The Oak Brook Park District has had a busy year implementing several diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) related initiatives since they established a DEI committee last February — and in doing so, recently received a Champions for Change Award at the joint Illinois Association of Park Districts’ (IAPD) and Illinois Park and Recreation Association (IPRA) Soaring to New Heights Conference in Chicago.
The IPRA determines the standards and criteria for recognizing agencies with unique and exemplary practices of increasing access and fostering diversity and inclusion within their community or organization.
Marketing and communications manager for the Oak Brook Park District, Haley Colucci, said the team started the DEI committee in Feb. 2021, but had already started training staff around new initiatives since a team building day in Nov. 2020 where the discussions focused on diversity and inclusion.
Colucci said the Illinois Park and Recreation Association rolled out something called “safe zone conversations” to park districts statewide.
“The first one we had the opportunity to participate in was the safe zone conversation on racism. And that’s really where the wheels started turning,” Colucci said. “It was such a fruitful and educational discussion that after that day, we said, ‘hey what else can we do? how else can we learn and how else can we empower staff to obtain this knowledge?'”
Colucci said the staff also chose to participate in a safe zone conversation on LGBTQIA and Latinx using a ‘lunch and learn’ method in July, which was spearheaded by the DEI committee who presented talking points on sexual orientation, ethnicity, race and sexual identity.
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Throughout 2021, Colucci said the Park District wanted to create inclusive celebrations each month that put a spotlight on Oak Brook’s diverse, collective community. A few of those celebrations included Black History Month in Feb., Women’s History Month in March, autism awareness in April, pride month in June and cultural month in August.
Colucci worked with the DEI committee to showcase the diverse celebrations in the Park District’s marketing material and through various events like the monthlong virtual 50K for autism awareness.
Colucci added that it’s typical for organizations to take time to implement new efforts and initiatives, but the Oak Brook Park District was able to get the ball rolling almost immediately following the safe zone conversations.
“We were inspired and we just hit the ground running,” she said. “DEI is a topic of conversation for a lot of parks and recreation agencies right now, and we were able to talk among ourselves and share with others what we’ve done in our community and it seems to have sparked some inspiration in other park districts as well.”
Laure Kosey, Executive Director of the Oak Brook Park District, said in a news release that it’s each respective community’s responsibility to provide a diverse range of inclusive and equitable recreation opportunities to the communities they serve.
“When it comes to DEI, we understand this work is never truly finished. There is still much work to be done, and the Oak Brook Park District looks forward to the continuation of learning, listening, and acting. We are humbled by this recognition and we will keep moving onward with DEI as a top priority,” Kosey said in a statement.
If all goes as planned, Colucci said the Park District is working on hosting a job fair in mid-March that will be centered around diversity, equity and inclusion. No further details about the event were provided.
“Nobody is an expert in this subject and the work is never finished,” Colucci added. “We hope that we can learn from each other. “We’re really looking forward to continuing inclusive practices that make everyone feel welcome and safe in our parks and open lands.”