Because…
… In Western WA, girls from communities furthest from racial, economic, and social justice have barriers to access the opportunities to engage and thrive in Girl Scouts programming that builds courage, confidence and character to lead and be instruments of change and promotes equitable outcomes for all.
We will…
… build a community that represents every race, ethnicity, income level, sexual orientation, ability, and religion; reflects a spectrum of gender identity; and connects across geographic locations. We will take sustained action to grow as an anti-racist and antioppressive organization so that, through Girl Scouts, our members are affirmed as they strive to make our communities and world better.
By…
…building the cultural humility and cultural competence (awareness, knowledge, skills, action/advocacy) of our Girl Scouts, volunteers, board members, donors, and employees, providing inclusive, meaningful, and relevant experiences to all members, applying an equity lens to policies, practices, procedures, and programs, and being an active force against racism and all oppression.
DEI Priorities
- Embed our organizational vision and values and apply an equity lens to all decision-making, programming, and operational, and board practices.
- Educate Girl Scouts, volunteers, board members, donors, and employees on antiracism and anti-oppression.
- Recruit and retain Girl Scouts, volunteers, board members, donors, and employees to reflect the demographics of Western Washington.
- Establish a culture of accessibility and inclusion throughout the organization, including in all programming and member-facing activities.
- Develop and use data and measurement practices to track progress and adjust as necessary.
- Innovate methods to identify and solve for barriers that impede our diversity, equity, and inclusion work.
Sample Tactics/Activities
- Embed our organizational vision and values and apply an equity lens to all decision-making, programming, and operational practices.
- Highlight our vision in multiple communication channels and modes.
- Continue institutionalizing our organizational values and the behaviors that support those values. (for example, using land acknowledgments consistently at the beginning of all meetings).
- Develop a Racial Equity Assessment Tool for evaluation of programs, policies, practices, and procedures.
- Conduct a Board assessment to identify education needs and areas for Board focus, including developing a method for applying an equity lens to all decision-making.
- Educate Girl Scouts, volunteers, donors, board members, and employees on antiracism and anti-oppression.
- Deliver monthly trainings and workshops for employees and volunteers to educate and reinforce key concepts of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on topics such as: cultural competency, anti-racism, ableism, classism, understanding gender identity, etc.
- Engage in caucus work with our employees to allow for the continued growth of employee understanding without harming marginalized communities.
- Provide virtual workshop series for volunteers on topics such as: how to talk to youth about race, allyship behaviors and addressing inappropriate comments, and empowering LGBTQ+ pride.
- Train employees and volunteers on conflict resolution skills, including how to interrupt biases when conflict arises, and tactics for mitigating those biases.
- Create, institutionalize, and train on anti-discrimination policies for volunteers and troops with real consequences for discriminatory actions.
- Incorporate anti-racism and anti-oppression concepts into all learning opportunities for volunteers.
- Develop and support DEI and racial justice patch programs for Girl Scouts.
- Using the Board assessment, develop and implement a board training plan.
- Recruit and retain Girl Scouts, volunteers, board members, donors, and employees to reflect the demographics of Western Washington.
- Create standardized resources for interview teams to evaluate candidates consistently and equitably to mitigate bias.
- Develop relationship-based, community-focused recruitment efforts for members.
- Partner and collaborate with departments and community partners to recruit and retain Girl Scouts and volunteers from historically excluded communities.
- Provide volunteer, board, and employee training around engaging in strategies to reduce the likelihood of unconscious bias from occurring during hiring and recruiting processes.
- Establish a culture of accessibility and inclusion throughout the organization, including in all programming and member-facing activities.
- Assess and improve (as possible) accessibility for those with disabilities at all properties.
- Develop and use an accessibility and inclusion assessment for new property decisions.
- Develop and use data and measurement practices to track progress and adjust as necessary.
- Conduct regular DEI and employee engagement assessments.
- Send surveys to membership about their overall Girl Scout experience.
- Evaluate feedback from learning opportunities (offered to employees and volunteers) and continue to adjust.
- Monitor dashboard applying appropriate data analysis including quantitative and qualitative measures.
- Innovate methods to identify and solve for barriers that impede our diversity, equity, and inclusion work.
- Identify a consistent method for collecting demographics from our multiple constituents.