PBN Diversity Equity & Inclusion 2024 Awards
GOVERNMENT: City of Pawtucket
RAPIDLY GROWING as a multicultural modern city, Pawtucket prides itself on expanding its services and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging initiatives for residents and workers alike.
“We have the most diverse population of directors and employees that we’ve ever had,” said Charles “Chachi” Carvalho, who was hired last year as the city’s inaugural chief diversity officer. “We have a lot of women directors, folks from different countries, and, at last, our city, as a municipality, is starting to look [like] more of a reflection of our community.”
The city is an equal opportunity employer, meaning that it treats all employees and applicants fairly. This applies to all employment decisions, including hiring, firing, promotions, training, wages and benefits, breaks, leave and workstation assignments.
Having a workforce of public servants who resemble the community they serve, Carvalho said, is extremely important and “representation matters.
“I work in this capacity to serve my community, but mainly so I can be a reflection to the kids who see me within this space,” he said. “That way, they can see that there is space for them in city government.”
Matching Pawtucket’s population with its workforce is even more important in the public safety field, Carvalho said. The city has started to involve its fire and police departments in education settings to build steady recruitment pipelines.
Carvalho says the city has its fire department partner with city schools and the career and technical education program to offer a plan that specifically starts training students at William E. Tolman High School who are on track to become firefighters. As he grows in his current role, Carvalho says he wants his goals to align with the broader DEI initiatives in the state, as well as those in neighboring Providence.
“Some of the work that I’ve been doing has been inspired by work that’s happening around the state,” Carvalho said. “Collectively, we’re going to be better together, especially when it comes to DEI work; we are looking to level up.”
Part of that “level-up” includes holding events where residents and leaders can learn about the common language in diverse spaces. Another event tackled how Pawtucket’s DEI work is being done both at a local and global level.
“[It’s about] seeing where we fit into the bigger picture, providing some historical context with the nation’s history on slavery, racism, segregation and how this has impacted Rhode Island and Pawtucket,” Carvalho said. “The next one is about more … creating shared strategies to build sustainable DEI initiatives across the city and across departments by working together.”
The feedback from employees has been extremely positive, Carvalho said. To measure internal communication and engagement, the city uses tools such as Asana, a web and mobile work management platform designed to help teams organize, track and manage their work. Externally, the city has an open-door policy used to field concerns from constituents in person, over the phone and via email, or even through social media.
Part of a significant push by the city to improve constituent services involves offering assistance in different languages.
“We have a brand-new website that, before we even launched it, we wanted to make sure it was not only compliant with the [federal] Americans with Disabilities Act, but also that it had Spanish and Portuguese translations,” said Grace Voll, the city’s director of communications. “All of our social media posts, whether it’s a flyer or a caption, we’ve required the staff here to make sure that it is translated and properly translated, just as sort of a best practice.”
Pawtucket has also started issuing Impact awards on Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month to celebrate the contributions of community leaders.
“I would say those are some of our best attended events,” Voll said. “We’re making sure that we’re doing flag raisings for as many different countries and cultures as possible. We’re all very close-knit as a community, so we understand our constituents and I think that’s really important.”
