Telling the story of the Welcoming and Inclusive Communities Project

The Welcoming and Inclusive Communities Project collaborative team has worked together for over five years to engage rural Minnesota communities in an innovative cohort program to assess and strengthen diversity and inclusion efforts across sectors of their communities, from schools to law enforcement.The team engaged members of the first learning cohort in the design of a community readiness assessment process that measures levels of inclusion among different sectors in the community. Feedback from this assessment is then used to inform local action. The program team has employed Ripple Effects Mapping and follow-up interview techniques to document the community-level impacts of the program. A Ripple Effects Mapping evaluation of efforts in St. Peter, Minnesota, documented how relationships built originally in the program led to creation of a community equity coalition that has connected people across sectors to leverage resources and strengthen equity efforts in the community. REM participants described successes such as Somali community participation in the Fourth of July parade, community conversations about race and culture, deepened understanding of the cultural and linguistic heritage of new community members, such as Mayan immigrants, and engagement of college students in community-based learning projects that promote equity. Participants also described ongoing challenges with this work, such as working through a sense of apathy or even opposition to inclusion efforts among many members of the community.