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DEI Strategy Framework

I. Why We're Doing This

Purpose: To share with the Core Team a strategic framework we can use to make DEI-related decisions.

There are three reasons why understanding our strategy is important:

1. DEI is resource intensive.

2. Our current strategy is incoherent

3. A strategy is not a plan!

I. Why We're

Doing This

DEI is Resource Intensive

  • Not just money, but time and effort
  • There are a lots of barriers we will face in not just making change, but sustaining it
  • Our DEI strategy should be designed to make change sustainable for our students, families, and communities

I. DEI is

Resource

Intensive

Our Current Strategy is Incoherent

II. Our Current Strategy is Incoherent

Currently, we have a sprinkle strategy, made up of trainings here and there, statements here and there, meetings and discussions, but none of our efforts are working together and moving us towards something definitive

Strategy vs. Plan

III. Strategy

vs. Plan

  • A strategy is not a plan
  • A plan includes goal-based activities & efforts to create change
  • A strategy includes responses to situations, day to day practices & procedures, opportunities, and partnerships
  • Our DEI plan is an important part of our strategy, but it is not the ONLY part of our strategy is and not necessarily the MOST important

II. Vision & Approach

Before getting into our DEI strategy framework, let us recap our current DEI vision and the general approach we've established for ensuring this vision.

II. Vision & Approach

Vision

A sustainable, inclusive, and equity-focused community of support, fueled by transformative relationships & centered on antiracism, that works alongside our students and families to help them feel valued in schools, realize their full potential, and achieve in life

Vision

General Approach

1. Work with schools and families to establish a welcoming, restorative climate for our students

2. Engage our stakeholders & community partners in initiatives around the systemic barriers our students face

3. Challenge the influence of white supremacy culture in our policies, procedures, and partnerships to help uplift our staff, Board, and volunteers in their work to empower students.

Approach

II. Our DEI Strategy

There are six components of our DEI strategy. Each component works logically from the one before it. They include

1. Key Assumptions

2. Strategic Positioning

3. Supporting Factors

4. Potential Barriers

5. Areas of Focus

6. Framework

III. Our DEI Strategy

Assumptions

I. Assumptions

1. To create sustainable change, we need to develop & utilize positions of influence and leadership within our schools, our communities, and our own organization.

2. We will be met with a lot of resistance from various stakeholders and in a variety of ways.

Positioning

To sustain our approach, there are three positions we'll need to occupy:

1. School Partner

2. Community Thought Leader

3. Agency Leader

II. Positioning

School Partner

In order to continuously work with schools to promote a welcoming, restorative climate for our students, we need to be in a position where we can influence school culture, policy, and practices towards equity & justice. This position is characterized by a more equal partnership with the schools in which we serve.

School Partner

Community Thought Leader

In order to sustain engagement and focus around the systemic barriers our students face, we need to step into a leadership role in the community, educating our stakeholders & community partners and forging a path forward with effective initiatives for breaking down these barriers.

Community Thought Leader

Agency Leader

Challenging the influence of white supremacy culture in the agency requires that we engage all staff in the principles and practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion. This means that the agency must step into a leadership role, driving staff engagement & development in DEI as well as modeling these principles internally and externally.

Agency Leader

Supporting Factors

For each position we want to enter into, we need to determine what factors needs to be in place to make that happen.

III. Supporting Factors

School Partner

In order to establish a strong working partnership with schools where we can help foster a welcoming, restorative, and antiracist climate for our students, there are three factors that will determine our success:

1. Our ability to identify key issues or areas that need to be addressed

2. Our ability to develop effective, cooperative solutions or strategies for addressing these issues

3. Openness on the part of schools with respect to discussing and considering our solutions and strategies

School Partner

Community Thought Leader

In order to establish a leadership role in the community with regards to systemic barriers in education, certain factors need to be in place. These factors include:

1. Access to community platforms on which we can engage partners on these issues

2. Ability to implement effective strategies for engaging, uniting, and empowering partners on these platforms

3. A communication infrastructure for continually inform stakeholders on these issues

Community Thought Leader

Agency Leader

In order to lead the agency in doing DEI work, there are a few factors we need to have in place:

1. Clear & inspiring DEI statements, including mission, vision, values, and principles

2. Policies, procedures, processes, and training that empower all in the CIS family and support their investment in DEI

3. DEI commitment communicated regularly and in various ways & platforms for the CIS family

Agency Leader

Potential Barriers

Creating sustainable change for students & families is not going to be easy. For each position of influence or leadership we want to enter into, there will be potential barriers that will make this difficult and potentially unsustainable.

IV. Potential Barriers

School Partner

  • Lack of training or tools for understanding how to identify key issues or areas

  • Lack of training, experience, education in designing effective solutions to key issues

  • Resistance from schools in seeing CIS as an important or essential partner

  • Resistance from schools in seeing CIS as an authority on equity/justice issues

  • Resistance from schools in engaging in discussions around equity/justice

School Partner

Community Thought Leader

  • Lack of understanding for which community platforms would fit our needs

  • Lack of access to these platforms

  • Difficulty seeing CIS as a thought leader when it comes to equity, justice, systemic issues, etc.

  • Lack of training or experience with engaging people around these issues

  • Weak infrastructure for communication process

  • Not enough time/Not seen as high priority

Community Thought Leader

Agency Leader

  • Lack of inclusion in statement development
  • Statements not reflecting the experiences of staff, volunteers, Board
  • Lack of continual engagement with staff that show our commitment to DEI
  • Lack of training, education, data for making policies, procedures, and processes more empowering & equitable
  • Resistance from Board or leadership in developing these kinds of policies, procedures, processes
  • Lack of experience identifying training specific for our staff
  • Lack of resources (money, trainers/facilitators, time) for implementing training adequately

Agency Leader

Areas of Focus

Given the supporting factors we must meet and the barriers we have to look out for, there are three strategic areas of focus in which we want to concentrate our efforts:

1. Messaging

2. Engagement/Relationship-Building

3. Training

V.

Areas of Focus

Messaging

The communications we share need to be crafted & tailored so as to inform, persuade, and unify our different stakeholders & community partners on the issues we care about.

Messaging

School Partner

Our messaging approach when it comes to establishing our role as school partner should be centered on developing & communicating discussion points that position CIS staff as an authority on equity/justice issues.

School Partner

Community Thought Leader

Our messaging strategy for establishing our role as a community thought leader involves determining relevant, data-driven topics and messages for engaging community partners around structural barriers.

Community Thought Leader

Agency Leader

Our messaging approach for establishing the agency leader role will involve developing clear guidelines, updates, statements, and practices that inform staff of our DEI commitment and can guide staff in incorporating DEI into their work.

Agency Leader

Engagement/Relationship-Building

In conjunction with messaging, we need to ensure we are building relationships, internally and externally, based on trust, respect, and equity, and that we are engaging stakeholders & community partners in effective and inclusive ways.

Engagement/Relationship-Building

School Partner

Our engagement/relationship-building approach when it comes to establishing our role as school partner should be centered on increasing communications and conversations with schools around equity/justice issues.

School Partner

Community Thought Leader

Our engagement/relationship-building strategy for establishing our role as a community thought leader involves engaging community partners & stakeholders on a regular basis with effectively designed communication infrastructure, including scheduled posts, emails, community conversations, etc.

Community Thought Leader

Agency Leader

Agency Leader

Our engagement/relationship-building approach for establishing the agency leader role will involve

1. Including staff & Board in development of statements and with staff & Board in mind.

2. Developing spaces where DEI-related discussions with staff & Board can occur.

3. Conducting regular reviews of policies, procedures, and processes with a lens towards ensuring equity, flexibility, inclusion, and recognition.

Training

This category supports the other two. We need training that allows us to identify our areas of weakness, determine effective solutions for social issues, and feel confident in developing messages and communication strategies that will engage all our stakeholders & communities.

Training

School Partner

Our training approach when it comes to establishing our role as school partner should be centered on determining key equity or justice issues to address with schools as well as recommending strategic solutions for dealing with equity or justice issues in schools.

School Partner

Community Thought Leader

Our training strategy for establishing our role as a community thought leader involves providing training to our main presenters related to engagement strategies on key community platforms (leadership and Board).

Community Thought Leader

Agency Leader

Our training approach for establishing the agency leader role will involve Determining specific DEI development for site staff and selecting key trainings that support this development..

Agency Leader

Framework

There are five sequential questions we can ask ourselves whenever we must make a DEI-related decision:

1. Does the decision align with our vision & approach?

2. Does it support at least one of the three key positions?

3. Would it help us obtain or maintain one of the supporting factors?

4. Does it help address potential barrier?

5. Under which area of focus would it fall?

VI. Framework

IV. Next Steps

1. Determine accuracy and scope for each of the components of our strategy.

2. Determine responsible parties for each of the strategies in our areas of focus.

3. Re-assess current DEI efforts (plans, ideas, initiatives, etc.) within our framework to ensure alignment and support of our overall DEI strategy.

IV. Next Steps

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