In 2020, Trail Blazers made a commitment to being an actively anti-racist organization and we have spent the past year laying the groundwork needed to support this work and move us forward. 

We started by lifting up DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), which was one of the four Strategic Lenses identified in our Jan 2020 Strategic Plan (link), as our primary lens and then adding “B” for Belonging. To guide our work and to hold us accountable to our goals, we convened a DEIB committee that comprises board members, staff, an alumna, a community partner, and supported by expert consultants. 

We established a path to guide us along this work.

To institutionalize DEIB as a core and essential part of Trail Blazers, we integrated DEIB into our Mission and Vision statements, ensuring that it will guide how we govern, lead, communicate, operate, and interact. Furthermore, as our Primary Strategic Lens, DEIB will serve as our primary guide as we continue to operationalize our Strategic Plan and monitor its effectiveness through 2025. 

We are currently at Step 9 on this path. The above tabs describe some of the work in each one of the steps and where we are going.

Next, the DEIB Committee is assessing every aspect of TBC’s business and infrastructure – People, Partnerships, Communications, Fundraising, Operations, Financials, Programming, and Culture – with the goal to build a roadmap to reach cultural proficiency and exemplary status. We chose the Meyer DEI Spectrum Tool  for assessing our current state.

The tools functions as our guide for assessing TBC’s progress on the path from “Not Yet Started” to “Launched” to “Well Underway” to “Exemplary” for each of the following 12 components: DEI Vision, Diversity, Commitment, Data, Leadership, Community, Policies, Decisions, Infrastructure, Accountability, Training, and Inclusion. 

The findings, based on the committee’s assessment, are that Trail Blazers has a status of either Launched or Well Underway for a majority of the components assessed.  The exceptions were Accountability, defined as the inclusion of DEIB-related metrics across all mechanisms, and Training, defined as fostering ongoing training, growth and leadership among management, staff and board.  

Our next steps are to develop specific and measurable goals to move Trail Blazers to “Exemplary” across all 12 components, with priority given to Accountability, Training and Inclusion. 

This includes engaging our stakeholders and forming formal structures – such as internal committees and affinity groups – to continuously inform the work, and ensure we create a sustainable model. 

Additionally, we have established 4 internal areas of consideration, to deepen and focus our conversations.

The Committee has set the following priorities for this fiscal year:

1. Training:  Identify and roll out DEIB training for every tier of the organization

2. Accountability:  Develop DEIB-specific metrics to be applied to the following:  projects, programs, management, staff, board

3. Inclusion:  Establish mechanisms for including and integrating all voices of the Trailblazers community

4. Communication:  Continue to build the DEIB communication page on Trail Blazers website

5. Journey to Exemplary:  Establish goals for the other nine components of the spectrum to move TBC to exemplary

Using the work of the DEIB committee and the Strategic Plan, the following priorities were set for the current year:

The work to deeply integrate DEIB into our organization takes time, practice and consistent attention. Here are some of the things were are working on:

Language and Traditions
Over the last 2 years we have begun to evaluate the use of language, both organization wide and at our overnight camp. Like many summer camps, use of Native American language was very common. Some terminology used in camp has been changed already, including for example the use of the word pow wow – time spent around the fire is not called the Sunset Circle.

The DEIB committee is asking your input in developing a comprehensive list of language and tradition items subject to a DEIB consideration. We are thinking about any names, conventions, songs, traditions and habit etc., we can think of that perhaps ought to be reconsidered.

The purpose of this list is NOT to discuss changes, but merely to collect items that you feel either should/could be subject to change, or perhaps items you feel should not be subject to change.

This document is also NOT a discussion forum, so we ask you not to comment on items, but merely to list yours. 

You can access the document right HERE.

DEIB Performance Indicators

Guided by the 2025 Strategic Plan, Trail Blazers maps out priorities on an annual basis, with the goal of being a ‘Best in Class’ organization. The DEIB has added DEIB specific short and long term goals to these priorities. 

Here is the work document that has established these DEIB performance indicators.

There is still plenty of work to be done as we move to “Exemplary”. TBC’s Leadership is more conscious and affirmative now, more than ever before, about ensuring TBC actively and effectively creates a diverse, equitable, inclusive space where people feel they belong and believe they can thrive.

This year is a year of action, integrating practices into our organization and building DEIB muscle memory, so we work towards the day when DEIB integration is not needed as as a separate goal because it is a deeply integrated reality at Trail Blazers.

The DEIB committee’s role will be to monitor progress and help develop the specific measures needed to hold ourselves accountable, including periodic assessment with the tools described here. We are in the process of rebuilding out IMPACT page, to include our Key Metrics for the year.

For 2022, we measure our success by assessing progress in the following areas:

– Level of tuition assistance

– staff engagement

– SEL growth of our participants

– program satisfaction

– staff retention

– camper retention

“Building Values for Life” is the Trail Blazers tagline – it reflects how we view ourselves as an organization and our place in this world. We believe it is our job to actively engage in building essential values and create positive impact. Motivated by this mission, we remain committed to moving forward and will continue to share updates as we progress. We invite YOU, our community, to join us in this on-going work. Keep on the lookout for opportunities to participate in listening sessions and committees to keep us centered on what matters most – our community.