Express Curiosity
Before running, one must learn to walk. Learning about the various people in a community is the first step toward creating a more welcoming environment. Curiosity doesn’t mean peppering others with preplanned questions for later review. Instead, it means embracing opportunities to learn more about a culture through insightful questions.
Often individuals feel uncomfortable acknowledging ignorance of an certain holiday, confusion about word usage or other issues. Ahmad El-khatib recommends asking casual clarifying questions is a great way to break the ice and set the groundwork for greater understanding and larger efforts later.
Commit to Learning
Ahmad advises learning also extends beyond the basics to full-scale efforts to identify opportunities for growth. Becoming more inclusive means doing the work to identify how others were excluded in the past, how they still feel underserved and what is working with current efforts to build a more diverse community. Doing this work may require acknowledging past personal failings. It’s also important to avoid making education on inclusion the sole responsibility of an underserved group in the community.
Advocate
After learning how various groups feel about current efforts for inclusion in the community, the true activist needs to take action. This may look like diversifying community organizations, blending organizations and developing new opportunities across a town or city for idea gathering, representation, educational opportunities and social sharing.
Support A Wide Range Of Businesses
Blended, thriving communities can only grow with the development of opportunities across racial, cultural and other lines, according to Ahmad El-khatib. One of the best ways to transform a community is with strong small businesses contributing to the local economy. Inclusion can be fostered through the increased highlighting of minority-owned and other businesses that would ordinarily be underserved through participation in a chamber of commerce or other business groups. Promotional efforts can include everything from word-of-mouth to social media shares to coordinated shopping events in the community.
Create Inclusive Events
Diverse community events create a dynamic environment for different cultures or backgrounds to meet due to a common interest and can lead to new opportunities for learning and sharing information. Inclusive events can be a variation on traditional themes, such as turning more exclusive activities into seasonal get togethers that are not married to a particular religion or culture. Casual sporting events, festivals and marketplaces are also great places for mixing. Focus on inclusion by promoting the event across community lines and sharing the unique aspects that will appeal to different cultures and groups.