Access & Inclusion

• Great Rivers Greenway began a more formalized effort to our ability to understand and address inclusion in Spring 2016 by starting a series of trainings with our staff and board. We learned about the history of our region, redlining, restrictive covenants, segregation and implicit bias. We got more comfortable with being uncomfortable and started to establish a culture of discussing these topics, understanding terminology and working through the complexities of individual and systemic impacts.
• We formed a group of staff members, board members, partners and community members and hired a consultant to support us in auditing every single department and function of our operations, identify short and long term projects and document them in a plan, finished May 2019.

Mission Case

How This Work Helps Our Mission

• Build, promote and sustain greenways collaboratively with all community members in an equitable way, such that our process meets people where they are.
• Establish greenways as welcoming, inclusive common ground to enrich lives & bridge communities.
• Ensure tax funds are spent wisely to provide greenway access to all communities, regardless of local capacity.
• Develop greater diversity among staff as hiring allows to become more representative of the communities we serve & develop cultural capability with all staff to enhance our ability to connect.

Business Case

How This Work Helps Our Agency Long-Term

• Integrate inclusion throughout all projects to become a model for bridging communities to strengthen collaborations, facilitate processes & improve long-term sustainability.
• Develop greater diversity among staff as hiring allows & develop cultural capability with all staff to enhance creativity, gain insight & perspectives, enhance partnerships, improve problem solving & design projects that are better adapted to needs of the communities served.
• Develop staff abilities to apply the inclusion lens & tools to reduce risk & achieve directives more effectively & expeditiously.
• Broaden reach & engagement of the region’s taxpayers to deepen their appreciation for the greenway network & build ambassador, volunteer, voter & donor support.