The culmination of years of work by many leaders throughout our corporate, nonprofit, and political sectors.

  • DEI strategies can be challenging to implement and may face a variety of obstacles, such as limited resources, a limited applicant pool, and difficulty securing participation and support. It is also possible that some organizations face resistance to change and cultural norms deeply rooted in the past, which can make it difficult to recruit and retain a diverse workforce and board members for some organizations. Politics and societal factors may also hinder DEI efforts and make it harder to hold organizations accountable for implementing DEI strategies.

  • Most organizations are implementing internship programs, expanding the locations where job postings are advertised and hosting recruitment events, and implementing DEI initiatives and programs in order to diversify their workforce.

  • Organizations have implemented various initiatives to create an inclusive culture, including training, employee groups, and programs focused on DEI. Their work ranges from adopting formal DEI policies, providing learning opportunities for employees, and creating committees or groups to help boost engagement, create community, and shape equity and belonging policy and practices.

  • Organizations work with small and diverse businesses, allow self-certification, prioritize local vendors, host diversity events and provide support for diverse vendors in procurement process, and are testing vendor on-boarding process with minority-owned small businesses.

In this report, you will find the results of Chattanooga’s first Community Culture Index (CCI), which offers a rigorous localized assessment of the progress that workplaces are making on their inclusive practices and commitments. On behalf of the many partners who made this project possible, and the dozens of regional businesses and organizations who took part, we are proud to now share this report and eager to see how it can make our community a stronger and more welcoming place for everyone.

The need for the CCI is grounded in a period of exceptional disarray and upheaval, in our city and across the country. The aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on employee behaviors, coupled with the racial justice reckoning after the murder of George Floyd, led to some fundamental - and arguably long overdue - realizations about the role that businesses and other organizations play in creating inclusive, diverse, and equitable communities.