 You might be asking:
- How will we recruit and support different kinds of staff? How will different staff relate to each other?
- How will the qualifications, training and supervisory requirements for staff differ?
- How will the volunteer screening, training, and supervision requirements and processes differ?
- Will we be working with different kinds of children and youth?
These are all fair questions.
All organizations have to address diversity issues: different programs and approaches, volunteers from different backgrounds, staff with different levels of qualifications, and Board members from different cultural backgrounds. Differences can be challenging. They need to be faced, explored, and embraced. Often, however, facing these questions is more about the natural difficulties of change and transition.
The questions that you should also ask are:
- How diverse are we now? How did we grow and change to this point?
- What are the diverse strengths and capacities of our volunteers, staff, and Board members that will help us take on new programs and services, and tackle organizational change and transition challenges in healthy ways?
- What can we learn from other organizations that are quite diverse?
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