The Diversity Program at the Puget Sound Regional Council reflects PSRC’s commitment to addressing diversity issues in the agency and in its work within the region. The Diversity Program was developed jointly by the agency’s staff Diversity Committee and management team. This fact sheet highlights PSRC’s commitment to diversity and key elements of the program. PSRC’s commitment to diversity is expressed in the mission statement adopted by PSRC staff. It includes the following statement on diversity:

In carrying out our responsibilities, we will . . .
respect diversity, acknowledging that we all have differences and similarities, strengths and weaknesses, and gifts
and attributes that make us unique, and that all of us, individually and collectively, are important partners in this agency’s success.

At the PSRC, diversity covers the full spectrum of differences among people, including: Age, gender, size, race/ethnicity, national origin, work style, sexual orientation, political ideology, reasonable accommodation for ADA, military/veteran status, religious affiliation, communication style, or family status.

The underlying professional philosophy of employees at PSRC is one of respect, inclusion, and equity. Employees take pride in their work and in each other’s successes. Everyone realizes that the strengths and varied backgrounds of a diverse workforce result in improved performance and higher quality products. The Diversity Program at PSRC is proactive and composed of internal and external strategies. The internal strategy addresses training, professional development, and recruitment and hiring. The external strategy focuses on identifying diverse interests and ensuring their participation in the agency’s planning efforts.

Internal Strategy

Organizations that value diversity use it to gain a better understanding of different work, learning, and communication styles. Effectively harnessing these styles results in an outcome, or final product, that is far greater than the sum of its parts. PSRC’s internal diversity strategy reflects the organization’s cultural values and norms. The strategy involves both recruiting and hiring practices, and emphasizes learning programs that address and define affirmative action/equal employment opportunity policies, outreach, and communication styles.

Recruitment and Hiring: PSRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. PSRC and its Executive Director are committed to hiring a high quality, professional workforce that represents the diverse interests of many viewpoints. The agency actively recruits people with broad backgrounds and differing experiences to create a hiring pool from which to select people who have the overall qualities that would add strength to the organization, based on staffing needs and on each individual’s unique qualities and expertise.

Training Courses and Professional Development: As leaders in the planning profession, PSRC emphasizes training aimed at broadening awareness of diversity issues to help employees refine and gain new skills.

External Strategy

As a regional planning agency, PSRC seeks to reach both the general public and diverse interests. PSRC recognizes that, as a membership organization, decisions about its work program are made within an organizational structure of regional and subregional committees and boards. While representation on these committees and boards may not always reflect the diverse make-up of the regional population, PSRC is committed to ensuring that its work program takes into account the diverse interests and needs of the region.

Identifying and Involving Diverse Interests: PSRC’s approach to encouraging greater diversity in its work program focuses on identifying and involving general and diverse interests. In developing each work program element, PSRC seeks to identify who the interests are and how best to reach out to and involve them. Periodic assessment helps gauge progress and identify whether additional steps should be taken to ensure diverse involvement in regional planning activities. In identifying these interests, PSRC seeks out subgroups not traditionally represented in planning discussions and, if appropriate, assumes an advocacy role. For example, regional transportation planning has historically underestimated the needs of the elderly and youth in planning for the region’s transportation system.

By identifying and articulating the needs of the region’s general and diverse interests, we can better plan for everyone’s long-term mobility while improving the overall performance of the transportation system. This advocacy approach is not only proactive and beneficial to the region’s planning efforts, but also empowers and stimulates participation of new interests in other public endeavors that affect everyone’s general well being. It is a win-win strategy that has the potential for large payoffs in the future.