Parks & Recreation: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Lake Oswego Park & Recreation (LOPR) acknowledges that it has the unique opportunity to impact people in our community at all stages of life. Through the Living Well in LO Powered by Parks & Recreation health and wellness initiative, LOPR strives to provide lessons that help our community learn, work together, and celebrate all people. LOPR provides activities that can be lifesaving and life-changing. For those in later phases of life, LOPR provides purpose, resources, and community. In order to provide inclusive opportunities for all, LOPR provides hundreds of acres of parks and natural areas for people to explore, exercise, learn from, heal by, and appreciate on their own and with families and friends. LOPR maintains natural areas that clean our community’s air and water, and make our city a more livable place.

In order to provide inclusive opportunities for all, LOPR analyzes its operations through a variety of perspectives that ensure it addresses the systemic inequities and barriers that limit its ability to truly achieve our mission  “Lake Oswego Parks & Recreation provides excellence in building community, enriching lives, and caring for the urban and natural environment”. LOPR’s activities and services strive to include multiculturalism, all levels of ability, all ages, all identities and genders but the Parks & Recreation team (LOPR Team) also recognizes that we are not perfect. The LOPR Team examines (and re-examines) our attempts to understand how the LOPR Team is exclusive against minoritized groups in an effort to adjust the monocultural norms the organization supports. Diversity must be supported by goals aimed toward achieving equity and inclusion as well. These initiatives cannot be successful without each other.

DIVERSITY: Diversity is the inclusion of people of different races, cultures, ages, abilities, and various other identities within a group or organization.

EQUITY: Equity refers to fairness and justice and is different from equality. Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances.

INCLUSION: Inclusion is the act or practice of including and accommodating people who have historically been excluded.

The documents listed to the right include July 2022 Parks Board Presentation on DEI, LOPR's Workforce and Equal Opportunity,  Human Services and DEI Policies and also other policies and procedures including scholarship policy, Inclusion policy and handbook and public accommodation for participation policy. Other documents represent DEI reference tools such as Definitions and Glossary, Ethnocentrism, Microaggressions, An Anti-Racism Self Assessment Tool, Teaching Tolerance Speak Up Pocket Guide and a University of Colorado-Boulder Campus Move Beyond By Stander tool. 

For more City information on DEI, please visit: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion | City of Lake Oswego