DEI Toolkit

Many practitioners in our fields want to begin or continue their work toward a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, accessible, antiracist, and fair New York but they do not know where to start or pick up the thread. This list of actionable items offers some suggestions, which correspond to the tools and resources found in the toolkit.

These actionable items invite practitioners to:

Learn

• Individual, interpersonal, organizational, and structural DEI
• Intersectionality
• History and effects of systemic racism and discrimination
• Accessibility and accommodations
• Evolving terminology
• State of the sector: credentialing, pay scale, and representation

Reflect

• Conceptualize a broader definition of diversity
• Evaluate our individual, organizational, and systemic intersections with DEI

Act

• Manage complex change
• Convene and host affinity groups
• Learn from directly impacted people
• Build sector solidarity
• Create and deploy surveys that help you understand your workforce, volunteers, and users
• Convene and host difficult conversations
• Repair harm
• Build and fortify relationships
• Create accessible spaces, programs, materials, and collections
• Audit and evaluate collections
• Create, review, and revise policies, statements, and governing documents to support DEI
• Identify gaps in your professional learning needs, and schedule additional training
• Advocate to credentialing authorities for changes in workforce training that advance accessibility and inclusion