Vision 2020 +

Assisting the Community in Bridging Diversity
Executive Summary

Officials of Cache and Franklin county governments (Counties) and the Cache County Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) are in a key position to encourage and facilitate community bridging. They cannot force bridging, but they can be sensitive to the need for community inclusiveness and provide appropriate stimuli and resources that encourage individuals and groups to become both better informed about and responsive to diversity.

Bridges for religious differences

Cache Valley is the home of several dozen distinct religious communities. There exists a measure of misinformation and mistrust within each faith community concerning the beliefs and practices of the others, and there is a tendency to develop social boundaries on the basis of denominational membership.

Cache Community Connections (CCC) has become a positive force for breaking down social and religious barriers. Counties and Chamber should rely heavily upon that organization in accomplishing the following objectives:

#1 Counties and Chamber leaders will become knowledgeable of and attentive to the affairs of CCC. To do this, they will assign representatives to attend monthly CCC meetings and to keep other Counties and Chamber leaders apprised of ongoing CCC objectives and activities. Or, as an alternative, Counties and Chamber will arrange to receive monthly reports at public meetings by members of the CCC’s leadership.

#2 Counties and Chamber will assist CCC in its efforts to become more visible to the community. To accomplish this, Counties and Chamber may wish to encourage leaders of each faith community to be represented through membership in CCC.

#3 As ignorance breeds bigotry and knowledge bonds communities, Counties and Chamber will work to ensure appropriate faith related public education. To accomplish this, Counties and Chamber will encourage and support CCC in its negotiations with the local media (radio, television and newspaper) for an ongoing series of faith related programs and articles.

Bridges for cultural differences

“Culture” refers to ethnicity, countries of origin, differences in language, society specific behaviors, and so forth. It is assumed that language alone does not define a single culture. People within the Valley’s largest “minority” group are normally referred to as Hispanics or Latinos. There has been a dramatic increase in the numbers of individuals coming from Spanish speaking countries, primarily from Mexico and South America. As a group, they have come for the same reasons that others have immigrated to the Valley—to provide for themselves and their loved ones a better quality of life. A number of organizations have come into being in response to the particular needs of individuals immigrating from other cultures (e.g., the Hispanic Center of Cache Valley and the English Learning Center). Cultural diversity has become an important issue upon which Utah State University and a number of local businesses focus. Counties and Chamber are in a position to facilitate the integration of these newly arrived individuals and families by focusing upon the following objectives:

#1 Individuals and families, newly arriving to Cache Valley, will be formally assisted in learning how to begin to establish their new lives in their new county. To accomplish this, Counties will arrange for, with the assistance of Chamber and/or other appropriate organizations, a way to welcome each newly arrived individual and/or family and provide them an information packet and other resources designed to facilitate their initial integration into the fabric of the community.

#2 Insure that mechanisms exist to assist newly arrived immigrants to be fully aware of local news and issues during their initial efforts to learn, when communication via. English is most difficult. To do this, Counties and Chamber will arrange for, directly or indirectly, an ongoing Spanish radio program and/or columns or inserts in the local newspaper with information that is designed to assist Hispanic/Latino residents become increasingly assimilated into the larger community.

#3 Appoint carefully selected Hispanic/Latino representatives to committees, advisory groups, and oversight teams at all levels of county and city government. To accomplish this, Counties and Chamber will seek the advice of programs currently assisting newly arrived immigrants regarding potential appointees. Organizations such as the English Learning Center, Deseret Industries, diversity oriented programs at Utah State University, etc. would be excellent sources of nominations.

Bridges for those with physical, emotional and other challenges.

There are several thousand individuals in the Valley who daily face special challenges. Some are limited by physical restrictions of movement, reduced vision or hearing, mental illnesses, learning disabilities, and so forth. There are things that only Counties and cities can do to insure that challenged individuals are more fully integrated into the larger community. The following objectives represent beginning points.

#1 Enhance mobility of individuals using crutches and wheelchairs, as well as individuals with visual impairments, by insuring that sidewalks and other passageways are plowed during the winter season and uncluttered with bicycles and other objects, unblocked by cars parked across sidewalks, and that only authorized autos are parked in handicap stalls. To accomplish this, Counties and Chamber will take steps to insure that the public is continually advised of the regulations pertaining to maintenance of sidewalks and other passageways, the use and misuse of handicap parking stalls, etc. Also, Counties will initiate more aggressive enforcement of those regulations.

#2 Insure that individuals, due to unique physical, emotional, and intellectual challenges, will not be disadvantaged during emergencies such as earthquakes and floods. To accomplish this, Counties and Chamber leaders will take steps to guarantee that local emergency preparedness programs include consideration of the unique needs of individuals who are physically and intellectually challenged.

#3 Insure that individuals with unique physical, emotional and intellectual challenges are adequately represented on boards, committees and oversight groups dealing with issues directly related to their needs. To accomplish this, Counties and Chamber leaders will take steps to insure that citizen advisory committees and boards include individuals who are able to represent the unique needs of challenged individuals in the Valley.

#4 Arrange for increased public education regarding the nature, treatment and conditions of physical, emotional and intellectual challenges. To accomplish this, representatives of the various helping organizations and agencies will be encouraged by Counties and Chamber to negotiate with the local media (radio, television and newspaper) an ongoing series of challenge related programs and articles.

Leadership structure

The Cache Vision 2020 process will result in numerous recommendations, and Counties and Chamber could find the task of implementation overwhelming. The potential for frustration and failure will be great, unless the workload is delegated and distributed rather widely. A detailed leadership structure is outlined in the expanded report.

End note:

The above recommended media offerings are based upon the premise that an informed public will engage in bridging activities much more readily and wholeheartedly than a public acting upon misinformation and bias. There need not be distinct media presentations for each of the diversity groupings, with the possible exception of religious diversity. That is, a single series of newspaper columns and radio programs would suffice to deal with the issues that need to be brought before the general public. Coordination between individuals preparing columns and programs in English and Spanish should be encouraged.

Submitted by the Cache 2020+ Bridging Diversity Sub-committee

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