Sharon Aims To Embrace Diversity Through New Inclusion Committee

SHARON, MA — Sharon Select Board Chair Bill Heitin is proud of how the level of diversity has grown in Sharon in the more than three decades since he graduated from Sharon High. Yet, as much as he views his hometown as one that generally embraces those of different races and religions, he is more than willing to admit that it can do much better.

"We do have a fair amount of racism in the community," Heitin told Patch. "We do have a fair amount of antisemitism — believe it or not. Those are uncomfortable conversations. But those are the conversations we should be having."

In order to facilitate those conversations, the Sharon Select Board on Monday night voted to establish the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee to advise the Select Board, and other town boards, toward the goal of creating a more welcoming and inclusive community.

"What we're really trying to accomplish here is to step up to where we're engaging more thoroughly with all of the community and identifying people's concerns," he said.

Heitin said the recent protests throughout the country condemning police brutality and social injustice made this the right time to turn talk into action in Sharon.

The Sharon Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee is charged with finding ways to embrace Sharon’s diversity and cultural richness, provide a welcoming environment through encouraging cooperation among all residents and community groups, promote training for town and school employees to work toward eliminating unconscious and implicit bias, foster the civic engagement of underrepresented groups and to ensure equitable access to town programs and resources.

The committee will also be asked to suggest programs or activities that promote a culture of respecting diversity, as well help eliminate discriminatory barriers to employment, education and other opportunities in the town and to "suggest meaningful steps that will increase the diversity of the town's workforce to better reflect the demographic composition of the residents for whom employees serve."

The nine-member committee will be asked to provide written reports to the Select Board at least three times a year and is expected to be made up of a cross section of the community.

The board is slated to include one member of the Sharon Pluralism Network, one member of the Sharon Interfaith Clergy Council, one member of the Sharon Racial Equality Alliance, one member of the Sharon Police department, one member of the Select Board and four town residents – including at least one high school student and one other member of the school community.

"Having the student representative was extremely important to me," Heitin said.

Initial committee members will serve one-year terms.

"Given the pandemic," Heitin said in a recent speech to the Select Board, "these were already difficult times to layer-in the recent unacceptable acts of racism. At this critical time, we can simply say empty words, or we can act by using the power within each of us to stand tall, and stand together, and remind each other, particularly our neighbors of color, that we hear you, we see you, we accept you and we stand as one community."

Scott Souza can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com.