Breaking Diversity Barriers

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Breaking Diversity Barriers

• Janine Saunders
• Manager, Communications
• Community Outreach
• Norwich Public Utilities
• Norwich, Connecticut

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Norwich Public Utilities Who We Are

• City owned/operated provider of electric
  natural gas to Norwich, Connecticut since 1904
• Provider of water and wastewater services since
  1954
• Our mission Make Norwich a better place to live
  work and do business

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Norwich by the Numbers

• Population 36,845
• Households 15,601
• Poverty rate 11.5 (NLC 6.4 CT 7.9)
• Median income 42,113 (County 54,212 CT
  57,850)
• Ranked 140 out of 169 in per capita income
• 60 of housing built before 1959
• 52 of housing is owner occupied

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And then
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Foxwoods Resort Casino -1992 (Worlds Largest
Casino)
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Mohegan Sun Casino -1996(Worlds 2nd Largest
Casino)
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The Impact on Local Schools

• 27 Different languages are spoken in Norwich
  Public Schools.

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The Impact II
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Bangla
Creole-Jaotoam
Chinese
Mandarin
Korean
Hindi
Albanian
Portuguese
Filipino
English
Tagalog
Spanish
Lao
Gujarati
Urdu
Cantonese
German
Farsi
Creole-Haitian
Creole-Cape Verdean
Yoruba
Bengali
Vietnamese
Farsi
Thai
Creole-Haitian
Bulgarian
Polish
Russian
Arabic
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Other Effects

• Health Safety Issues
• Legal Liability Concerns
• Difficulty communicating in field/office contact
  situations

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Our Response
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Our Response
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Our Response
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Our Response
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Our Response
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How We Did It

• Transparent translation services written
  verbal
• Participation in community Norwich Newcomers
  group
• In-house diversity training
• Utilization of multilingual interns

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Important Considerations

• Prioritization?
• Accuracy who should translate
• Transparency good customer service
• Avoiding stereotypes

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The Effects Challenges

• Hiring Process low turnover,
• limited opportunity
• Changing Demographics Languages
• Students (short term)
• Families (long term high need for services)
• Technology Opportunities

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Questions Answers