Thanks to a generous grant from Walmart.org, The Graduate! Network launched a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative in February 2020. Equity is at the heart of the Graduate! Movement, this grant provides TGN with the opportunity to focus intentionally on the issue of equity for our diverse communities. Our goal is to equip communities with the resources and tools to more effectively support Comebacker success.
Our Commitment to Justice and Equity
The Graduate! movement was founded to address economic justice through postsecondary completion. From the very beginning, we understood both that our Comebackers were disproportionately from communities of color and the criticality of post-secondary achievement as fundamental to racial justice. As our perspective has evolved, we now more fully appreciate how inequality of educational outcomes is rooted in institutional practices and arrangements that have their legacy in racism. We are working toward a future where we can reverse the impacts of this longstanding and insidiously persistent institutional racism and where the likelihood of earning a degree cannot be predicted by geography, gender, race, or cultural heritage.
Today, we collaborate with a network of practitioners who actively support the aspirations of adults to achieve their educational goals. Those who are served through our network are individuals with some overlapping characteristics: most are among the nation’s 45 million adults with some college who have not yet earned a degree, they are overwhelmingly the first in their families to attend college, the majority identify as female, most earn low wages and are therefore economically vulnerable, and most identify as Black and Brown. All have demonstrated extraordinary determination, resiliency and courage. To our collective loss, their experiences and challenges have largely been ignored or dismissed in the public policy discourse. Based on all evidence available to us, presently and for the foreseeable future a degree is the only validated currency that can facilitate attainment of the economic and social benefits commonly associated with a stable, prosperous, and healthy life. Therefore, for our community of Comebackers, and because we have a responsibility to act with radical empathy to work toward justice, we pledge the following: The Graduate! Network commits to embedding these pillars into all our work, to honestly and intentionally evaluate our progress against these pledges, to listen, to take risks and own our shortcomings, and to work every day to be true to the imperative for a more just future for all.
Equity can’t be an “additional duty as assigned” to one individual or hastily formed committee. To truly achieve equity, “It takes intentionality, courage, vulnerability, and a plan.”
Our shared value approach and work:
- Create shared value for business and society
- Transformation the system
- Collaborate with others
- Complement with philanthropy
- Lead through the business
- Create opportunity
- Enhancing sustainability
Resources we are currently learning from:
- Website: Center for Racial Justice & Equity provides information, resources, and professional development.
- Article: From DEI to JEDI, Diverse Issues in Higher Education: Nationally, we have seen a huge demand for “DEI” trainings and professional development. This article discusses the rationale behind some organizations moving from DEI to JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion), with JEDI being more of an action oriented approach for long term growth, not just short term growth.
- Article: The Racial Equity Institute’s Groundwater Approach is an excellent read for those seeking to better understand how racial inequity looks the same across systems, why socio-economic differences does not explain the racial inequity; and how inequities are caused by systems, regardless of people’s culture or behavior.
For a thorough list of recommended Resource List: Includes books, podcasts, reports, recorded webinars, videos, websites, etc. This list has been curated by The Graduate! Network.
Calendar of Events
Join us for our monthly Multimedia Club!
As part of our work, The Graduate! Network is creating spaces for opportunities to discuss race, equity and diversity. Having meaningful discussions with colleagues helps us to learn from one another and to grow both personally and professionally. Use our Contact Form to sign up! Some of our previous events include:
- Book Discussion on Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities by Andre Perry
- Virtual Tour & Discussion of the National Museum of African American History & Culture
- Black History Month Trivia
- Book Swap Discussion for Women’s History Month
Archive
- May 2021 Lightbulb: Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Education Attainment
- March 2021 Lightbulb: Statement Address Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans
- March 2021 Lightbulb: What We’re Reading- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Sallie Glickman
- March 2021 Lightbulb: Why We Need Women’s History Month by Micaela Rios
- February 2021 Lightbulb: Why We Need Black History Month by Cedric Deadmon
- January 2021 Lightbulb: A Message From the The Graduate Network re: US Capitol
- December 2020 Lightbulb: Announcing Launch of DEI webpage
- September 2020 LearnX Day 2 Recorded Session: When the Difficult Work Becomes Critical: DEI in Our Work
