In 2014, Bellevue City Council adopted a plan they called The Diversity Advantage. Its vision statement begins with: “Bellevue welcomes the world. Our diversity is our strength.”
Building on this vision, the city is making notable efforts to celebrate Bellevue’s growing diversity by organizing various events, both cultural and business, as well as workshops, panel discussions, and public forums to create a strong and vibrant Bellevue community.
This year, the City has hosted many events that highlight their commitment to equity, access, inclusion, and opportunity.
In early February, the City denounced racism by hosting “Rejecting the Rags of Racism and Living in the Riches of Diversity,” an art installation traveling through Eastside cities. The title references a racist incident that occurred at a Redmond store, Rags to Riches.
On February 3, at the annual Cultural Conversations meeting ‘Feeling at Home’, five Bellevue residents were invited to share their stories of what it means to feel at home in Bellevue. Cultural Conversations is a program that builds bridges between cultures. It was started to help women who arrive here from different parts of the globe and have a desire to get better connected with their community, and want to enhance their knowledge and understanding of different cultural practices and perspectives. The women meet once a month at Crossroads Community Center to share stories and make new friends. The annual meeting is unique in that it is the only meeting in which men are invited to participate.
In mid-March, the City hosted “Dialogue with Muslim Neighbors” as an opportunity to create greater understanding between people through sharing experiences and a discussion of how the current climate shapes our beliefs. The intention was to share stories, ask questions, and provide context to issues impacting the entire community. Knowing that it is not easy to have these conversations, Mark Manuel, City of Bellevue Diversity Outreach and Engagement Administrator, sees diversity as “two opposing viewpoints co-existing in the same space without devaluing the other.”
Youth Link held their Youth Involvement Conference in late March with Dr. Terrence Roberts, one of the “Little Rock Nine,” as the keynote speaker at the Conference. His lunchtime session captivated the youth in attendance.
On May 21, the first-ever Bellevue Neighborhoods Conference was held at City Hall. The conference provided Bellevue residents an opportunity to connect with other city residents and to explore new areas of civic engagement. There were more than 20 workshop that touched on cross-cultural communication, language barriers, immigration stories, and City demographics.
The City is a strong partner of Eastside Pathways and has supported the partnership and its work by sharing a few of their staff people as resources within Eastside Pathways’ Racial Equity Team and the Community Engagement work group. This support helps Eastside Pathways view our shared community work through an “equity lens,” as well as examine the opportunity to share engagement successes.
Article written by Nahyeli Mendivil, communications & operations manager at Eastside Pathways