diverse communities that it serves.
Patrick joined WGVU Public Media in December, 2008 after eight years of investigative reporting at Grand Rapids' WOOD-TV8 and three years at WYTV News Channel 33 in Youngstown, Ohio. As News and Public Affairs Director, Patrick manages our daily radio news operation and public interest television programming. An award-winning reporter, Patrick has won multiple Michigan Associated Press Best Reporter/Anchor awards and is a three-time Academy of Television Arts & Sciences EMMY Award winner with 14 nominations.