Championing Equity and Inclusion
We’re On a Journey …
“Sierra Nevada Journeys believes that science and nature are for everyone.
To achieve this vision, we focus on building sustainable partnerships with schools and communities that serve the youth who have historically and currently been denied access to high-quality science education and outdoor learning experiences.
We invite and listen to continuous voice from these partners, and the youth and families they serve, to inform how we design and deliver culturally relevant and inclusive programs.
We recruit a workforce that reflects our audience. We value our employees by fostering a culture where all backgrounds and perspectives of our staff are seen and heard, and by providing sustainable compensation, mentorship and professional development opportunities.
It is with this vision in mind that we pursue our mission, striving to become the equitable and inclusive organization that the youth of our communities deserve.
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Community Needs Assessment
Moving Toward a More Culturally Relevant,
Equitable Framework for an Elementary Outdoor
Science Program, Classrooms Unleashed
Thanks to a grant by SMUD Sustainable Communities, with support from Nevada STEM Networks and Renown Health, we developed the Community Needs Assessment and restructured our Classrooms Unleashed program providing increased opportunities for personal connection, student-centered instruction, and scaffolding and visual aids.
Recruitment and Hiring
Sierra Nevada Journeys employees demonstrate cultural competence, sensitivity to and understanding of the diverse academic, socioeconomic, cultural, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and ethnic backgrounds of our program participants and fellow colleagues.
When you join our team, you can expect to be part of an inclusive, innovative and equity-focused community that requires broad collaboration among your fellow colleagues, students and partners. We value the ability to serve students from a broad range of ethnic and racial backgrounds, cultural heritages, socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, abilities and orientations.
To learn more about our commitment to recruiting and hiring equity-minded individuals, please visit Working Here.
a More Diverse and Inclusive Organization
Four years ago, we created the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee to broaden the impact of our mission across the expansive and diverse communities we serve.
We’ve expanded community partnerships with organizations that work with populations underrepresented in STEM and outdoor education, including Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and people with disabilities.
Examples include: Improve Your Tomorrow, Black Youth Leadership Project, Square Root Academy, Boys & Girls Club of Northern Nevada, and Amplify Life.
Key projects include:
Launching an initiative to quantify the demographics of applicants, team members, and our board to support our efforts to manage equity and inclusion goals in the same way as other organizational goals.
The Native Voices Project, a collaboration between Sierra Nevada Journeys, the Plumas County Office of Education, and the Mountain Maidu community in Plumas County. The project has developed new outdoor science learning experiences that incorporate the Maidu language and traditional ecological knowledge.
Conducting a thorough Community Needs Assessment, to determine the ways we could improve Classrooms Unleashed programming to make it more culturally relevant and inclusive for youth who have not previously had access to high-quality STEM education and outdoor experiences, especially Black, Indigenous, and Latinx learners, as well as students with disabilities and emerging multilingual learners.
Auditing and revising the employee handbook with an equity and inclusion lens by incorporating new policies such as adding our code of ethics, diversity and inclusion statement, and core values and culture.
A thorough revision of our recruitment and hiring practices to increase equity and mitigate bias, including the creation of a Fair Hiring Guide. Also, we revised our job descriptions to reduce implicit bias, barriers to potential applicants, and emphasize our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
