Sustainability Network — the Environment & Diversity Project
By Louise Chatterton Luchuk
July 26, 2010
TORONTO, ON // The Environment & Diversity Project is a collaborative project of the Sustainability Network designed to help Ontario environmental nonprofit organizations consider, develop, and implement strategies to better reflect and engage under-represented ethno-cultural and Aboriginal communities. This is one jam-packed project! Not only does it provide capacity building support to environmental organizations interested in diversifying their audiences, but it also provides opportunities for young professionals from under-represented communities by providing internship employment. Furthermore, the project helps create networks by facilitating links between diversity resources and the environmental nonprofit community.
Perfect fit
This is a perfect fit with the mandate of the Sustainability Network, a capacity building organization that provides leadership and organizational development opportunities for a network of nonprofit environmental organizations. Says project manager Sonia Dong, "The Sustainability Network looks for strategic opportunities to fill gaps or areas where members are having challenges. Diversity and inclusion is definitely one of those areas. That's how we came up with the idea of working on an organizational change process with a number of organizations to help them become more inclusive — from governance to human resources and programming."
One and a half years into this four-year Ontario Trillium Foundation Future Fund project and Dong and her team members are busy working closely with six partner organizations:
These organizations all responded to a call for interest during the proposal-writing phase. As Dong points out, this list of partners provides a good cross-section of organizations — from small, grassroots ones up to organizations that are national in scope — and will show what is possible as well as what challenges each organization faces.
The project started with Sustainability Network working with these six partners to build a foundation for organizational change. That involved an initial survey and interviews with the collaborative partners about successes, challenges and needs related to diversity. This information determined training/coaching priorities. Training and coaching are major aspects of the project and accordingly there are two diversity trainers on the resource team to provide customized ethno-cultural and Aboriginal diversity training and ongoing coaching to support organizations within the collaborative.
Internal Champion + Intern
Another key component of this project's approach to organizational change was the identification of an internal champion (someone with decision-making power) within each organization. However, the Sustainability Network's model for change went one step further. "We looked at the challenge of diversity and inclusion and knew that a lot of our organizations wanted to become more diverse but people don't feel they had the resources — funding or time," acknowledges Dong. "We knew we needed someone to be the champion within the organization, to look at things through a different lens. But we also knew that these people didn't have a ton of time so bringing in interns would be an extra person to help them. We could make more progress that way by building the confidence of the diversity champions and providing support in the form of interns."
So, the second year of the project started with the hiring of a project intern for each partner organization. Interns are there to do the ground work, outreach and research to support the decision-making champion within each partner organization. Each intern was chosen because of their interesting skill sets, experience working with diverse communities and the specific languages of the communities that each partner organization wants to engage.
The Environment & Diversity Project also wants to invest in the interns as young leaders so part of the project involves supporting the leadership potential of these six young interns. Dong enthusiastically talks about the potential of the project to support passionate young people, to profile them and give them opportunities for a viable career path option. Says Dong, "This is not just an investment in the interns but also a strategy in terms of environmental organizations looking for new talent by helping them to work with young professionals from under-represented communities."
At this stage, the partners (as well as the Sustainability Network itself) are working through an organizational Diversity Action Planning process. After an analysis of the results, organizations will be encouraged to develop a diversity committee made up of the project champion, intern and board member at minimum to help promote diversity leadership in the organizations.
A snapshot of... |
Who: Sustainability Network
Mandate/Mission: To enrich Canadian environmental
leaders
and nonprofit organizations through programs, services and support that help them increase their capacity to lead, manage, and strategize.
Location: Toronto, ON
When established: 1997
Number of staff: 2.5
Number of volunteers: 6
Budget: $488,900
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Wider impact
An important component of the project is sectoral change — not just change with a small group of six partners. To that end, once the partners have completed their preliminary plans, examples will be available to share with other sector organizations. Also, near the end of this year, Sustainability Network will roll out a series of public workshops as well as a mini grants program to support the diversity and inclusion initiatives of members of the Sustainability Network's wider membership. In 2011, Dong is planning a diversity conference. This will be a very hands-on interactive symposium and, says Dong, "We will have people from ethno-cultural and Aboriginal communities involved in planning and leading sessions. As well, our six partners and the interns will also share their experiences." A project Advisory Council also helps disseminate learnings sector-wide and will help shape the upcoming conference.
Change can be slow but Dong concludes, "If we don't celebrate the small successes and talk them up within our organizations — as well as within our larger networks – we won't progress. People still think of diversity as an add-on that would be nice." The Environmental & Diversity Project is a forward-thinking, multi-faceted approach to organizational change. Starting with six partner organizations and expanding out to the wider environmental sector, Dong and the Sustainability Network are helping people think about — and incorporate — diversity and inclusion into their regular day-to-day work.
Louise Chatterton Luchuk provides research and resources for organizations that want to strategically move forward. She is a consultant and writer who combines her love of writing with research and project management experience at the regional, provincial and national levels of voluntary/nonprofit organizations. You can reach Louise at info@luchuk.com.
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