Communicating With Diverse Populations

Joseph Ortiz

Joseph Ortiz, director of public and community relations for the Roosevelt School District in South Phoenix, spoke about the origins of a diversity toolkit that was developed by the National School Public Relations Association to help school districts across the country do a better job of communicating with their diverse communities. Ortiz was co-chair of the project, along with Stan Alleyne, chief communications officer for Minneapolis Public Schools.

The toolkit followed four guiding principles: Research, Diversity Competency, Translations, and Community and Family Engagement.

The research portion of the toolkit focused on collecting and understanding the demographics of individual districts; what it looks like now and how it is expected to change in the future.

Ortiz explained that cultural competency requires that school districts enhance customer service and reinforce an atmosphere of inclusion in their schools. He described diversity competent school districts as those that recognize that equity affects how the entire organization functions, how organizational values are lived, and how work is carried out. These districts recognize, understand and respect student, parent and staff differences.

With regards to translations, Ortiz presented the following tip: take note when listing phone numbers on translated materials. A parent will likely get little to no benefit from a person that only speaks English. Unless the person receiving the call is bilingual in the language that you need them to be proficient in, it is best to provide a separate number to the right person who can assist your callers.

Finally, Ortiz stated that diversity engagement needs to be authentic, two-way and tailored to your specific audience. Diversity engagement does not mean "Taco Tuesdays" on the school lunch menu. It is much more than that. The difference between diversity engagement and diversity enragement is only one letter.