Naperville Park District plans diversity, equity and inclusion training for staff March 10

As an organization that serves a large and diverse community, the Naperville Park District is committed to fostering and maintaining an environment where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity. An important part of fulfilling this commitment is to educate staff about implicit biases and how to overcome them.

The park district will have Dr. Adrienne Coleman of Candid Conversations Matter conduct a training session for its employees on Wednesday, March 10.

The goal of the training will be to deepen staff's understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion and to foster an environment that values all backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.

The training exercises will help increase staff's awareness of privilege/fragility, systemic inequities and a lack of cultural competency and cultural humility, and how these aspects influence their interactions with others at the Park District and within the broader community.

"Being inclusive and fostering a friendly and accepting culture is an important part of who the Naperville Park District is as an organization," said Executive Director Ray McGury. "This training is essential to ensure that all of our staff understand and practice this expectation and I'm pleased that Dr. Coleman can help facilitate our learning in that regard.

"Since this is a mandatory training for staff district-wide, please note that service levels and response times for our customers may be impacted between 9 and 11 a.m. on March 10 while the training is taking place. We appreciate our participants' patience and understanding."