EDIA Working Group EDIA Working Group Journey Toward Equity - - PDF document

EDIA Working Group EDIA Working Group

Journey Toward Equity Journey Toward Equity

SARAH We are here as representatives of the EDIA Working Group at NEFA, past and present. We are going to talk to you about our organizational journey toward equity, so far. Before we start, I want to highlight one of our group agreements for this presentation: we are all on this journey, but we are all at different places on the journey. We are all going to make mistakes. Let us do so bravely and move forward, not with shame, but with acknowledgement and learning.

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WHO ARE WE? Current Co-Chairs

• Sarah Kelley
• Abby Southwell

Past Co-Chair

• Quita Sullivan

Current and Former Working Group

• Rodrigo DelaTorre

SARAH We’re here today to talk to you about a group near and dear to all of our hearts, the NEFA Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (EDIA) working group. Sarah & Abby Current Co‐Chairs – Sarah Kelley and Abby Southwell Quita Past Co‐Chairs – Quita Sullivan and Daniela Jacobson Rodrigo Current members: Kristin Gregory, Kim Szeto, Derek Schwartz, Jug Chokshi and myself Rodrigo DelaTorre Past members: Meena Malik, Jane Preston, Sara Nash, Sharon Timmel and Steven Fenton. ABBY Over 50% of staff so far have served on the working group and we’re hoping to get to 100% 2

July 2017 artEquity facilitates all‐staff training August 2017 EDIA Working Group forms Winter 2017‐2018 NEFA staff lead dismantling White Supremacy workshops October 2017 NEFA board adopts 2018‐2021 Strategic Plan June 2018 Equity Quotient leads training at board retreat November 2018 artEquity facilitates second all‐staff training

FORMATION AND HISTORY

ABBY We want to begin by centering you in time. The history of the working group is only about 18 months long, but these have been extremely busy and fruitful months, packed with activity. In July 2017, all staff attended a training with artEquity, a wonderful organization with whom Quita had previous experience, having been part of the artEquity facilitator training. The NEFA staff training was a two‐day primer on issues related to equity within the workplace and the arts specifically. Leaving the training, there was a resounding sense among staff that we needed a place to pursue further conversations and learnings related to equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. From there, the EDIA working group was formed. The necessity of this group was only further emphasized when in October 2017, the board (you all?) formally adopted NEFA’s 2018‐2021 Strategic Plan – with EDIA as a key value and goal. 3 In the time since then, the working group has continued our community’s learning by supporting shared leadership in staff‐led trainings on Dismantling White Supremacy Culture, as well as trainings with outside facilitators Equity Quotient and artEquity to the board and to staff. We’ll speak more about these and other initiatives later in the presentation.

WORKING GROUP MISSION

• In order to contribute to

an equitable world, we need to be:

• Equitable internally
• Accountable to each
• ther as a community
• Committed to ongoing

growth and learning

QUITA This is the why of our group. (READ THEM OFF THE SLIDE) 4

STRATEGIES TOWARDS OUR MISSION

• Carrying out cross-organizational projects related to

equity

• Pursuing shared leadership and knowledge sharing
• Ensuring that we remain accountable
• Onboarding EDIA journey and resources for new staff
• Supporting NEFA’s new affinity groups

SARAH

These original goals of the working group developed from the work done at the first artEquity training, before the release of the completed Strategic Plan in October

• 2017. These goals are the benchmarks to which we hold ourselves accountable as a

working group.

• Carrying out internal and cross‐organizational projects related to equity
• Offering an opportunity for shared leadership and knowledge sharing throughout

the staff

• Accountability ‐ Ensuring that the commitments that were made to each other as

a community at the artEquity training and throughout the strategic planning process are upheld

• Onboarding new staff on NEFA’s EDIA journey and sharing training resources as

part of the employee orientation process

• Supporting NEFA’s new affinity groups and advocating for their resource needs

From there, NEFAns developed a structure and schedule for a group of staff to meet regularly and plan for how to stay accountable to the agreements we made to each other. 5

STRUCTURE OF WORKING GROUP

• 7 staff, rotate every six

months

• Equitable representational

member breakdown

• Monthly 1.5 Hour Meetings

RODRIGO Our group rotates through 7 staff at a time and serve for one year, this rotation is staggered in June and December for the most part; this is so that there is memory and continuity. When considering the make‐up of the group, we do our best to achieve equitable representation which reflects our full staff and we consider: Staff of color and white staff Programs and Operations staff Nonbinary, Female and Male staff Part time and Full time staff Core Team, Managers and Directors, Executive Leadership ‐ There is always one member of the Executive Leadership team. Our agenda is always packed and we meet for an hour and a half every month! 6

STRATEGIC PLAN GOAL #3

• Recognize, support, and

invest in equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility as essential in all aspects of internal processes and external

• pportunities to build a

strong arts sector

ABBY

Goal: ‐Recognize, support, and invest in EDIA as essential in all aspects of internal processes and external opportunities to build a strong arts sector After the strategic plan was finalized in October 2017, NEFAns dove into the work of

• perationalizing each goal. The EDIA working group took goal 3 as our primary

directive. In Spring 2018, staff sat together as a group and conducted an analysis of where we were and where we wanted to be in relation to goal 3. From this process, we developed strategies to begin to tackle at least part of this goal. The working group broke our strategies up by the audience of each strategy, with the identified audiences being: ‐Work related to internal NEFA staff ‐Work related to NEFA Board and Committees ‐Work related to NEFA Constituents

• Work related to NEFA Funders

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SCOPE OF CURRENT WORK

• Work related to internal NEFA staff
• Work related to NEFA Board and

Committees

Training, Processes, Structures, and Evaluation QUITA Recognizing that this is a huge scope of work, the working group determined in Spring 2018 that this working group’s key goal for the first year of the strategic plan would be the first two areas, internal staff and NEFA board and committees. While EDIA work is happening with constituents and funders, it is on a departmental and program level and is not led by this working group, at this time. We hope that a future board meeting can focus on a discussion of our EDIA work in program, event, and external operational work . We also identified four areas where the working group could contribute to these parts of NEFA: ‐Training ‐Processes ‐Structures ‐Evaluation 8

TRAINING

• artEquity staff trainings
• Equity Quotient board training
• Dismantling White Supremacy

Culture workshops

SARAH Here are some concrete examples of the work we’ve done so far. In terms of trainings…

We’ve had two contracts with external trainers: artEquity trainings: July 2017 and November 2018 We planned and executed both of these trainings with artEquity. These trainings act as touch points for the full staff to acknowledge the work we’ve done and the work we have left to do. Equity Quotient: June 2018 You, the board, participated in this training with Keryl McCord to loop NEFA’s board and staff into EDIA work and conversations. Keryl also did a follow up workshop with the full NEFA staff to debrief the board training. Dismantling White Supremacy Culture Workshops Staff developed and facilitated workshops in fall 2017 and spring 2018 that were an outcome of resources provided to us at the first artEquity training. Two‐hour brown bag lunch style sessions to work through questions about white supremacy culture in our work place and how to combat it

• rganizationally and within our teams.

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PROCESSES

• EDIA Orientation for new staff
• Discussion Guidelines/Group

Agreements

• Land Acknowledgement

QUITA In order to revise our practices, we had to take a look at the processes we use. We put together a two‐part orientation with resources and a short history of our EDIA work, much like the one you are getting today, as well as hands‐on activities to embody the values within the first few months of new staff’s time at NEFA. We put together group agreements based on the resources provided by artEquity, additional examples from staff’s external work, and our own internal needs at NEFA. We update them every few months with input from full staff and implement them at internal and external large group meetings. Group agreements generated by those

meetings also become an input into updating NEFA's own agreements. We have committed to starting our large meetings and convenings with a land acknowledgement as a way to model and institutionalize a practice which helps shine a light on the history of a place and its original caretakers.

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STRUCTURES

• Affinity Groups
• EDIA Budget Line Item
• Professional Development

RODRIGO

Aligning NEFA’s internal culture with EDIA goals requires creation and recreation of some structures. Staff interest led to the formation of the Affinity Groups where staff that share an identity can gather. Currently these are: People of Color, LGBTQIA and Core and we’re flexible and will surly support the creation of more as the need arises. We have also advocated for the addition of a specific organizational budget line item for EDIA and we have achieved this in FY19 we have a budget of about $25,000 which gives us the ability to plan and find next steps. We have also created a structure for sharing and distribution of professional development opportunities both EDIA and general staff development related. This led to the creation of the Staff Development and Training Working Group. Which has increased our capacity for learning and growth 11

EVALUATION

• Cross-Department

Collaboration

• Oversight for all NEFA program

and operations work

• Area for Growth in next two

years of strategic plan

ABBY Our final focus area for FY19 has been evaluation.

One way we have contributed to an evaluative culture is by providing opportunities for cross‐department collaboration. At our working group meetings, we often host staff as guests to talk through a specific project or question. For example, in the planning for this year’s CCX event, Dee has used the working group as a place for idea generation and review around topics like accessibility of space and planning programming. This also has a benefit in that it allows for conversations to happen around equity that otherwise might go overlooked. Our existence incentivizes everyone at NEFA to use a reflective and mindful EDIA lens, and gives them a space to discuss the challenges they encounter in their everyday work. However, evaluation is still an area for growth in next two years of strategic plan.

We recognize that we as a working group have only existed for 18 months, and we wanted to let the work happen before we took a step back to evaluate. As you will see in a moment, many of our upcoming priorities are related to ways to be more evaluative.

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UPCOMING PRIORITIES

• Evaluation of past and current efforts
• Group Agreement Updates
• Transparency of Hierarchies and Shared Leadership
• Sharing EDIA Journey Externally
• Advocating for continued investment in EDIA

ABBY/SARAH ABBY:

These are a few of our varied and ever‐changing priorities. We strive to always move forward, but remain nimble enough to recognize emerging areas of need as they present themselves. Because this work has no end point, we aim for continued progress and not perfection. As we move forward, we still have work to do internally: Evaluation of past and current efforts Evaluating working group based on the goals and benchmarks set Set new realistic benchmarks for FY20 and FY21 Group Agreement Updates How to develop, agree upon, and enforce accountability measures internally first, then with external stakeholders How do group agreements shift in phone or zoom meetings – do we need to add more or adjust for other ways of meeting? Transparency of Hierarchies and Shared Leadership Models 13

Moving beyond recognizing power dynamics and shifting them for more equitable and effective work Increased shared understanding of feedback models – giving and receiving feedback SARAH We also recognize that it is time to start sharing our EDIA journey so far externally with constituents, both as a means of self‐reflection and to continue to be leaders in the field by sharing the knowledge we’ve gained.

• Current presentation to the board – first formal presentation outside of NEFA staff
• CCX 2019 full group sessions – first time to share our journey publicly
• EDIA blog series ‐ working with communications to share and tag blogs specifically

focused around our internal and external work Advocating for continued investment in EDIA from NEFA funders

• Barr Grant
• Duke General Operating Grant
• We prioritize research and development toward additional EDIA specific funding to

grow our scope of work. 13

The journey continues…

edia@nefa.org

Concrete examples – hiring process, RFP process, EDIA event process created by Kamaria

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