The Foss Waterway Seaport’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA) committee was created to build a foundation for the organization to embrace, educate, and celebrate diverse points of view, experiences, and identities. By increasing our knowledge of inequities, we will help the organization better serve our staff, volunteers, and community. We will also work to identify practices and policies that will lead to a more diverse staff and leadership. This will make us a stronger organization and lead to museum exhibits and programs that better reflect and connect with the community we serve.We acknowledge that we were founded and are led by mostly white people of similar social and economic standing. And that some of the topics we cover include class
barriers, such as recreational boating. We acknowledge that systemic racism exists and that representation is powerful. To truly tell the stories of the people and industry of this region we must be honest and thoughtful. We must be intentional about including
historically erased communities in the stories we tell and in the accessibility of our building and programs.
Build systems necessary to promote a diverse workforce and inclusive environment.
Engage with the community around inclusion and accessibility.
Advance our staff and volunteers’ DEIA knowledge and cultural competence.
Maintain accountability through consistent self-evaluation.
Our goals are to; inform our current staff about how to incorporate DEIA processes in organizational decisions and move towards having a staff, board, and volunteer base diverse in thought, background, and perspective that can bring their experiences to
decision making. Our success will be evaluated by this committee to hold the organization accountable to these goals.