Cultural Competency & Diversity

Analysis | Intentions | Goals

the BNC has elevated IDEB work in our strategic plan with a specific goal: Create a culture that advances inclusion, diversity, equity, and belonging inclusive of race, gender identity, ability, faith/spirituality, and sexual orientation as evidenced by a commitment to learning, teaching, and application of new knowledge and understanding.

Assessment

The BNC has recently assessed their organization, including persons served, team members, and other stakeholders, from a cultural perspective. The BNC has contracted with inclusion, diversity, equity, and belonging (IDEB) consultant Dr. Danica Moore and her company, 4tified Educational Practices, LLC.

Dr. Moore, in partnership with our BNC team members, IDEB Committee, and the Executive Team identified the following central “Flags” as it relates to IDEB:

1) Communication will directly drive:

Leadership is meeting team members and community members where they are at
Elevation for team members with racially diverse identities
A culture committed to professional development and merit rather than personal relationship so as to position team members into roles across the organization

2) Consistent learning with accountability and application will drive:

Language -- intentionality in what we are talking about when we talk; move away from “regardless of” and center work that is “regarding identity”
A mission statement inclusive of both our team members and community members

3) Organization Systems: Hiring, placing, labor and structures will directly drive:

A culture of safety at work. We will consider safety in multiple contexts inclusive of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and faith/spirituality.
A culture where team members can harness their identity specific to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and faith/spirituality.
The assessment and evaluation of policies, procedures and structures that are intentional and deliberate.
Addressing the “under the surface” pieces that move in and towards equity, moving BNC beyond surface level diversity improvements

Education

BNC team members and Board members will participate in the following training sessions with specific follow-up regarding accountability to this learning and application to our policies and procedures:

Discussing Race in the Space: Am I Ready to Engage?

As our nation continues to work towards understanding the connections and intertwined commitment to equity consisting of an intense and intentional analysis of race at all intersections and in all fields, we hear the "interest" of many driving their investment in learning. That same "interest" if not truly developed and monitored at the Personal before Professional layers, will only serve to protect and maintain the status quo, hidden historical truths, and the oppression of those demanding liberation. This workshop will provide space to reveal the layers that each individual needs to target for self-awareness, readiness for racial conversations, limitations in actions, and capacity building. Dr. Asa G. Hilliard once asked educators "Do you have the will, skill, capacity, and knowledge to transform [systems]?" This session invites those who have the will to go deeper into their exploration and foundational building of their skill, capacity, and knowledge as learners committed to supporting intentional systems transformation. This session will be attended by Board members, the Executive Team, the Operations Team, and all BNC Team Members.

Personal Before Professional: The Identity Wheel Exploration of Myself

This workshop seeks to bring an understanding of an individual’s own layers of identity at all intersections before engaging in courageous leadership centering equity. Oftentimes those “interested” in equity development and leadership, engage from a space where the norm is to focus on othering those who live identities society placed in the margins. However, to make an authentic shift to equity leadership, everyone must start with understanding their own personal identities and intersections, in order to hear from other critical perspectives, as well as teach to increase the capacity of those around us still developing leadership skills in equity. This session will be attended by the Executive Team and the IDEB Committee.

The Language of Equity: Entering the conversation with Critical Consciousness

The progression from diversity/multicultural focus to intersectional equity work requires an intense and intentional analysis of the “common language” that naturally can serve to dismiss the deliberateness of what equity work seeks to build. To build capacity in leadership, equity work requires learning and teaching. However, we know that we can’t teach what we don’t know; and what we know is exactly what we will teach. How does one teach if they don’t know what they are talking about or talking about equity in inaccurate terms? This workshop walks through the differences in the language that centers equity and what shifts are needed to have the conversations (talk) match our deliberate actions (walk). This session will be attended by Board members, the Executive Team, the Operations Team, and all BNC Team Members.

Foundational Microaggressions Workshop

Microaggressions?! What are they? How do I know if I have participated in them? How do they impact those around me who experience them most? We hear and use words like “microaggressions” in multiple contexts, but how was this term founded and coined? What differences and similarities lie between terms such as “discrimination”, “bias”, and “microaggression”? This workshop provides an understanding of the founding work of Dr. Chester M. Pierce and looks to enhance the knowledge and awareness of how microaggressions play out around us every day. This session will be attended by Board members, the Executive Team, the Operations Team, and all BNC Team Members.

Policy

As we improve throughout 2022, we will be adjusting the objectives to our goal in this area. BNC team members will work collaboratively with our consultant, our clients, and our community to strengthen and expand on efforts around inclusion, diversity, equity, and belonging.

Our commitment to IDEB is also supported by the following BNC policies: