Established a DEI Committee that all STAR Autism Support employees are encouraged to participate in; meetings are held monthly, during which team members present and analyze research, brainstorm, and conduct action planning on an ongoing basis
Created subcommittees in the following areas for focused action planning:
Foundational (organization structure and leadership)
Internal (recruitment, development, and learning)
Bridging (communication and sustainability)
External (social responsibility and products/services)
Personal Learning and Professional Development
Participated in professional development from Autism in Black to increase our knowledge of systemic racism, intersectionality of disability and race, and ableism in order to challenge our personal biases
Created an internal resource to share ideas related to DEI and resources for personal growth
Invited all employees to commit to and sign the “Do. Do More. Do Better” pledge to better our organization through individual commitment to social justice work
Carved out time during recurring meetings for ongoing discussions about inclusive language, cultural responsiveness, advocacy, social justice, and representation
Hiring, Recruitment, and Retention
Updated our company values to include DEI goals and initiatives
Created a more inclusive hiring process as one small step toward building a more diverse team, including rewriting our job descriptions and career page to be more inclusive and creating a structured, objective hiring process to combat implicit bias
Evaluating Curriculum and Materials
Dedicated time for our illustration team to increase diversity and representation in characters and themes used in visual supports and graphics
Creating a style guide for use throughout the content creation/development process to ensure ample diversity and representation
Updating our marketing materials to be more inclusive and representative of diverse populations, including videos and social media
Increasing Access
Established a section of our website dedicated to providing free resources to families and educators
Created a dedicated team for adding captions to videos