Implementing Racial Equity Reforms for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston
In 2016, the Wellspring Group helped the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston (BGCB) implement a year-long project for organization-wide, racial equity reforms. These calls for discussion and reform originated from the BGCB Senior Leadership Team, a combined group of roughly 25 team members composed of the organization’s C-Level staff, department executives, and Club Executive Directors, each with highly differentiated experiences with race and discussions about racial equity.
Wellspring spent a full calendar year working with the BGCB and a Senior Leadership Team Working Group of eight leaders from across a variety of functional departments and club leadership to define a problem statement, define solutions, and refine solutions through differentiated leadership groups. These groups were able to develop and adopt several project proposals which included, (1) developing a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office for BGCB which would be headed by a new C-Level office, Chief of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, (2) developing organization-wide hiring and succession strategies to achieve representative racial diversity at all levels, but particularly at a leadership level and particularly in functional departments, and (3) developing ongoing training and development learning tracks for all staff members on racial equity strategies for youth development and community services. These proposals were staff-led, positively received by the leadership team, and The Wellspring Group has since continued to support ongoing learning and development curriculum for racial equity at BGCB.
