Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
Heide Parreño, Diversity Director, ESVB Anita Nahal, D&I Consultant, ESVB
This year has seen the Empire State Virtual Branch (ESVB) launch out in a focused and targeted way in Diversity and Inclusion initiatives (D&I). Based upon an anonymous on-line survey to determine what members believed the ESVB did in D&I and what areas needed focus, the Empire State Virtual Branch now has four initiatives for 2016 and 2017 as our commitment to D&I. These are:
- More informative and user friendly web presence for D&I initiatives on our ESVB website,
- Yearly award for ESVB AAUW members for work done on Diversity and Inclusion. Criteria to be developed with in-put from members and the NYS VP on programs,
- Holding D&I programs /events /lectures / representation at District Meeting, State Convention and Leadership Conference in Cazenovia,
- Share link of D&I survey. Members to do the survey for sharing with ESVB, NYS, and National AAUW. Disseminate with ESVB members available resources from AAUW National: : https://www.aauw.org/resource/diversity-and-inclusion-tool-kit/
Our ESVB D&I team, Heide Parreño, director, and Dr. Anita Nahal, consultant will develop action items in each of the initiatives. Here’s an action for the first initiative regarding the website from Anita.
- To provide links to AAUW State and National D&I initiatives
- To provide general resources related to D&I, eg., conferences on D&I in NYC or a list of some useful publications and/or links to relevant D&I websites in the US and globally
- Seek input from ESVB members as to what they would like to see on their website related to D&I
Diversity and Inclusion is the heart and conscience of AAUW. The value of diversity and inclusion should be embedded in the infra-structure of AAUW’s awareness, consciousness, intentionality and in all that we do. (Heide Parreño).
More quotes on diversity, inclusion and Unconscious Bias from Anita Nahal at her blog: http://diversitydiscover.blogspot.com/