Lessons Learned from Putting Grantees First
Edward W. Hazen Foundation
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Helping the Port of Seattle’s Office of Equity find its voice
Overview
In 2019, the Port of Seattle committed to being a leader in the regional and national efforts to achieve equity and social justice. This came after a long process of recognizing the bias and oppression that are embedded in our society, systems, and the Port itself. As a foundation for its bold commitment, the Port created the first-ever office of equity for a U.S. port authority. The goal of the new Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (OEDI) is to identify and dismantle structural barriers to ensure that historically oppressed communities, particularly communities of color, have access to the resources they need to thrive.
Challenge
The Port of Seattle is a large-scale and multi-faceted organization that employs more than 2,100 people and includes trade, tourism, commerce, and logistics operations. Transforming the culture of such a massive, 100+-year-old institution is a formidable undertaking. To drive this transformation, the head of OEDI Bookda Gheisar, partnered with Minerva Strategies to develop a clear understanding of equity and shared language to describe the Port’s commitment, as well as communication tools that would galvanize support for equity efforts among leadership, employee groups, and others in all Port departments.
Work
In August 2019, Minerva Strategies began our work to lay the communication foundation for this transformation. We partnered with OEDI to develop a communications plan to complement the office’s strategic plan, support progress toward goals, and facilitate equity-building activities. In conversations with Port commissioners, the executive director, staff, and equity experts, Minerva crafted a set of messages for internal and external audiences and developed a framework for talking about OEDI’s work inside and outside of the Port. We then got to work creating the foundational processes and initial communications to make this plan come alive.
Result
The result of these efforts includes an externally facing webpage and a page on the Port’s internal site where staff can learn more about equity and stay up to date on the activities of OEDI. We developed an editorial planning process and tools, an externally facing OEDI newsletter, and several first-person blogs describing African- and Asian-American staff members’ experiences at the Port and their hopes for the equity-focused transformation.
The messaging Minerva developed has been infused into the Port’s communications around equity during the COVID-19 pandemic, including Commission motions to fight racism, opinion pieces in local business media like Puget Sound Business Journal, print materials used to describe the goals of the office to internal and external audiences, talking points with external partners and Port contractors, and staff workshops and trainings.
In May 2020, OEDI hired a full-time staff member to manage communication efforts, and Minerva worked with him to ensure he had the knowledge, tools, and infrastructure to effectively continue these efforts following the completion of our engagement in June.
We have created a powerful vision for the Port of Seattle office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Minerva Strategies played a key role in helping us create this vision and, with their support, we developed the language, messaging, and tools that will help us live it out, inspire our staff and partners to take action, and keep us laser-focused on fulfilling our goals.
Bookda Gheisar
Senior Director, Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Port of Seattle