94 Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofi t Organizations
population. The executive staff and managers were required to at-
tend a racism training workshop for two-and-a - half days in order
to create a common language and lay the foundation for the agency ’ s
antiracism organizational plan. At the workshop, the participants learned
that structural racism refers to practices, policies, procedures, and the
social culture of institutions.
The agency addressed structural racism, with workshops carried out
by outside trainers. Its goals were to attract a multicultural staff and better
serve its broad array of multicultural clients, but the demographically di-
verse workforce brought fresh new perspectives as well. They were able to
pursue and maintain cases that the all - white staff had not been able to, such
as outreach to the community ’ s natural support systems that the white
staff might not have thought relevant or because their link to clinical
treatment was not obvious to them. They learned that leaders, managers,
and supervisors need training to become adept at identifying, analyzing, and
nurturing culturally based skills, beliefs, and practices to learn from them
and make others aware. The goal was to integrate those skills into the core
of the organization ’ s culture to implement systemic and institutional change
to affect the agency ’ s practice.
In Florida, the city of Clearwater, the YWCA of Tampa Bay, the U.S.
Attorney ’ s Offi ce for the Middle District of Florida, the Bureau of Justice
Assistance, the U.S. Department of Justice Executive Offi ce for Weed
and Seed, the Regional Community Policing Institute at St. Petersburg
Junior College, the Regional Community Policing Institute, the Allegany
Franciscan Foundation, the Pinellas County Schools Adult Education
Center, the local community and the Mexican government, have collabo-
rated to manage diversity in the community and in its public and nonprofi t
agencies. In the late 1990s, the non – English - speaking Hispanic community
in Clearwater grew to about 15 percent of the city ’ s population, but there
were only 5 bilingual police offi cers on its 250 - offi cer force. The city dis-
covered that young, mostly Hispanic males seemed to fear the police.
They would not cooperate with investigations, and other crime problems
were not being reported within the Mexican community.
In 1999, the city created the Hispanic Task Force made up of repre-
sentatives from city departments that deal directly with the public. In 2000,
a police offi cer was appointed to the new position of Hispanic outreach
offi cer to act as a liaison among the police department, the community,
and the city government. Members of the task force traveled to Hidalgo,
Mexico, to study the cultural differences between the two places. The city
then held public forums and asked the Hispanic community to tell them