Phase 2.2

Mobilizing Stakeholders: Mid-Level

The organization has a stated commitment to racial equity, diversity and inclusion and has gathered and reviewed their data for most stakeholders and programs. The organization has seen some advancement of racial equity goals and processes for internal stakeholders and programs, but needs to continue to codify clear goals, feedback processes, and accountability measures. Across the board, the organization has established DEI processes that support deepening team members’ capacity for racial equity work and understanding their personal responsibility for change.  Individual team members engage regularly in personal & professional development that focuses on how they can operationalize racial equity into their work. However, the organization is unsure how to move their racial equity efforts toward deeper sustainable systemic change.

The organization may struggle with how to authentically engage with external stakeholders, like community members, as a critical part of their DEI strategy. It is clear that external stakeholders want to be a part of the process, but the organization leaders might believe it would slow down progress or productivity.

The organization and named leader may have written racial equity, diversity and inclusion expectations. Some leadership team members excel at inclusionary practices, but not all.The organization is also actively collecting and analyzing data, but is not yet seeing consistent results across the board.

In this phase, the racial equity team should focus on:

  1. Develop and establish your RET’s goals and desired vision for racial equity.
  2. Utilize and refine relevant DEI tools to evaluate organizational policies to identify systemic barriers to change
  3. Collect data from external stakeholders on the organization’s racial equity goals to increase transparency and engagement
  4. Develop a budget for racial equity work and begin to build relationships with funders who support this work.
  • Step 1:
    As a team, develop and establish your RET’s goals/ desired vision for racial equity.
  • Step 2:
    Utilize and refine relevant DEI tools to evaluate organizational policies to identify systemic barriers to change.
  • Step 3:
    Collect data from external stakeholders on the organization’s racial equity goals to increase transparency and engagement.
  • Step 4:
    Develop a budget for racial equity work and begin to build relationships with funders who support this work.
STEP 1:STEP 2:STEP 3:STEP 4:

Step 1:

As a team, develop and establish your RET’s goals/ desired vision for racial equity.

Questions to consider:

  • What are the school/organizational core values, mission, and vision?
    • In what ways can the shared vision for racial equity be woven into the current values, mission, and vision?
  • What are you striving for? This can give clues to your goals
  • Does your school/organization have a current racial equity statement? If so, what is it? If not, consider creating one.
  • What existing feedback loops exist can your Racial Equity Taskforce/Committee use to gather feedback and buy-in on the racial equity vision?
  • How will your taskforce develop a plan to include leadership team members?

Actions to consider:

  • Create a vision statement for DEI. (1, 2)
  • Utilize SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time Oriented) goals as a framework/template. (4)
  • Use your baseline data to inform the goals (3, 4)
  • Set specific, measurable goals for removing identified barriers
  • Create clear timelines for achieving these goals
  • Allocate adequate resources to meet these goals
  • Ensure accountability and responsibility for meeting goals
  • Include a mechanism for regularly reviewing and evaluating progress towards the identified goals.
  • Don’t get bogged down yet with the strategies, key actions, for now, you are focusing on where you want to go.

Resources:

  1. Sample Racial Equity Statements
  2. Asking Hard Questions: How We Created a Racial Equity Statement
  3. How to Elevate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Work in Your Organization – Knowledge@Wharton
  4. Five Practices for Developing and Staying Accountable to Racial Equity Goals
PreviousPhase
Phase 2.1: Developing
Next Phase
Phase 2.3: High
Menu