by Cherie Duvall

Bluffton, Ind., may be the first city to join NLC?s Partnership for Building Inclusive Communities ? a program to promote equal opportunity and fairness in cities ? but the practice of inclusiveness is nothing new to this small town.

?When [NLC President James Hunt] announced the partnership [during his speech at the 2005 Congress of Cities], it struck a chord with me because we?ve been doing the same thing in our city starting about a year before,? said Bluffton Mayor Ted Ellis.

What?s surprising to many is that the onset of Ellis? stance on inclusiveness began with a piece of mail he received at his office.

A Letter Changes A Community
On a regular business day in early 2004, Ellis opened his mail as usual. To his surprise, one envelope contained a photocopy of a photograph from the local newspaper of the opening of a local Mom and Pop restaurant, but the piece of mail had a disturbing message written on it.

?The photocopy had a notation saying ?we don?t wear turbans in Bluffton? and ?we speak English,?? Ellis recalled. ?This was just evidence of some bigotry that you know exists.?

The new local business owner was a practitioner of Sikhism, a monotheistic religion founded in northern India that combines elements of Hinduism and Islam. The new resident of the town was a former professor at an American university. This opened Ellis? eyes that his city of less than 10,000 residents may not be as comprehensive as he thought.

Taking action, Ellis expressed the city?s need for a change. By that March, an initiative was born.

The Steps to Success
As a first step to building an inclusive community, Ellis assembled a committee to identify problems stemming from narrow-mindedness. The city put a call out to organizations for funding of the initiative and  the foundation of Eli Lilly and Co., an Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical corporation, came on board.

The committee?s first plan of attack was addressing an often-overlooked community ? the elderly. The group found that ?we can sometimes segregate people in their 70s and 80s because of lack of physical ability,? Ellis pointed out.

Focusing on this incapability to get around as easily as others, a public transportation system was formed, picking up elderly and disabled residents in wheelchair-accessible vans to take them where they need to go. To further this effort, the city has expanded its park services to include adult programs, such as health and wellness classes.

The committee has also taken steps to reach the growing Hispanic community. In a town with a population of 97.7 percent Caucasian residents, Bluffton city officials want to make sure all races are welcome.

?The city of Bluffton is offering Spanish courses this fall to residents who do not speak the language,? Ellis explained. ?The object of the eight-week, three-hour per week course, is to give as many residents as possible enough of a command of the language to make our Latino residents feel welcome and included.?

Utilizing NLC?s Resources
Since joining the inclusive communities partnership, the city has determined that introducing the idea of inclusiveness should start at a young age. According to Ellis, next fall, the city is going to bare down in the school system and make kids aware of inclusiveness issues.

To get the ball rolling, the diversity committee will put up the partnership?s standard sign reading: ?Welcome. We are building an inclusive community.? These signs will be displayed in front of schools at the beginning of the next school year as a daily reminder to students of what the city?s striving for.

Ellis noted that a person?s first experience with feeling left out can often occur while attending school. He believes that channeling these feelings of not being included are important in making a change.

?We begin to remind people that nearly everyone will remember a time when they were excluded, like not being picked for basketball, cheerleading or dodge ball. You remember how you felt,? he said.

Another City Follows Suit
As a former chair of NLC?s Advisory Council and former member of NLC?s First-Tier Suburbs Council, Lakewood, Colo., Mayor Steve Burkholder is no stranger to the inclusive communities partnership.

He said he was right there with NLC President Hunt, councilmember from Clarksburg, W.Va., as the idea was unfolding.

To Burkholder, this inclusive communities partnership has helped open his eyes that Lakewood, one of the largest suburbs of Denver, needs to ?take an audit on the city to see how inclusive we really are.?

He made that clear when delivering Lakewood?s first-ever state of the city address on April 18.

?We are and want to be a community that includes the participation of everyone,? he said during the speech. ?The city council wanted to express how much it values this, so we recently passed a proclamation declaring its commitment to making the community an inclusive one. Along with this symbolic move, we have taken steps to measure whether we are a community open to all.?

To do so, Lakewood has established the Commission on Cultural Diversity and Human Relations to review how well the city is promoting equal opportunity, fairness, citizen participation and engagement. The commission will report its findings to the city council by the end of the year.

But, the town of more than 144,000 residents has already taken steps to build inclusiveness. Like in Bluffton, the commission is currently working on a project to make its growing Hispanic population feel appreciated and to build the Latino community?s knowledge that, like all residents, they too have a voice in the city.

Burkholder believes that, as the mayor, it?s his job to not just talk about programs that will help strengthen the community?s knowledge that all are welcome. It?s his job to initiate seeking out the problems that are hindering his city?s inclusiveness and take action. 

?Building inclusiveness requires we as elected officials to walk the talk,? he stated. ?It?s important to use this [partnership] as a self-assessment of your community.?

Details: For more information on the partnership, to see a list of members or to download the program?s tool kit, go to the Partnership For Working Toward Inclusive Communities link on NLC?s home page at www.nlc.org.