At Destination Imagination (DI), our vision is to ignite the power of all youth to be creative and collaborative innovators of tomorrow. One of the most powerful ways to achieve that vision is to create a diverse and inclusive environment in which our youth participants can explore and grow together.
Our committee for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) was formed in January 2021 with the intent of researching and formulating methods that will bring that vision to life. You can learn more about the committee’s work so far on this page. The DEIB committee began with an extensive period of research and analysis, examining DI’s current procedures and demographics. This period of research included focus groups, surveys, and interviews involving members of each part of the DI community.
The data compiled in this research was used to form a DEIB Strategic Plan, outlining goals and action items to be implemented over the next five years. You can read the full document here.
This strategic plan is a living document; it will be regularly reviewed and updated on an as-needed basis. It is possible that scheduled actions may change as new information becomes available. However, it is always Destination Imagination’s intent to serve our community’s needs.
Strategic Plan Overview
The DEIB Strategic Plan includes the following goals, listed in no particular order:
For Our Community
These goals will impact the DI community as a whole.
- Awareness: Increase opportunities for the community to engage in awareness of DEIB at the local and global levels within our organization.
- Training: Review how we train our volunteers through a DEIB lens.
- Community: Evaluate and assess our licensing model to ensure growth into communities identified within our DEIB strategy.
- Interface: Create DEIB-focused interface(s) for customers and volunteers.
For the Public
These goals will impact the way we interact with the public, including those who are not currently involved with DI.
- Programming: Evaluate and reassess our programs, products, and events with a global lens that supports DEIB.
- Messaging: Ensure we present as a DEIB aware and focused organization.
- Communications: Gather global marketing knowledge to aid in reaching organizations who can help us achieve DEIB goals and to improve future messaging.
For Building Resources
These goals will help us gather the resources needed to make DEIB a sustainable part of our organization.
- Data: Develop a Monitoring and Evaluation system that allows us to collect and track DEIB data through a DEIB lens.
- Funding:
- Identify, evaluate, and assess budgetary priorities to serve communities defined within our DEIB strategic focus to ensure participation on a global scale.
- Identify funding models defined within our DEIB strategic focus to ensure participation.
The full document outlines the action items that will help us achieve these goals, starting in 2023 and extending over the next five years.
Action Items for 2023
Objective | Action | Goal Date | DIHQ |
Awareness | Increase DEIB-focused training modules at the IGNITE conference and in the Learning Management System. | ongoing | Affiliate Relations, Educational Experiences |
Awareness | Create Affiliate Resource Guide with action steps any Affiliate can take (ADA compliance, land acknowledgement, pronoun use, etc.). | 2023 | Affiliate Relations |
Awareness | Research DEIB issues to be included in a future Team Challenge. | 2023 | Educational Experiences |
Awareness | Increase percentage of social media posts with DEIB focus. Measure click throughs or engagement. | ongoing | Marketing/Creative |
Awareness | Launch the DI Correspondents program, featuring Team Managers of varied backgrounds. | 2023 | Affiliate Relations |
Training | Update the Volunteer Code of Conduct to include DEIB expectations and requirements including LGBTQ+ rights and gender expression (for launch in September 2023). | 2023 | Educational Experiences |
Interface | Amplify messaging around Purchase Power Parity (PPP) pricing for customers outside of the United States. | 2023 | Marketing/Creative, Affiliate Relations |
Community | Pursue/cultivate additional Affiliates, with emphasis on growth outside of the United States. | 2023 | Affiliate Relations/Advancement |
Community | Create additions/requirements in the License Agreement that reinforce DII’s DEIB objectives. | 2023 | Affiliate Relations |
Messaging | Add language to the Rules of the Road so the Spirit of DI Award can be given to teams/individuals/groups who demonstrate good efforts toward DEIB goals. Empower Board of Trustees, staff, and alumni to offer that award as they see fit. | 2023 | Educational Experiences |
Messaging | Establish systems to increase the diversity of team members and volunteers included in images/videos/promotional pieces (including people with differing abilities, wearing cultural/religious clothing, etc.). | 2023 | Marketing/Creative/Affiliate Relations |
Data | Gather our existing data collection tools and analyze them for hallmarks of good DEIB monitoring and evaluation. | 2023 | DEIB Committee |
All | Plan for medium- and long-term action items. | 2023 | All |
Accountability
The DEIB Committee will review the progress of this strategic plan and make appropriate updates on an annual basis.
The public will be given access to the strategic plan document, and our progress will be tracked on the DI website. This page also includes a form to share questions, comments, and concerns about this work.
