City of Noblesville to put employees through implicit bias training

The city of Noblesville plans to put 200 of its civilian employees through diversity sensitivity and implicit bias training.

The training will be conducted by Toni Neely, director of membership relations for the Indy Chamber of Commerce and a certified trainer in diversity and inclusion. In the past, Neely has conducted trainings with Eli Lilly and Co., Honda and Ivy Tech Community College.

The training is being funded by a $3,000 grant from the Hamilton County Community Foundation. The trainings are expected to take place in November.

Two hundred members of the city’s roughly 300 civilian workforce will go through the training sessions. Meanwhile, the 90 members of the Noblesville Police Department will continue to be trained to prevent racial stereotyping through the department’s semi-annual accreditation process, according to a media release.

Noblesville Mayor John Ditslear said as the community grows and becomes more diverse, the city must do more to prevent discrimination and ensure “everyone has the same opportunity to grow and thrive in Noblesville.”

“We respect everyone and welcome all,” he said in a media statement.

The city has swelled by 20 percent since 2010 to just over 63,000 people. According to 2018 U.S. Census figures, 89% of Noblesville’s residents are white; blacks and Hispanics make up 8.5% of the population; and Asians make up 2.5%.

The trainings are not a response to a specific incident but rather a way of being proactive, Deputy Mayor Steve Cooke told IBJ. Each day the city sets and enforces a wide range of policies that affect residents.

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” he said.

Implicit bias refers to the unconscious attitudes and stereotypes people have for a person or group of people that guides their decisions and actions.

“Training for unconscious bias requires employees to get out of their comfort zone, to explore their beliefs with a fresh perspective and become more self-aware so they can better manage their behavior in the workplace,” Neely, who previously presented at a Noblesville Chamber of Commerce luncheon, said in a media release.

The city’s involvement in the Noblesville Diversity Coalition is what inspired city leaders to bring implicit bias training to city hall.

The coalition brings together the local school officials, business owners, faith leaders, the city and the Noblesville Chamber of Commerce to advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion.

Since launching in 2018, the coalition has led several community forums on diversity and inclusion, and members joined a statewide effort asking lawmakers to impose stronger sentencing for hate crimes.

“The conversations that have started within the community and around the family dinner table have helped people better understand a problem that wasn’t being addressed locally on this scale,” Cooke said in a media release. “We felt it was important to have this conversation within City Hall as well.”

The city is looking for ways to continue to educate and train employees on bias and diversity beyond the initial trainings, Cooke said.