“We’ve been doing community conversations around topics that are divisive,” Hale said. "So we’ve already got an educational commitment through the library that the coalition can learn from and participate in and support.
“I think that gets us a little further down the road from maybe starting from scratch,” she added.
The formation of the OIC was announced earlier this month “to study, promote, and celebrate an inclusive, equitable, diverse and welcoming environment and community for everyone who lives, works, visits, or passes through Oakwood,” documents show.
The population of the largely residential suburb of about 9,000 bordering Dayton is more than 95% white, according to U.S. Census data.
The coalition is a “citizen-driven” effort, Hale said. It has a “core group” of city and school district officials along with residents, including two University of Dayton professors, but is still forming, Hale said.
It is seeking members and volunteers to help establish a website, and obtain status as a 501c3 organization, with the goal of having its first meeting in January, she added.
Those who do not live or work in Oakwood can become “affiliate” members, but they would not have voting status, records show. Anyone interested can contact Hale at (937) 250-6824 or hale@wrightlibrary.org.
The Oakwood Safety Department’s treatment of minorities was the focus last year of a report, which the city called “seriously flawed.” Yet, Hale said, city, school district and other officials began talking in January and February about better addressing diversity and inclusion.
As the year progressed, issues “took a more urgent turn,” Hale said, as protests and rallies involving Black Lives Matter spread across the country after Black people were killed by police, including shootings in Kentucky and Wisconsin. One event in Oakwood followed the May death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
For years, Oakwood has had what City Manager Norb Klopsch said is a “lingering reputation” he called “troubling.”
Klopsch told the Oakwood City School District Board of Education – which endorsed the OIC, as has the city council – he is “eager to see (the coalition) flourish.”
The OIC is “a new phase in a longstanding effort,” said former Oakwood Mayor Judy Cook, coalition vice chair who has lived the city for more than 50 years.
While the landlocked city’s population has not increased, it “has grown significantly in the diverse mixture of our residents,” Cook told the school board.
The coalition has not yet developed a list of priorities or identify a mission for its first year, Hale said.
“We’ve talked about different ideas – like maybe having a cultural fest added to the city’s community calendar,” she said.
The city has several annual events “and maybe adding something like that to our communities' offerings” is an option, Hale said.
Meanwhile, the OIC will explore “the library’s offering and offer more of that,” she added.
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