When Scott Fadness was first elected Mayor of Fishers in 2014, he was preparing to take office in 2015. He was Town Manager and still involved in the day-to-day workings of Fishers while also mayor-elect.
It was at that time he let me know of his plans to start a mental health initiative as his first major project as the new mayor. He wasted no time in moving that forward in 2015.
I had been in and out of journalism for years and had seen this before. A new mayor starts a project, cites accomplishments, then moves on to the next project.
Scott Fadness did not do that with mental health. In 2020, he continues to move forward on mental health with his staff and a group of community volunteers. Scott Fadness knew combating mental health issues would be a heavy lift and would take time. He is in his sixth year as mayor and continues that project.
When Scott Fadness began talking last year about an initiative on race relations in Fishers, his past record proved to me he was serious. When I was asked to participate as a member of the community, I accepted.
The mayor brought in Dustin Washington, an experienced consultant from out of state, to run a series of seminars for a group of local people called Interrupting Racism.
The mayor’s next step now is to invite any member of the Fishers community to take this Interrupting Racism seminar at no cost to you. As someone that has experienced this training, I would highly recommend it to anyone.
There are only 500 openings in this first wave of training, so I would recommend you sign-up soon.
“In the national narrative we find ourselves, it is clear the country is struggling with issues of race and our community is not immune to these challenges,” said Mayor Fadness in a city news release announcing the program. “In Fishers, we have the opportunity to change the course of this conversation through hard work, honesty, and humility. Today is a small step in that direction.”
It should be noted Mayor Fadness has been working on this Interrupting Racism program for many months, well before George Floyd’s death or the police shooting in Kenosha, Wis.
Sign up for the Interrupting Racism training at this link, and sign up for updates at this link.