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Prepared by: Regina Zaragoza Frey, DEI Director Last revised: 6/2023 CITY OF SALEM 93 WASHINGTON STREET SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 01970 City of Salem: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion The City of Salem strives to proactively address and dismantle systemic barriers that perpetuate inequity in society. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are structures that allow us to challenge these barriers. The City of Salem is committed to: - Providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment, whether sexual or otherwise. - Fostering respectful, positive, and productive dialogue - in the workplace and in the community – between individuals of diverse viewpoints. - Creating a sense of belonging for the community we serve and for City staff. - Celebrating the diversity and variety of cultures, identities, languages, and experiences within our City and of our employees. - Ensuring all individuals are treated with respect and dignity. - Acting ethically and with integrity with all whom we interact. - Promoting inclusion in our work. - Advancing equity initiatives. We recognize that these commitments require continued education, accountability, and dialogue. Therefore, we honor this commitment by: - Striving intentionally and pro-actively to ensure the City’s workforce reflects the identities of the community we serve through recruitment efforts and the retention of a diverse workforce. We recognize that lack of diversity results in missing perspectives and opportunities for positive change and growth in the City. This effort extends to government officials, City volunteers, and City vendors, contractors, and affiliates. - Fostering inclusive and intentional dialogue between government/public entities and the community. - Providing opportunities for including, in a meaningful way, community members in the decision-making process for matters that impact them and amplifying underrepresented voices in those processes. - Providing responsive, dignified, and accessible services to all. - Listening to feedback from the community, City of Salem employees, and other City stakeholders and continuing to revise the City’s policies through an equity lens on an ongoing, as-needed basis. ---PAGE BREAK--- - Continuing the work of the City of Salem’s Race Equity Action Plan. Throughout 2021, the City of Salem’s Race and Equity Task Force created the Race Equity Action Plan for the City of Salem. Stakeholders included members of the City Council and School Committee, our state legislative delegation, several students and youth, and members of the Salem community. The Task Force participated in frequent meetings to identify areas of racial equity gaps within the City and created a report sharing the findings and identifying recommendations in five main areas: community culture, economics, education, health, and public safety. - Establishing a Race Equity Commission to continue the work of the Race Equity Task Force and hold the City accountable and current on matters of race equity in the City. - Amplifying underrepresented voices; particularly Black, Latinx, and Indigenous voices. - Promoting a culture of belonging between City staff and the community, so that more people feel safe voicing disagreement with the status quo and engaging in dialogue. - Being willing to take accountability for mistakes and being self-reflective and accountable for our words and actions. - Engaging in educational opportunities and opportunities for dialogue relating to matters of DEI. - Reducing unconscious/unexamined biases prevalent in government entities through education and training. - Delivering on promises to create positive and necessary change. For the City of Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo