DEI Success Stories: LWV of the Bay Area ILO

Veda Florez is the Communications Director of the LWV of the Bay Area in California. Twenty local Leagues across nine counties in the Bay Area make up this ILO. During an LWV-sponsored webinar , Veda shared three actions the League has taken as part of their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work.

ACTION: DEI Committee

They formed a DEI Committee and recruited a member who has professional DEI experience and attended the 2016 Convention to lead it. His first step was to meet with all board members for listening sessions on what DEI means for the Bay Area and what it means for the League.

RECOMMENDATION: Leagues should consider starting a DEI Committee that is ready and willing to lead the change, open to listening, and ready to work with the board on putting a DEI lens on the League’s work. Think about who might have expertise in this area and can lead or help with the committee.

ACTION: Meeting People Where They Are

Diversity means different things to the different communities. Efforts in the Bay Area to reach more individuals included Leagues visiting high schools to engage students, Leagues engaging with felons on their rights and issues, and focusing on transportation and redlining issues that were impacting many of the underrepresented communities in the region. In fact, redlining was identified as such a serious issue that their annual League Day was focused on that topic.

RECOMMENDATION: Communities have different needs and are diverse in different ways. Plan your outreach around core League issues in a way that makes sense to the needs of the community with which your League is trying to engage.

ACTION: Partner with Others on Training and DEI Education

The League engaged their local YWCA in their equity event. The YWCA offered a transformational inclusion training on explicit and implicit bias.

RECOMMENDATION: DEI is a resource-abundant topic. Look for organizations or individuals in your community to assist with training your board and/or members.

You can hear about the work Veda and other League Leaders are doing on the recording of our October 2018 DEI webinar.