Community Action to Face and Respond to Social Injustice

Background & Purpose: The Diversity & Inclusion for Community Empowerment (DICE) and Bridgewater Communities for Civil Rights (BCCR) held a community listening initiative after mounting experiences of discrimination and injustice within two local communities—Bridgewater and Raynham—involving police, schools, and businesses. In an attempt to create a more equitable and inclusive community, survey data from a sample of diverse residents was collected to understand the impacts of this discrimination. We hope to foster a larger effort to promote awareness and support residents’ experiences of incidents of discrimination to influence policy change.

Purpose: Encourage respondents to share their own experiences about witnessing and/or being subjected to identity-based discrimination due to race/ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, disability, mental health and sizism. The respondents’ stories were shared with town leaders in a community listening session in order to (1) to empower those who have experienced and/or witnessed discrimination and (2) promote communication with those in positions of authority to motivate policy and procedure change.

Methods: An anonymous survey was posted on the DICE Facebook page and sent out to members of the community who are on the DICE/BCCR email lists. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from this survey (n=138), which had the following research questions:

• On a scale of 1 to 10, how inclusive regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identification, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, disability, mental health and sizism do you find the community?
• Have you ever experienced or witnessed identity-based mistreatment based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender identification, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, disability, mental health and sizism in the community?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with town and school officials on addressing diversity and inclusion?
• Do you feel informed regarding school and town processes/procedures for issues of discrimination?

Findings: The majority [70%] of participants regardless of race, gender or age experienced or witnessed identity-based mistreatment in the Bridgewater-Raynham community. Over 70% of participants are not satisfied with how the town and school officials are addressing the topic of diversity and inclusion. About 15% feel informed regarding school and town processes/procedures for issues of discrimination, while 24% are neutral and 61% uninformed. Overall, participants by race, gender, and age rated 5 out of 10 regarding the inclusivity of the Bridgewater-Raynham community [1= not inclusive; 10= extremely inclusive].

Conclusions & Implications: Through this community action, we ask that town and school leaders formally acknowledge racial and social injustices occurring in the community and its impact on the lives of residents. We ask to: (1) enact specific measures, policies and laws to demonstrate accountability and key performance indicators (KPIs) of progress on diversity, equity and inclusion to resident stakeholders; (2) implement and measure anti-biased community policing reforms aligned with the Massachusetts Police Accountability Bill; (3) for towns and school districts’ websites to provide residents with rules and laws, procedures for reporting, and contacts for addressing diversity, equity, inclusion regarding racial and social injustice mistreatments; and (4) conduct a third-party annual equity audit to evaluate policies, procedures and progress.