By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — There’s a movement developing in the city that sets out to break down structural inequality to create a more fair, just and inclusive community.
Get ready to hear more local leaders talk about belonging.
It’s a concept that stems from research done at the University of California Berkeley, where its Othering & Belonging Institute has worked for roughly a decade to study the impediments to a full equitable society.
Now, the Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence has created a local arm of the movement called Belonging Begins with Us: Rockford Initiative. On Tuesday, it unveiled its website at an event that brought together dozens of business and community leaders at the UW Health Sports Factory in downtown to begin their work on the initiative.
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The event was headlined by john a. powell, the director of the institute at Berkeley, who spoke to a diverse audience of roughly 160 people about creating belonging in the workplace and the community. He spells his name with all lowercase letters to symbolize the belief that we should be “part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify.”
“Without being hyperbolic, I want to suggest that this is a journey that’s not just for you here in Rockford. This is a journey not even just for Americans. This is a journey for the world,” powell told the group.
Before the event, powell had worked remotely with Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity, Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, Rockford Park District and Collins Aerospace on creating a culture of belonging in their workplaces. Leaders from each of those organizations participated in a panel discussion moderated by Mayor Tom McNamra after powell’s keynote address to talk about what they’ve learned.
Pam Clark Reidenbach, executive director of NICNE, said she hopes others in attendance bring what they learned back to their employer so they can start building a culture of belonging.
Doing so, she and powell said, can lead to better productivity, more innovation, less job turnover and better relationships.
“The hope is we have population-level change,” Reidenbach said. “As more and more and more employers do this, this will just be the way Rockford works.”
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As the culture of belonging spreads, she said it can lead to better neighborhood development and less crime, among other benefits.
“It’s such a foundational piece in my mind that it could really change the entire culture,” she said.
The Belonging Begins with Us: Rockford Initiative is led by a task force of more than 30 people and organizations. Reidenbach was introduced to the concept in 2019 after hearing powell speak at a conference and started working to bring him here soon after. He previously spoke to Rockford leaders in a virtual conference in 2020.
“We can create all kinds of policies in our workplace. We can create all kinds of procedures, but unless someone truly feels they belong, it’s all a waste of time,” Reidenbach said she learned from powell’s message. “It really hit home for me.”
powell told the group that people sometimes recognize issues that need to be addressed, but they struggle to imagine a better option.
“Part of your role as leaders, as employers, as people who are promoting belonging, is to help people imagine a world, a place, a situation where everyone belongs,” he said.
But it’s not enough to just imagine, he said.
“It’s not just enough to have a conversation about it. It’s not just enough to have a committee,” powell said. “It’s then to say, ‘what do we have to do with our structures, with our systems, to make them work?'”
He said workplaces and organizations also must measure how their work is leading to change.
“When you do all that you start building belonging,” he said.
On the web | Belonging Begins with Us
Learn more about the Rockford initiative at belonging-rockford.com. Learn more about powell’s work at UC Berkeley at belonging.berkeley.edu.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas.