At Girls on the Run, inclusion, diversity, equality and access (IDEA) are the guiding principles to our organizational work towards advancing our mission. Over the last decade, we have identified 5 main areas of focus:
In 2011, an inclusive employee performance review process was developed where 50% of annual performance is based on individual behaviors that align with the core values.
In 2013, the Board approved a Total Compensation Plan to fortify the organization’s commitment to equitable pay for all staff and committed to recruiting diverse board members who could strengthen board deliberations and decision-making.
In 2016, staff trainings on IDEA were initiated to deepen everyone’s knowledge and understanding of the organization’s commitment to an inclusive culture.
In 2017, the following sessions were held to reinforce a culture of inclusion: a ‘Strengthsfinder’ all-staff session grounded in understanding the unique value of each employee, a leadership retreat for supervisors focused on culture and inclusion, and an all-staff retreat where everyone collaborated on the creation of key cultural imperatives. To ensure employment processes, recruitment, and hiring were inclusive and transparent, the organization also hired its first full-time HR Director.
In 2018, a Culture Committee comprised of diverse staff from all levels within the organization was established to reinforce an inclusive and vibrant workplace that embodies our core values.
In 2019, a nationally recognized workplace culture consultant was retained to facilitate all-staff and leadership sessions to develop additional strategies to maintain and strengthen an inclusive workplace. The organization updated its performance management system by further clarifying behaviors aligned with core values and launched an ‘Own Your Growth’ individual development strategy. An internal communication strategy was created and launched to ensure all staff were informed on key initiatives.
In 2014, the program team worked with internal and external stakeholders and experts to develop a programming related access and inclusion strategy. This included the creation of a lottery system to ensure the program registration process was equitable.
In 2015, a timeline and vision for integrating IDEA into all program and evaluation initiatives was outlined and communicated to councils. This included incorporating an access and inclusion lens in the creation or revision of all new curricula by 2018. The curricula development process was informed by diverse stakeholder input and each curriculum version has a girl-centered design that allows participants to bring their individually relevant situations and life experiences to the learning process. All curricula released from 2015 to the present has included parent-facing and girl-facing materials available in English and Spanish.
In 2016, National Coach Training was launched to prepare coaches to provide a safe, positive, inclusive space for all participants. During the training, coaches engage in exercises which encourage them to reflect on their own contexts and identities and how these influence their interactions and coaching behaviors. They are also provided concrete tools and strategies to enable them to work with participants from all backgrounds. A multicultural agency was retained to better understand the barriers that prevent a more diverse group of people from volunteering as coaches and to develop a sustainable plan for reducing those barriers. Data was collected by the agency via surveys and focus groups from council staff as well as potential and existing coaches and solutions provided to engage more diverse coaches.
In 2017, the organization formed a collaboration with the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability to develop a disability inclusion strategy. Resources and tools were released to councils to support the engagement of diverse coaches. Girl and site recruitment materials were updated to represent the diversity of girls served and showcase outcomes from an external evaluation of our program.
In 2018, disability inclusion council training was piloted, and a disability inclusion guide was developed. A National Coach Ambassador program was launched to support diverse coach recruitment. End-of-season coach and parent surveys were developed and piloted to assess perceptions of belonging, impact and overall experience with Girls on the Run with the goal of investing in data collection instruments to measure inclusion across the network.
In 2019, a national parent/guardian engagement survey was conducted by an independent research firm to better understand the perspective of diverse families with children in the program. It found that 95% of Hispanic, 94% of Black and 92% of white parents/guardians felt like their child belonged at Girls on the Run. Additionally, 96% of Black, 95% of Hispanic and 94% of white parent/guardians said Girls on the Run had been a valuable experience for their girl(s). National Coach Training was updated to include disability inclusion, trauma sensitive coaching and sexual abuse prevention.
Since 2013, the organization has purchased and distributed compensation benchmarking data to ensure fair and competitive compensation for all employees. Councils report salary data annually to HQ with the goal of every employee being compensated at the 50th percentile or higher for their position, industry, location, and level of experience.
With the introduction of the organization’s CRM system, HQ enhanced standardized reporting in 2016 to easily monitor council staff and board member race, ethnicity, and gender data and stressed the importance of collecting this information to ensure representative leadership. HQ annually reports the collective data with all councils to showcase organizational progress in advancing this key leadership goal.
In 2017, the organization invested in an online applicant tracking system to ensure we are reaching, sourcing, attracting, and interviewing a diverse candidate pool when hiring at HQ. It provides real-time data to understand how applicants of color are accessing our postings and making their way through the hiring process. Where jobs are posted was intentionally expanded to include sites such as the Black Chamber of Commerce, the Latin American Chamber of Commerce, DiversityJobs.com, and local HBCUs. Additional internal controls were implemented to mitigate bias during the recruiting and hiring process including standardizing the recruiting process, requiring at least two employees on every hiring team, critically assessing educational and experience requirements to democratize applications, interviewing templates, guidance on crafting job descriptions, and the development of a Recruiting and Hiring Guide that highlights how to mitigate bias.
The organization has also participated in Quantum Workforce’s annual Best Places to Work employee engagement survey since 2017. In 2019, the statement ‘Everyone here is treated fairly, regardless of race, gender, age, ethnic background, disability, sexual orientation, or other differences’ was ranked in our top 10 most favorable responses.
In 2018, paid family leave of up to six weeks was added as a benefit for Girls on the Run International staff. A flexible PTO policy was also implemented in recognition that some federal holidays do not represent inclusion and to allow employees to celebrate holidays that are personally significant in their lives.
In 2020, 85% of all HQ employees and 93% of HQ employees of color were paid at or above benchmark.
• Creating Diversity Initiatives that Work
• Realizing the Many Dividends that Come from Diversity and Inclusion
• Inspiring Greatness through Diversity and Inclusion
• Ensuring Diversity and Inclusion at Your Council
• The What, Why and How of Diversifying Your Coaching Pool
• Access & Inclusion 4-part Training Series (Self Identity, Bias, A&I at GOTR, and Goal Setting)
• Serving Girls & Sites with Limited Financial Resources (training, resources and tools)
• Go Where the Girls Are: Successfully Working with Community Based Organizations
• Expanding our Definition of All: Curriculum Adaptations for Girls on the Run
• What is Access & Inclusion – Really?
• Beyond Diversity Rhetoric: Cultural Intelligence for our Global Village
• The Art of Hiring Top Talent
• Disability Inclusion – training, resources and tools
• Conversations that Matter
According to Poverty USA, 11.8% of families live in poverty with 29.9% living close to poverty (household income less than 2 times greater than poverty threshold). Girls on the Run is committed to serving any girl who wishes to participate and between 2015 and 2019, the organization provided over $59 million in financial assistance to 44% of participants (438,000) served.
Girls on the Run strongly encourages each council to mirror the racial and ethnic diversity of their communities in four key stakeholder groups: participants, coaches, staff, and board members. Collectively, HQ tracks how the organization mirrors the national population. Of our stakeholder groups: participants are the most diverse and almost mirror the population. Click here for more information.
