Begin at the beginning: steps, stumbles and learnings on the path to understanding and implementing DEI practices in regional ENGO.

In 2018, Georgia Strait Alliance made the decision to begin the journey of addressing the complex issue of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in our organization, one that like many environmental groups in BC lacks diversity in its staff and board. We prioritized this as we recognized there is an inherent risk that our work and our organization could become irrelevant if we don’t represent the communities we claim to serve. In addition to diversity, we also needed to address the need to deepen our relationships with indigenous communities in the Georgia Strait region and reflect those relationships in our campaigns and programs. We recognized that until this became a strategic priority, one backed by the allocation of funds in our budget, we would never address these fundamental challenges. Our journey in the last year has included bringing staff and board together for a full day session that focused on getting everyone onto the same page about what DEI is and why an environmental group needed to begin addressing these issues. Over the course of the last year, we’ve focused on shared learning and supporting each member of our team on their personal journey of learning and understanding. We’ve made small steps to move from learning and ideas to actions, including at the board level. Our focus in the next year is to continue our shared learning, in particular among the leadership team, but also to develop a plan to operationalize some of the ideas we’ve come up with in areas of hiring, process and board recruitment. During this talk I’ll share what we’ve learned in the last year and some of our plans for the year ahead.