December 2015 - Parks & Recreation - 41

conversations about race, operationalize new behaviors and policies, and
organize to achieve racial equity.
Bossen Field: A Racial
Equity Pilot Project
Bossen Field, which serves as a citywide athletic facility and neighborhood
park on the south edge of Minneapolis,
is a 37-acre park with 10 softball/baseball fields, one soccer/football field, a
basketball court, two play areas, a wading pool, and parking lots.
In the past two decades, the neighborhood immediately surrounding
Bossen has seen significant increase
in racial and ethnic diversity with
growing populations of Hispanic, African-American and new African immigrants. It also has higher numbers
of children than much of Minneapolis. One side of the park is bordered by
high-density apartment buildings with
primarily Spanish-speaking residents.
As one of the only athletic field
complexes in the city, the park is heavily used by adult athletic teams who
travel from other parts of the city and
nearby suburbs that may not share the
demographics of the neighborhood.
In talking with neighborhood groups,
Minneapolis Park and Recreation
staff heard that many neighbors didn't
feel welcome in the park and felt that
it is only available for use by athletic
leagues. Local residents playing pickup soccer games reported the experience of being " kicked out " when softball players would arrive and explain
that they had reserved the field.
In developing a master plan for
the park, the Minneapolis Park and
Recreation Board (MPRB) was faced
with decisions about how to serve
multiple constituencies with different, and sometimes conflicting, interests. Staff and leadership saw the
opportunity to pilot the use of racial

equity tools in the development of
this master plan. More importantly,
they saw the missed opportunity to
meet the needs of the community if
equity was not considered.
The MPRB started by training the
project team staff in racial equity concepts and the use of a racial equity toolkit in decision making. The staff team
knew that inclusive community engagement would be critical to the success of
this project, so staff utilized different
outreach and engagement methods to
reach different user groups. Online surveys and public meetings were mostly
used by athletic league participants,
while neighborhood residents were
contacted through outreach events at
area churches and schools, door-knocking with bilingual Spanish- or Somali-speaking staff, working closely with
key neighborhood residents, and paper
surveys in multiple languages.
Through this engagement, staff
learned that there were areas of common interest between athletic leagues
and neighborhood residents: the softball
teams didn't like kicking neighborhood
kids off of the fields any more than the
kids enjoy getting kicked off, and both
groups wanted picnic facilities, more
walking paths through the park, and
improved parking facilities to minimize
parking on neighborhood streets.
As a result, the master plan addressed parking, pathways and picnic
areas and also placed open, flexible
field space for soccer games in close
proximity to the high-density housing.
This inclusive process demonstrated
the power of integrating racial equity
into an important process, resulting in
a strengthened proposal that will better
meet the needs of both the surrounding
neighbors and region-wide users.
What Have We Learned?
Normalizing conversations

about

race is the only way to develop effective strategies for racial equity. One of
the biggest challenges is the general
discomfort many people experience in
talking about race. This is a critical hurdle to get over. Avoiding conversations
about race means there is a greater likelihood that organizations will not develop appropriate strategies to address
institutional and structural racism.
Behavior drives attitude. Sometimes we think that attitude drives
behavior - we want people to " understand " racism and expect that behavioral changes will follow. In reality,
the opposite is true: changing behavior changes understanding. Giving
employees a common understanding
of racial equity terminology and tools
to use to do their jobs differently leads
to an increased understanding of institutional and structural racism.
Equity is a process. It takes continual learning and practice to embed racial equity into your organization. Equity cannot be relegated to a
checkbox or an additional step to an
existing process. Instead, it is a shift
in the way our agencies do business.
You don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Numerous organizations have already
started this journey and have developed language, tools and resources.
One of the organizations leading this
charge is the Government Alliance on
Race and Equity (GARE), a national network of governments working
to achieve racial equity. Check out
GARE's resources, including its Racial Equity Toolkit at http://racialequityalliance.org/2015/10/30/racial-equity-toolkit.
Michelle Kellogg is the Equity and Inclusion
Project Manager for the Minneapolis Park
and Recreation Board (mkellogg@
minneapolisparks.org). Julie Nelson is the
Director of the Government Alliance on Race
and Equity (nelson@thecsi.org).

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