Community Voices: Board Talks - Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion on Non-Profit Governance Boards

In 2020, the Interdisciplinary Immigration Research Network (IIRN) began discussing the need for a community-based approach to building equity and belonging for Brandon and Westman. We decided to launch a new initiative, which we called Community Voices, to reflect our method of using a series of in-depth conversations with a broad range of community members.

Our first initiative was a broad community consultation around the topic of belonging and anti-racism. This led to important findings and recommendations, including the need to facilitate connections and address barriers, particularly as they relate to power dynamics. Governance was mentioned as an area that could benefit from further exploration.

We began Community Voices: Board Talks as a follow-up initiative that was focused on defining diversity within governance, identifying power dynamics, and brainstorming strategies to facilitate equity. We held three focus groups that brought together board members from numerous boards within Brandon and the Westman area. The vast majority of these boards were non-profit or not-for-profit boards.

This report is one of the major outcomes of this second Community Voices initiative. Specifically, this report outlines (a) the themes that emerged from the focus groups and (b) systematic reviews of literature that connects to these themes as well as suggestions for ways forward.