One Town, One Family is a partnership between the City of Edina, the Edina Chamber of Commerce, the Edina Foundation, and Edina Public Schools, creating a time and place for all Edina citizens who would like to help reimagine, define, and create an inclusive Edina community.
The hope for the Edina community is for all members to feel valued and welcomed. The community is hopeful that change will come, and that Edina becomes a place where residents share a vision, share space, listen to one another, are kind to one another, and celebrate differences.
Edina residents uplifted the importance of improving communication, accountability, equity, cultural competency, and humility in the community. Some comments highlight the need to recognize past and current failures and learn from them to be better. There was acknowledgement of uncomfortable feelings experienced by minorities in the community. Overall perspectives were that during challenges and concerns, the community desires to be intentional about addressing issues to have a welcoming community where all feel valued, connected, and included.
Attendees engaged in conversations about current realities, and gained deeper understanding about issues and challenges in the community. Together, participants co-created a vision and action plan, and helped navigate and lead change to create an Edina community where everyone belongs.
Facilitators from the YMCA of the North UnitedHealth Group Equity Innovation Center of Excellence guided our discussions.
Identified Themes
After evaluating the collected responses from the Edina Community session on June 23, 2022, the data was prepared using a thematic analysis process. The issues, concerns, and root causes expressed by the community members during a large group reflection were captured and reviewed for reoccurring key words and phrases. The identified items were then referred to as themes and from the themes general conclusions were made.
Action Steps
- Create multicultural committees.
- Engage in cultural competency trainings.
- Improve on being inclusive and accurate in the representation of the community.
- Practice being open-minded to cultural contributions to the community other than your own.
- Bring down systemic barriers.
- Build relationships amongst community members to create a space that is safe, accepting, understanding, respectful, and inclusive.
- Have a diverse welcoming committee at each school.
- More conversations and collaboration of different organizations meeting together to strengthen communication and equity.
- Continue to have community conversations.
