About a year ago, the CCT Board embarked on a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion journey. The 2020-2021 task force was led by a wise and passionate team of CCT volunteers, including Tricia Craig, Alison French, Valerie Godhwani, and Peter Ingram.
They helped the board begin to understand our current situation and develop a high-level roadmap to begin the development of policies, practices, and organizational behaviors that foster authentic Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. They helped guide the board in understanding of how our experience and privilege shaped so many of our assumptions and what we do not know. The task force completed a number of key activities to get us to today:
Curated learning resources to assist CCT Board members’ personal DEI journeys
Crystallized the “why” for CCT. Why DEI and why now? (You can find the Why statement here)
Researched DEI efforts in peer organizations
Vetted over 20 DEI consultants and recommended Humanity thru Equity, to help identify CCT’s blind spots
Engaged a cross-section of 30+ CCT stakeholders
Proposed a roadmap of short- and long-term recommendations for the Board’s consideration
Importantly, through its work with the consultants, the task force identified factors that shaped its recommendations:
Sequence addressing: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (EDIB) in this order
Improve awareness for non-CCT perspectives (“other”-ing, safety)
Recognize CCT’s need to create spaces of Belonging for all volunteers including BIPOC and other non-dominant groups to be their full authentic selves
We're now establishing a committee to hold CCT and the board accountable for the ongoing work, overseeing improvements and providing ongoing support including engaging with contracted EDIB expertise. As we have learned through this process, this is an unending journey, both personally and as an organization. We look forward to journeying with each of you!
- Lisa Coney and Lorri Veidenheimer
Co-Chairs, Community Consulting Teams of Boston
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