S.L. starts dialogue series to battle bias

Salt Lake City has a waiting ear for its residents.

Thursday at the City-County Building, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker and Councilwoman Jill Remington Love introduced a new dialogue series that will attempt to provide a forum in which the city can begin addressing discrimination.

"Salt Lake is a subdivision in the state of Utah," Becker said. "And as a residence we have an obligation to protect the human rights of everyone in the community."

To discover the ways discrimination is impacting residents, the Office of Diversity and Human Rights will be hosting another five dialogues in the coming weeks. Through the conversations shared at these events, the mayor's office is hoping to encourage community involvement to help in development of public policies.

At the first event on Thursday attendees expressed thanks to the city for listening and asking to hear their stories. Questions posed to panel members included topics such as poverty, community involvement and the need for diverse education in public schools.

"The outcome of these conversations is contingent on the voices that come together to share," said Betty Sawyer, the African-American education coordinator at the University of Utah. "The city can't own the outcome of these dialogues, it has to be a collective effort. People need the passion to participate to see these succeed."

At the event, the results from a survey conducted by the mayor's office were released to the public. The survey questioned respondents on their feelings toward diversity and human rights in the workplace and community. A total of 523 Salt Lake residents responded.

The highest agreement among respondents was found in feelings that the city is welcoming to all people during events hosted in the city. The lowest agreement for respondents resided in the belief that Salt Lakers are educated in cultural and religious norms.

Yolanda Francisco-Nez, coordinator for the Office of Diversity and Human Rights, said the aim of the dialogues is to draw on the common themes in discussions, data and research to educate the community and government.

The dialogues are intended to be a safe and confidential setting where people can express their experiences and questions with others. Francisco-Nez said it is vital to hear the stories because the city cannot help if it doesn't know there is a problem.

The topic of the next dialogue will be classism and poverty. For more information call 801-535-7734 or visit www.slcgov.com/mayor/divHR/.

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E-mail: cnorlen@desnews.com