ROCKLAND — Starting this spring, Trekkers will undergo a long-term Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) project with a mission to assure policies, procedures, and programs support best practices in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It is funded by The Rocking Moon Foundation and will be spearheaded by a newly-formed Trekkers DEI Steering committee. This restricted grant of $65,000 in funds includes working with consulting firm Chrysalis Consulting – Transforming Beyond Inclusion, executive coaching – and the hiring of one part-time DEI Coordinator to help organize this massive cross-organizational effort.

Chrysalis Consulting’s commitment is to “empower individuals and organizations to work towards building spaces where people are respected and want to belong.” Maine-based Idella Glenn, along with Theresa M. Pizzuto and Beverly Jones Williams, will act as primary consultants.

In the Fall of 2020, Trekkers created a DEI Committee and issued a public statement pledging to become anti-racist, anti-bias, and accessible to all students in its six-town service area. Since then, the committee, a group of staff, student board members, board members, alumni, and community volunteers, have made progress in policy development, but also identified a need for cross-organization training and consultation.

“As we say in our programs, you can only go as far as you’ve gone yourself,” said Amie Hutchison, in a Trekkers news release. “In order to truly create environments where everyone feels safe, welcome, and included, we realized we needed help identifying our own bias and learning how to grow from experts in the field.”

As part of its initial discovery phase this spring, Chrysalis will conduct a complete document review and conduct focus groups across staff and leadership. From there, they will offer relevant trainings to Trekkers’ staff, committee, and board, address knowledge gaps, make policy recommendations, and work together to develop a comprehensive, responsive plan that can grow as diversity, equity, and inclusion advancements are made.

Trekkers is also interested in sharing learnings with community partners and creating immersive experiential learning opportunities for the community and interested practitioners in the future.

For over 25 years, non-profit organization Trekkers has been dedicated to helping young people thrive. Through its unique 6-year mentoring and expeditionary learning program, research shows programs help
to increase students’ resiliency skills, ability to build positive relationships, and develop aspirations for the future. To learn more, visit the website at trekkers.org.