“Reimagining Equity Within Board Service” – An Equity at the Table Training

On Friday, September the 7th, the Equity at the Table program will host a day-long training addressing equity within board service at food, farming, and agriculture-based organizations.

Reimagining Equity Within Board Service
September 7, 2018 | Pittsboro, NC
Facilitators: Edna Rodriguez, Susan Sachs, and Fatimah Salleh
Friday, September 7, 8:30-4:30pm // Dan Pollitt Center @ RAFI, 274 Pittsboro Elem School Rd // Pittsboro, NC 27312

Download Event Flyer Here

Nationwide, 84% of individuals serving on organizational boards racially identify as white. Decades of work emphasizing the importance of board diversity have been ineffective in changing the racial and ethnic makeup of nonprofit boards. Boards are no more diverse today than years prior and current recruitment priorities indicate this is unlikely to change.

To address issues of equity and cultivate authentic board diversity, boards must identify and remove systemic barriers faced by people of color as leaders. A board’s commitment to diversity and inclusion must ultimately be demonstrated through meaningful action. Boards will not become more diverse without changes in recruitment practices. For some boards, this means moving beyond the personal networks of existing board members to identify potential board members and considering non traditional recruitment strategies.

Inspired by interviews conducted by RAFI with people of color who serve on food, farming, and agriculture organizational boards, this workshop offers skill-building techniques for constructing cultural competency while also addressing the challenges of recruiting for diversity and inclusion and noting that a focus on numbers alone is insufficient.

This training is divided into two parts:

1) developing board recruitment practices designed to bring more people of color into leadership roles and

2) thinking beyond equity to create fair and just environments for people of color to participate on boards.

This training is designed for Executive Directors and Board Members from food, farming, and agriculture-based organizations.

If an organization is interested in attending the training, contact Lisa Misch at [email protected] for registration information. Full and partial scholarships widely available.