Diversity and Inclusion in JLC

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

By NAZLY MAMEDOVA

The JLC has a long and storied history as an integral part of our community and has always worked to be a beacon for women of purpose in Cincinnati. Several years ago, we began to dedicate time, talent and resources to improving our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) work, both within the League and in our community. The goal is that our community sees itself in the League and that all our women feel included, no matter their color, background, or socio-economic status.

Driven by our incredible membership, our past leaders began at the most basic level, talking. As our conversations increased, we were driven to dig deeper and implement more robust work. We began by embedding our DE&I efforts into the Executive Management Team by creating the VP of Diversity and Inclusion position. We have held deep discussions about microaggressions, how we can create a more welcoming environment and how to have the League look more like the community we live in. We had training sessions led by our own members and speakers such as Janine le Sueur (AJLI’s Vice President of Programs) and Dima Ghawi (author of Breaking Vases: Shattering Limitations & Daring to Thrive - A Middle Eastern Woman’s Story).

This past summer we acknowledged the deepest injustice members of our community feel and increased our commitment to fighting racial inequality. Our Board of Directors and Executive Management Team, elected by the membership, voted to support and lend our leadership, led by the YWCA, to the Hamilton County Commissioners’ Resolution on declaring Racial Injustice a Public Health Crisis. As a result, racism was declared a public health crisis in a unanimous vote by Hamilton County commissioners.

Additionally, several members joined AJLI in its efforts to combat racism and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion by attending the 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge. This challenge provided participants with materials and tools that we are bringing back to our membership. Having deeply honest conversations with women from other Leagues allowed us to reflect on our own League’s efforts to be more inclusive.

As we have dynamic speakers and presenters at our GMMs, offer training to our members and use our collective voice to advocate for our community, we promise to continue to implement DE&I into our work both internally and externally. This month, our League successfully voted to adopt our Racial Injustice Position Statement and our committees are committing on every level to increase our DE&I work.

For example, our Columbia Center committee is asking vendors to fill out a survey that captures their commitment

Nazly Mamedova, VP of Diversity & Inclusion, Junior League of Cincinnati

to racial equity, diversity, and inclusion. The survey helps in not only choosing a diverse group of vendors, but also shows them JLC’s commitment to equity, in effect encouraging them to think more deeply about their commitment. Our Tour of Kitchens: Takeout Edition is ensuring a more inclusive experience with closed captioning on our three special episodes highlighting community chefs and mixologists. Our Curriculum Development committee has implemented this year the microaggression training into the New Member curriculum. It is very important that the JLC fosters equity and inclusion from the beginning, and this year it starts with our New Members. Our Sustainers have created a DE&I liaison position so we can continue our important work on all levels of our membership.

This year, our Members continue to work on ensuring that diversity, equity, and inclusion are reflected in everything we do and we invite each one of you to join us in this effort.

We as Junior League women strive to be civic leaders in our communities. As such, we should hold ourselves accountable for our own racism. We must do the work and speak out against injustices we witness in our community. We must be willing to be humbled and vulnerable. We must know when it is time to listen and, equally important, when we must speak up. Our League is here for our amazing women and is ready to provide support, resources, and inspiration.

The JLC was established in 1920. For a long time, we have enjoyed seeing ourselves represented in the community. Now it is time for the community to see itself represented in us.