The Healdsburg Tribune DIVERSITY MEETING TONIGHT EXPLORES

‘LAK ’ ECH’ INDIGENOUS INCLUDED IN DEI PLAN DEVELOPMENT

By Christian Kallen

The next stage of a city program to nurture and improve inclusion throughout the Healdsburg community takes place tonight, Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Healdsburg Community Center. The “encuentro” (gathering) will be the first of five such meetings in the next four months to help build the city’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) plan, due in mid-2023.

The topic tonight is “Indigenous Voices + in Lak'ech,” the last word being a term embraced by the city’s DEI plan management consultant, Acosta. Its meaning is roughly, “You are my other me,” or in Spanish, “U eres mi otro yo,” based on Mayan languages and philosophy. The introduction of this concept as a framework for equity development is key to Acosta’s methodology.

All five meetings fall into the category of Equity Encuentros that Acosta Latino Learning Partnership (ALLP) outlined in their revised timeline on Dec. 5, 2022. They follow five similar meetings last year that worked at identifying the various communities in Healdsburg. The assessment of that earlier phase was delivered to the City Council on Dec. 5.

The city embarked on the DEI path early in 2022 with equity consultant ALLP, in an effort to nurture and improve diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the Healdsburg community. The initiative was proposed by then-Mayor Ozzy Jimenez and then-Councilmember Skylaer Palacio, as the City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Equity, and approved by the City Council in February 2022.