Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB)
VDC’s DEIB Mission
VDC prioritizes policies, practices, values and dynamics that nurture and sustain DEIB by advancing the rigorous self-reflection and education of our professional members.
VDC’s DEIB Vision
VDC members honor, celebrate and advocate for DEIB within and beyond our organization. We extend beyond our familiar comfort zones to represent and respect the broad richness of our diverse communities, partners, professionals and clients.
Diversity & VDC’s Bylaws, XIV A:
“A. Diversity Committee
As an organization committed to social justice, VDC affirms a duty to embody the social justice we wish to see in the social systems with which we are inextricably interrelated.
VDC and its representatives shall honor an unqualified commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the principles of mutual respect, social justice and environmental protection which this commitment implies.
Therefore, a Diversity Committee shall be a perpetual Committee of the VDC Board that furthers and upholds this unqualified commitment by, for example, working to ensure that our members, staff, community partners, volunteers and populations served are diverse and reflect the members and interests of our broader communities.
The Diversity Committee’s guidance and recommendations are proactively sought whenever setting policy, hiring, making appointments, procuring goods and services, marketing, soliciting memberships and donations, providing written materials and all other actions that affect VDC’s impact on and its collaborations with the broader community. To help us hold our commitment to diversity in mind, one member of each Board Committee shall be selected by that committee based on diversity-related interest, experience and training to serve and liaison with the Diversity Committee.
In addition, the Diversity Committee shall establish evolving educational materials regarding, for example:
- Definitions
- Identifying organizational values, dynamics and approaches that support social justice, inclusion and belonging,
- Guidelines for managing in-house, diversity-related concerns (with input from the Membership Committee),
- An Honoring Diversity Statement, which may include the Diversity Committee’s specific functions, Acknowledgements of Presuppositions, Mission, Approach and Goals,
- Updated Modest Means Resources for VDC program participants who may not be able to access our services, and
- Determining which of these materials or others to include on VDC’s website.”
