CREATING INCLUSIVE COMMUNITIES:
AN INQUIRY INTO ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACHES TO PURSUING DIVERSITY

Summary

Members of the service-learning community have expressed commitment to strengthening diversity in the service-learning field by increasing diversity among students, practitioners, and advocates, and ensuring that the "conceptions of service" underlying service opportunities foster diversity priorities. While various efforts are underway, many field leaders believe it is time to intensify attention to these issues.

This report grew out of one such effort within Learning In Deed, an initiative sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to increase quality K-12 service-learning opportunities.
Sparked, in part, by staff participation in Learning In Deed, the National Youth Leadership Council launched the Service-Learning Diversity Project to strengthen dialogue and action on diversity within the service-learning field.

To support this effort, staff of the National Youth Leadership Council and other participants in Learning In Deed believed it would be useful to know how groups outside the service-learning community have pursued diversity work. This report presents approaches and activities described in interviews with 18 practitioners, researchers, activists, and consultants reflecting on promising diversity work undertaken by groups and organizations in the nonprofit, corporate, and public sectors. These respondents' views can be summarized as follows:

"Diversity" is a complex and evolving notion. Many diversity efforts focused on race and ethnicity at their start but then gradually expanded to address other dimensions of diversity, such as gender. As the diversity agenda has broadened, groups have increasingly emphasized inclusiveness and equity as important priorities.

Organizations employ a common set of approaches for pursuing diversity. These approaches are consistent with most organizational change efforts and typically involve developing a framework of understanding; assessing need; implementing specific strategies and tactics; and evaluating work.

Change within individual groups and organizations can leverage more widespread change within a field of practice. Respondents described three approaches that foster fieldwide improvement: using collaborative inquiry to expand common learning; changing policies and practices within professional associations and networks; and showcasing organizational success with diversity efforts.

Common factors foster or inhibit diversity progress. Conditions that appear critical to diversity progress include:

• promoting a shared understanding of diversity priorities;

• linking diversity objectives to organizational mission;

• sharing responsibility and communicating broadly so that change occurs on multiple levels; and

• seeing diversity work as an ongoing process, not a "project," and allocating resources in keeping with this long-term perspective.

The approaches and activities shared by those interviewed for this report serve as models for how the service-learning community might build a stronger and more inclusive field of practice. While these lessons cannot provide a blueprint for change, they point to important subjects for discussion. Drawing from respondents' experiences, the report concludes by raising a series of questions to catalyze further conversation about diversity change within the service-learning field.

The spirit of the change stories reflected in this report is cautiously hopeful. Across different sectors and fields of practice, many organizations and groups have made headway in pursuing diversity and many leaders have become savvy about approaches conducive to success. At the same time, nearly all respondents acknowledged that change had been slow and difficult to achieve, and that their efforts were by no means complete.

Taken together, these stories show that diversity is not only a challenge but also an opportunity. Seizing the opportunity presented by diversity can help us build stronger, more inclusive communities for all.

Full report in PDF format

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