On Our Minds

Heads of Teach for America, Living Cities, and Vera Institute Join On-Ramps

 For Oct. 18, Noon ET Panel Discussion (Free)

 As a recruiting and consulting firm focused on the social sector, On-Ramps considers diversity, equity and inclusion among our core values. Having spent the last two years working to address issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion both inside On-Ramps and with our clients, we wanted to bring together our broader community for a discussion on how to best promote these goals across the sector. We are delighted to announce we will host a webinar next month with leaders from three organizations putting issues of diversity at the forefront of their work: Living Cities, Teach For America and the Vera Institute of Justice. On Oct. 18 at 12 p.m. Eastern, our panel discussion will give participants an open forum to explore why this topic is so important to maximizing social impact and how to implement diversity initiatives within organizations of all sizes. Take a look at our esteemed panelists:

• Elisa Villanueva Beard, CEO, Teach For America – With a deeply held conviction that the movement to ensure educational equity will succeed only if it is diverse in every respect, TFA has worked to develop an inclusive and culturally competent community. Learn more about Teach For America’s approach to diversity and inclusiveness here.
• Ben Hecht, CEO & President, Living Cities – Understanding that the majority of low-income people in America’s cities are people of color, Living Cities has created a learning agenda focused on Racial Equity and Inclusion to address systems-level issues. To learn more about this work and the rationale behind it, please visit the Living Cities site.
• Nick Turner, President & Director, Vera Institute of Justice – One of Vera’s three strategic goals is securing equal justice, building a justice system that is fully prepared to deliver access, safety and fairness to the diverse communities that make up America. Visit Vera’s website to read about its efforts to secure equal justice.

Those interested in joining the free webinar may click HERE to RSVP. While On-Ramps has always valued diversity, equity and inclusion, two years ago we embarked on an intentional effort to build the “organizational muscle” necessary to more deeply live this ideology. This effort began with a clear articulation of how we define these terms in our own context, as well as why we believe they are crucially important to the work we do. We then made a series of commitments intended to ensure that we are putting actions behind our intentions. These included:

• Hiring and retaining a team that reflects our geography – New York City – and the communities we and our clients serve
• Continuing to build our knowledge, skills and perspectives on the topics of diversity, equity and inclusion
• Creating a culture and practices that lives up to these standards
• Examining our own executive search and consulting practices to ensure they reflect our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion
• Proactively coaching clients and driving the conversation on why and how diversity, equity and inclusion matter for every organization

As we’ve worked to meet these commitments, On-Ramps has had the benefit of partnering with numerous organizations on similar paths. We’ve been grateful for the opportunity to explore complex issues and learn from one another; the more we spoke, wrestling with the complexity of these topics, the more we wanted to broaden the dialogue to include a greater number of perspectives and voices. This was the genesis of our idea to do a webinar, which we plan to develop into a series called On-Ramps On Topic. We thought: What if we brought our whole community together to learn from one another? We have numerous topics we’d love to discuss during the webinar, but we’re most interested in hearing what you’d like to learn. Please submit any questions by email to info@on-ramps.com, on our Facebook page or by tweeting at us via @onramps using #onrampsontopic. And here’s one more reminder to RSVP to our Oct. 18 webinar, From Intention to Impact: Making Meaningful Progress on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We can’t wait to hear what’s on your mind, so please don’t hesitate to join the conversation. We’re confident it will be both engaging and thought provoking.