PEN’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion

PEN’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Plan 2021

PEN’s Board members, staff and key volunteers are charged with ensuring that our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) plan is integrated and followed. This includes: 

    1. Ensure that all aspects of the organization are grounded in Equity, Belonging, & Social Emotional Learning.
    2. Provide training for board members, staff, and volunteers to increase understanding and inform programs and processes. Specific training includes the topics of: Bias; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and Social Emotional Learning.
    3. Increase the number of diverse presenters in all content areas, who are specifically committed to speak from an equity lens.
    4. Deliver low cost presentations and workshops, with scholarship availability
    5. Conduct surveys to determine needs of communities and best ways of delivering content.
    6. Ensure Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Pledge is committed to and signed by all board members, staff, collaborators, and presenters.
    7. Deliver presentations in native language (or with interpretation).
    8. Review and translate handouts, ensuring that they are culturally relevant. Secure Spanish resources for those areas that are missing.
    9. Deliver educational events and materials through a variety of venues to increase accessibility:  in-person, virtual, recorded webinars, podcasts, downloadable resources. Work with our community partners to provide programs directly to their parent communities.

 

PEN Anti-Discrimination Statement 

The Parent Engagement Network (PEN) shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, health status or military status, in any of its activities or operations. These activities include, but are not limited to hiring and firing of staff, selection of volunteers, selection of vendors, and provision of services.

PEN’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Pledge

We recognize that diversity and inclusion are multifaceted issues and that we need to tackle these subjects holistically to better engage and support all underrepresented groups within our organization and those who we serve. To do this, we believe we also need to address honestly and head-on the concerns and needs of our diverse staff, board members, and volunteers and increase equity for all, including Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, LGBTQ, disabled, veterans and women or any historically underrepresented group. As nonprofit leaders we agree that we must do more. For us, this means committing to four goals we believe will catalyze further conversations and actions around diversity and inclusion within the workplace and foster collaboration with other community organizations:

    1. We will continue to make our board and work environment a trusting place to have complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations about diversity and inclusion.
    2. We will implement and expand unconscious bias education.
    3. We will share best—and unsuccessful—practices: We will commit to helping other organizations evolve and enhance their current diversity strategies and encourage them, in turn, to share their successes and challenges with us.
    4. We will create and share strategic inclusion and diversity plans with our board of directors. Our board and staff will work together to develop and evaluate concrete, strategic action plans to prioritize and drive accountability around diversity and inclusion. 

We recognize that these four commitments are not the complete answer, but we believe they are important, concrete steps toward building more diverse and inclusive environments. Let’s create a culture that allows all of our people to bring their best selves forward and unleash their full potential and cultivate meaningful change for our society.