Working with diversity & power in your organization

Definitions

Census - information about the population that's collected by the government that can tell you the languages spoken in your area, age ranges, cultural background, income, race and much more about the people in your community. 
Conflict of interest - when someone uses their power, officially or unofficially, to influence the group's activities in a way that will benefit them personally.
Focus group - a small group representing a particular community that will help provide information about your group's relationships to their community.
Needs assessment - a survey or series of interviews that assesses the needs of your group, your clients, members, volunteers, staff etc. It also identifies what needs are currently being met and what needs are not being met, and makes suggestions for improvement.
Outreach - another word for communication. It implies an awareness of an inner circle, the norm already established within the group. This inner group must learn to "reach out" to become more diverse.
 

The need for diversity

Ask yourself these questions:

	Does everyone who has (or could have) an interest in your group know about what you do?
	Do the people in your group represent the people that you serve or speak for?
	Does everyone who gets involved in your group participate equally?
	Do you meet the needs or provide services that are equally useful and needed by everyone you should be serving?
	Does everyone in your group feel comfortable with your group's structure, activities and policies?

It would be unusual for any group to say yes to all these questions. Many groups haven't even thought about asking them to begin with. It's important to consider these issues because small groups often repeat the same structures, assumptions and mistakes that are made in society at large.

We come together in groups because they're so powerful - we can accomplish more than if we worked on our own. However, our personal prejudices can take on new power as we enforce them by developing policy, claiming to speak on behalf of a community, developing hiring qualifications and creating an informal group culture. 

Not having diversity in your group can limit your effectiveness and understanding of the issues you're working on. For example, if no one in your group is Portuguese, you may not know about the big Portuguese community centre just down the street. Even if you've seen it, you aren't as likely to develop any networks with it because it's unfamiliar to you.

We bring valuable personal experiences to a group - that's probably why we get involved. If everyone in the group shares those experiences, working in the group comes quickly and easily - we all agree on some basic things. This comfort comes from the power of getting together and sharing our experiences; but it also comes from our shared assumptions. What happens when those shared experiences don't reflect our community? What happens if our assumptions exclude people from our organization? The barriers we set up may be invisible to us from the inside - but they are very effective at keeping people out.

Working with power and diversity is an ongoing task because power structures are always being reinforced by society. There are a number of steps your group can go through to be more welcoming and fair, but it's important to remember that it isn't something you do once, get perfect and forget about! It's an ongoing process.
 

Assessing where you stand

Defining your community

Define your community by asking yourself, who are the people who share your issues, concerns and needs? For example, if your group is working on a bike lane on your street, your community might be the people on the street, local businesses and other groups who are working on bikes in their neighbourhood. There may are there people who might use your street but not live in your area. they could part of your community too. 

Does your community expand beyond the city? The province? If you end up defining a whole city - try and look at the different sections of the city - what do you know about the people who live there? Is it possible that their concerns might be different? What would you like to learn about them?

Are there other groups that face the same problems? Are there potential allies that you could work with?

Does your community relate to a specific area? If so, get the census information about the people in that area. It will probably be quite eye-opening. You may even want to do some research yourself, for example, stand along your bike lane route and ask people who ride past where they're from and where they're going.
 

Looking for who's missing - how well does your group reflect your community?

Compare the representation of people already involved in your organization with what you might expect it to be statistically - based on your census survey or other forms of research. You can also compare it to your goals - for example, if you want to work on behalf of youth, you may want to have a higher-than-average proportion of youth in your organization.
 

Assessing your resources

Take an inventory of:

1. Your physical space

	is it wheelchair accessible?
	is it an intimidating building?
	if you have meetings at night, is it in a safe area?
	is it in a prominent place in the community?
	is it easy to find?
	what kind of atmosphere does your office have?
	what groups and people do you share your space and/or resources with? are there resources you could offer other community groups?
	is it easy to find things in your office space?
	is it in a private home?
	look at the posters on the walls of your office? what races, genders and cultures are represented?

2. Your printed materials

	who are they written for?
	who would understand them best? who would identify with them best?
	do they have a lot of difficult words, acronyms (eg. TCCC, TO, CBN) or jargon (eg. sustainable transportation, traffic calming) that need explanation?
	what languages are they in?
	what images are represented?

3. Group norms (that got established when no one was looking) 

	do you assume everyone who volunteers has a computer?
	do you assume everyone knows how to facilitate a meeting?
	do you meet at a time that's convenient for parents?
	do you provide TTC tokens for people who can't afford travels costs to come to your meetings?
	is everyone equally informed about what's happening in your organization?
	can people take on a variety of roles and duties in your organization? do you provide training and opportunities for people to learn new skills and take on new roles?
	where do you go for drinks or coffee after a meeting - an expensive restaurant, a heterosexual bar?

Taking the next steps

There are probably some obvious gaps in your group, most groups have them. If this happens, the next step is to figure out why your groups lacks diversity and how you can change.
 

1. Identify what you want to learn

	Create a set of questions that you'd like to know. These may be questions like:
	What concerns would a TTC user who lives in Scarborough have that would be different that a TTC user who lives in the Annex?
	What proportion of the people in our area would be more comfortable reading our pamphlet in a language other than English?
	How many youth in our area are unemployed and are they interested in our programs?
	If one third of the people in our area are Chinese, why is there no one in our group who's Chinese?

2. Get input and feedback

You might think the next step would be to figure out answers to these questions. However, it's actually easier, and more accurate, to ask. Communicating with people who aren't involved in your organization is very important - especially if you want to be an open, dynamic group that represents your community.

The answers you get will often be surprising - that's why it's so important to ask these questions. For example, there was a university Women's Centre where most of the volunteers were white. However, it was clear that over 45% of the population in the community were people of colour. Originally, the Centre felt that maybe feminism's reputation as a "white dyke" thing was keeping women of colour away. However, after surveying volunteers, they found out that they were recruiting volunteers through Women's Studies programs. This had seemed logical, but in fact, it was just convenience. Although they sent a newsletter to many places, they only followed up with in-class talks for Women's Studies, where the classes were mostly white. These classes were chosen because volunteers already involved with the Centre were in Women's Studies, so it was easy to make a class presentation. This personal contact of talking in class was the most effective outreach. When the Centre made an effort to do this type of recruiting in a wider variety of faculties, the Centre and its programs began to represent the university population far more accurately.

Part of welcoming new people and being willing to share power is the realization that they will bring many skills and experiences with them that you aren't aware of. Diverse involvement will change your organization - you will be more responsive to your community. This can be unpleasant for people because it means giving up power in "your" organization. The priorities and energies of the group will change, and you might find yourself missing the comfortable feeling of being in the majority. However, being aware of the need for diversity and your responsibility to pursue it will make the process of outreach easier.
 

Steps to reach out to a community

	Go to the source for your information - the community itself. Ask representatives of a community you want to reach to give you feedback and information about how your group looks from the outside.
	Make a survey about your group (have people heard about you, what do they think you do, what would they like to see?) You can ask people on the street to fill out the survey, dropping off surveys at key locations and events or even do a door-to-door survey.
	Have a meeting with members of other community organizations. They will have helpful knowledge. This may also be a good first step to working together on common issues.
	Hold a small group meeting (often called a "focus group") where you ask people from that community about what they think about your group and how it can meet their needs. A focus group assumes that if you ask 10 people questions, you'll get similar answers to asking 100 people, but you'll get the answers faster. You can see if people in your group know anyone you could ask, or you could take an ad out in the paper. It's customary to at least provide free food and TTC tokens in exchange for the information. If you place an ad, paying about $20 to $40 for a two hour interview is standard. You need about 4 to 8 people for a focus group, and you can have several groups that represent different communities (for example, if you want to hear what young mothers, business people or students think about your organization, you could arrange a small group meeting for each of those groups).

Steps for getting feedback from your members

You can also get feedback about the experience of people within your organization. In particular, you may want to ask for their experience about:

1. Levels of power and divisions within the group
Quite often, there's a lot of diversity within the organization, but the people in power are all the same and the people who aren't in power are all the same. For example, all the men work on one aspect of the group, all the women are involved in something else. Another example is youth who work on events, but never get training in administration. Or perhaps, all your program trainees are working class, but all the trainers have university degrees.

2. People who don't stay involved with your group
It's very important to get the feedback from people who were interested but left fairly quickly? 
Were they put off by your group or are they just busy?

3. The location of power
Is there a core group of people who make all the decisions and attend all the meetings?
Are your meetings in a public space at regular times? 
How easy is it to find out where a meeting is being held? Do you need to be invited (this doesn't refer to policy, but casual practices, for example, only some people are reminded about the meeting)? 
Who does the inviting? 
Who gets invited?
 

You can use a survey, focus group, volunteer meeting or other way to find out the answer to these and other questions you might have. If you suspect that people might want to make negative comments, you may want to provide an opportunity for people to respond privately, such as using a survey with no names attached to the responses.
 

3. Working in Partnerships

Partnerships with other community organizations lets you share your networks to help you market joint-produced material, accurately identify the concerns of your communities and establish credibility for your groups.

Sometimes that partnership takes the form of one person who is a member of both groups. However, the partnership is likely to last longer and have a bigger impact on both groups if it's a more formalized arrangement, that involves several people in both groups meeting with each other and working together on joint programs.

It's good to begin outreach with another community group because it makes you think:

	what do we want?
	what can we offer?
	what do they want?
	what can they offer?

Two groups working in partnership have a better balance of power than a single individual working from inside a group. Your partnerships can also help you recruit more diverse members as you establish credibility in diverse communities, and give new volunteers from those communities an indication that your group is open to dealing with these issues.

It is important that every group participates equally in your partnership. Sometimes one group will dominate a "partnership" because they have staff or resources and other groups don't, or because they really just want other groups to support their programs and don't listen to their partner groups. Make sure that the goals of the partnership are clear and that each participant has an opportunity to give ideas, make decisions and share control of the partnership.
 
 

4. Staff

Staff are a core element in creating the culture and personality of an organization. Having diversity among your staff will help your efforts for outreach on a daily basis. Having an open hiring policy is essential for bringing new people into your organization - even for short term work, many people will get involved through paid work and stay to volunteer. To maximize diversity on your staff:

a) eliminate unnecessary barriers from the requirements for job openings (for example, instead of asking for a university degree ask for related experience in a given field, either through formal education, paid work or volunteer work).

b) add your outreach goals as part of the criteria for all jobs. For example, you can ask for familiarity and experience working with the Caribbean community, or Spanish as a second language. These skills are newly identified assets to your organization. Don't just make a single, short-term job to deal with these issues, change the priorities throughout your organization.

c) make sure all positions are widely advertised, including several community papers.

d) don't hire in a rush. Leave plenty of time to advertise, interview and make a decision. Ideally, if you don't find a suitable candidate, you should have time to re-open the hiring process and try again.
 
 

However, being a staff person is not always a position of power. It is also important that:

a) staff people's skills and contributions in creating diversity is an important aspect of their job description. Don't ask them to take on work that you benefit from (ie. involvement with other community groups) for free. For example, if they attend meetings to network for you, that should be part of their work time.

b) staff expertise, opinions and ideas for programming, policies and other changes are solicited, respected and (in most cases) followed.

c) include your staff people in meetings and decisions.

d) don't ask your staff to represent everyone in "their" community or establish credibility for your group. Your staff person is just one aspect of your overall strategy.
 

5. Consultants

Don't rely on your own skills to figure out how you're doing. This is new territory for you, and it's hard to see what's happening when you're on the inside. Invite outsiders to come and do workshops, interview people or analyze your group and make a report. This will give you some objective feedback about your group and help focus and sustain your efforts over the long term. 
 

6. Education

Often, affirmative action programs have run into problems because the management decides that they will hire a quota of people, and then leave them to deal with the negative reactions of their co-workers. Making a single change to promote diversity without providing support to sustain it will create a stressful atmosphere for everyone involved.

It's important that people in your group understand why it's important to become more diverse and are open to having changes suggested without becoming defensive.

Try to:
 

	prepare people for change and ask them participate in it. From redecorating the office to mailing out your first newsletter, everyone can be involved in helping your organization grow.
	promote the changes as positive. Explain what you're trying to accomplish and why.
	provide opportunities for people to express their doubts and concerns about the changes taking place. Try and identify if there are steps you can take to respond to their needs.

7. Changing your membership

By changing your programming, your reputation and your publicity, you will:

a) attract more diverse members
b) keep members involved
c) have more diverse representation at all levels of your organization

It's important to not put a lot of pressure on new members to represent "their" community, take on complex tasks or work on things they aren't really interested in. For example, even if your group if working on outreach to lesbian communities, don't pressure your sole lesbian member to take on this work if she actually wants to do the finances. It's unfair to force your priorities on someone this way. Have faith that there will be other people who are interested in doing this work.
 

8. Changing the way your group does things

Public image

Think about your strategies for communicating with people within and outside your group. If your group isn't reaching a wide diversity of people, it may be your public image. Think about all the ways you reach the public - newspaper listings, flyers, newsletters, public speaks, events, personal contact. Personal contact and appearances are more effective that mass media strategies. If possible, find out what methods are working best for you right now. You can ask, for example:

	Where do your volunteers find out about you?
	What groups have heard about you?
	Who do you define as an ally?
	Do people in your group attend the meetings of other groups? Which ones? This is a powerful form of networking. Are there other groups you might want to set up this relationship with?
	What's you're reputation in different communities? (Some groups might work closely with you, others might never have heard of you).
	Are there existing opportunities for outreach that are underused?
	Are your materials translated? However, there isn't much point in translating your brochure into different languages unless you have people who can answer phone calls and questions in those languages. Work in coalition with other multi-lingual community groups to starting working in different languages.

Changing policies and priorities

Your policies will come to reflect the more diverse needs of the communities you serve or represent. This change will come through:
a) sharing decision-making power
b) asking for community input into your activities and goals
c) listening to criticisms and praise about your group
d) following through on your commitments
 
 

Common problems

1. Power struggles
Some of things you discover in this process may make you angry, or feel stupid or ashamed of your past mistakes. It can be difficult to be criticized about a group that you've spent a lot of time on. It can be hard to watch a group change when you were comfortable with it the way it was. It can even be difficult to recognize that these feelings are part of losing control when you believe that you weren't in a position of power anyway.

Power struggles often come up when people are trying to protect their position of power. There can be many forms of power - employment, a position of status, respect from their peers, or control over the group itself. People often don't recognize that they actually engaging in a power struggle, instead they think "...that new person don't know what they're doing. I'm not going to let them destroy everything I've worked to build" or "...I've put years into this program, I don't see why i'm being forced out now." These feelings will come out someplace, make sure that you have some way to watch for and deal with them.

Try to: 

	identify this process as a power struggle.
	identify the issues and fears that the changes in the group have raised.
	recognize and be honest about the challenges you face.
	acknowledge what your power was and what you're losing. Make plans to deal with this loss that help you make the transition.
	express your doubts without letting them simmer.
	identify any conflicts of interest and make plans to avoid them.
	have a meeting once a year to evaluate the diversity and power relations in your group.
	have regular workshops or training programs that address these issues.

2. Credibility of your efforts
Having a good reputation in many diverse communities can be a real asset in your work. Unfortunately, some groups end up using their members or coalitions to enhance their credibility and give nothing in return. Sometimes, this happens in coalitions where one groups controls all the staff and resources, and makes all the decisions, and the other groups are just expected to put their name on the poster. Sometimes, individual volunteers within a group are asked to be a token representative, taking on media work, networking or other roles that they aren't comfortable with or interested in doing. Be honest when you are looking for credibility. Then think about what you're going to offer in exchange for that (training, access to resources, real decision-making power).
 

3. Working in isolation
Meeting people is an important aspects of paid work and volunteering. It can be hard to be working in isolation in a group. For example, you may be working closely with people with disabilities on transportation issues. However, if 10% of the population is disabled and you have ten people in your group, it would be hard for just one person to represent the needs and issues of all disabled people. It's a lot of pressure to be asked to speak on behalf of a very large and diverse group of people. In these cases, the group would want to have several people with disabilities in your group giving input, regardless of the proportion of people with disabilities in the general population.
 

4. Neutral is not the same as friendly
Some groups try to be neutral. They put a lot of work into removing signs of their identity, for example, they use cartoons instead of photos on their pamphlets that are meant to be gender and racially neutral or they have a gender neutral language policy. Unfortunately, being neutral or generic is not the same as deliberately welcoming diversity. As pamphlet that is designed to not be offensive to First Nations communities will not get the same positive response as a pamphlet that directly speaks to First Nations people.
 

5. Factional fighting
Organizational change is often a chaotic process. What many new members in a group encounter is an internal battle in process -one group of people within the organization are fighting for change while another group likes things the way they are. This kind of fighting drives away new people, can be very disruptive to your group. It's important to make sure that everyone understands the need for change, is educated about the process and has a chance to express their concerns about it. Try and heal these divisions as you make changes; this will lay the groundwork for further positive growth.
 

6. Increased workload
Doing things for the first time is very time consuming - there's a lot to learn. If you make a lot of changes in your group, you will find yourself experiencing a rapid increase in work. Much of this is the initial effort of learning new ways of doing things. Over time, welcoming and sustaining diversity will become second nature. In the short term, it can be useful to:

a) hire consultants or grant staff to undertake new projects,  but don't isolate them in the organization!
b) recruit more members
c) share the workload by working in partnerships with other groups
d) be patient if the results of your work seem to come more slowly than you would like.
e) don't take on more than you can handle. Take a long term perspective and pace yourself.
 
 

by Regan McClure

Further reading

Educating for a Change by Rick Arnold, Between the Lines Press, Toronto, 1991.