Bike & Build has work to do.
Throughout our 18 year history, we have been proud of our work to engage more than 3,800 people to become community members committed to civic engagement and to advocate for affordable housing throughout the United States. That being said, it is important to acknowledge our shortcomings with our accomplishments. From the data we have collected over the past 4 years, our ridership has been 84% white; we have relied on predominantly white, Christian-based institutions to host our teams on the road; we have taken a relatively singular approach to address the affordable housing cause.
In order to move the organization forward to welcome a diverse ridership, provide an inclusive environment for stakeholders, and become a more equitable organization for all, we have partnered with Reify Solutions and Comprise DEI to assist the organization through this long term journey. Their work will create more inclusive pathways to achieve our important mission.
Collaboration is key.
Reify Solutions (Shane Nelson and Taylor Cobb) and Comprise DEI (Nic James) started their partnership by combining their expertise in early 2020 to launch a free and virtual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Basics Course. With Shane and Taylor’s focus on diversity and philanthropy and Nic’s experience in education, the DE&I Basics course opened the door for an impactful partnership.
When thinking about “what’s next” after the launch of their Basics course, Shane describes their goals for a partnership, “Nic fills an amazing gap in the work Taylor and I do with an already proven track record of survey and data development and staffing support, along with his perspective and experience in education. When you couple that with the group facilitation and coaching frameworks that Taylor and I bring to the table, you have this really amazing year long program that has accountability baked in and tries to move people to equity.” Through their work, they have discovered, “When people see us in partnership, they see two Black men and a Black woman. Our goal is to share the tools to help people understand the systems that contribute to inequality and inequities.”
A growth partnership to move us forward.
Nic, Shane, and Taylor believe in a growth partnership consulting structure for their work. They do not want to provide their expertise for the length of the contract, and then say “good luck.” They build intentional partnerships to adapt and grow as their clients learn, innovate, and change. When deciding on a partnership with Bike & Build, they were excited to see that Bike & Build was asking important questions and recognizing the learning needed to become an inclusive and equitable organization. At a high level, they see an opportunity for Bike & Build to develop the language and concepts on what our DE&I initiatives are. They hope to assist Bike & Build staff, board, alumni and other stakeholders in building sincere understanding of cultural humility. Throughout our growth partnership with Nic, Shane, and Taylor, we will be calling on various stakeholders to get involved in the process through focus groups, surveys, and coaching to create benchmarks and accountability metrics. We will start this work with Reify Solutions and Comprise DEI through a series of analyses, assessments, and coaching, and then move onto applying new knowledge into the organization holistically.
