Living Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Values

Statement

InnovateEDU embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion internally in our organizational culture and operational practices, within our core values, and externally in our funding, program, and coalition practices.

We believe prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion is a moral and ethical imperative and integral to our mission of closing opportunity gaps for students and communities traditionally underserved because of systematic barriers ingrained in the current education system.

In supporting our mission to help address these critical issues, we strive to empower the individuals and organizations with which we partner. We must exercise this privilege with significant consideration toward diversity and inclusion principles, mindful of the larger society of which we are a part and the historical, economic, and cultural forces that shape it. As a result, we recognize that some groups have been historically disadvantaged by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, ideology, religion, or other characteristics that reflect significant social categories or fractures. While our efforts encompass a wide range of identities, we believe the history of racial and social injustice in the United States imposes a special responsibility to make intentional efforts to address systemic racism and discrimination, internally and in our external activities. 

Within our culture, we are committed to valuing individual differences and supporting and defending what is good and right for everyone, so they feel safe and comfortable bringing their whole selves to work. InnovateEDU’s commitment to DEI will continue to build a work culture that allows each individual to demonstrate their dedication to an inclusive environment while visibly identifying their allies to others. We create safe spaces for ongoing recommendations on how we as an organization may share, participate, discuss, act and continuously learn to support their commitments.  We believe embracing diversity, equity and inclusion goes beyond a statement and must be an evolving set of values and experiences within our work.

We value the diverse perspectives our staff, partner organizations, and external stakeholders already bring to the organization and are conscious that we always have more to do and learn. Therefore, we are looking for ways to understand better how to engage and meaningfully include diverse voices in our work. Doing so will, we believe, improve the outcomes our partners and we achieve in our work.