Purpose: The purpose was to develop competencies and skills for public officers to be able to adopt a more inclusive behaviour, to contribute to a more inclusive municipality. At the same time, the training served to collect concerns and ideas for the future Oeiras Diversity & Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan.
Stimulus/Rationale: If we want to create an Inclusive City, we must start by working with city officers and staff. Not only does the municipality sets an example, but also sends a message to all organisations and citizens on the importance of reflecting on our biases and adopting inclusive behaviours, an ideal that should be adopted by everyone in the city.
Furthermore, the city needs to take care of their workers – if they do not feel included how can they include others? People need to feel belonging to the organisations and for that they also need to feel listened and part of the decision-making process.
Process: First, two city officers participated in an EU funded project led by the Aga Khan Foundation – Diversity@Work, where a blended learning training course on D&I was developed. These persons were then trained as trainers and received free resources: access to the online course, pre and post-test surveys, one facilitator guide and training materials to be able to facilitate the training autonomously. The two trainers adjusted the initial materials from the project, adding new games and adjusting to their audience.
The training was implemented, with two trainers in the room whenever possible. The training consisted of a 7h workshop followed by a 90m online course for operational staff and a 3h30m session plus the online course for technical staff. The last part of the training consisted in a brainstorming session to hear the staff concerns and experiences, as well as their ideas for a more inclusive municipality. 51 people took part of these trainings so far.
After the training, the participants were asked to fill in an evaluation form. The ideas collected are now being compiled as part of a future Oeiras Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan.
More trainings will follow, to cover all the municipality staff, with adjustments accordingly to the inputs and feedback received in the evaluation of these first trainings. Next, the municipality also plans to deliver this training to all local partners.
Impact: A pre and post-test evaluation survey was applied to all participants. They showed that the level of knowledge and awareness increased in all participants.
Overall, the participants stated that the training had been impactful and suggested that the training should be made mandatory for all workers within the municipality. The language used was mentioned as something that needed to be adjusted to different audiences, for example gardening and urban hygiene staff and technical staff have diverse work contexts and understandings of the technical terms. Some concerns with confidentiality were also raised, given that the trainers were also co-workers and some concerns that the sharing made could be passed on to direct leadership. For next editions, the surveys will be modified to adjust to Oeiras reality and codified to be anonymous. The time for the sessions was considered not enough (for technical staff).
The evaluation process also concluded that sessions with 2 trainers were more effective than with only 1 trainer, given that the training uses active methodologies and can be very demanding.
Proposals from participants of the training:
- Leadership should also be more engaged in the initiative, to understand the importance of it for all staff and better contribute to it, also taking part in training and ensuring safe spaces for individual expressions.
- Promote a Diversity Census to better understand the existing Diversity and constraints people may face on their daily lives.
- Accessibility Mapping: mapping needs and barriers to accessibility.
- Training more trainers on D&I.
- Training on D&I as mandatory and as part of welcoming policies for new staff.
- Promoting intercultural activities during Intercultural Week, giving visibility to cultural heritage of Oeiras municipality staff – 27 nationalities are present within the staff.
- Promoting thematic workshops on Moral and sexual harassment, inclusive and transformative leadership, Gender Equality, Economic Inequalities and Discrimination, LGBTQIA+, Intercultural Dialogue, Interreligious Dialogue, Roma History and Culture.
The Proposal for the Oeiras D&I Strategy and Action Plan, thus, included the following actions:
- Certification of the Municipality as “Work-life Balance” employer (meanwhile this certification is completed).
- Expand the training on D&I for all staff and partners.
- Creating a team and plan for Gender Equality at the local level.
Recently, Oeiras was recognised and won an award from the Portuguese Diversity Charter for this practice.
Key reference documents:
