Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is at the root of everything we do. Our vision is that Summer Search students become critically conscious leaders who increasingly invest in themselves and their communities. We support this vision through programmatic, operational, and talent practices centered in critical consciousness and cultural humility.
We commit to anti-oppression at all levels in the organization. We effectively hire, retain and promote People of Color so that all staff have equitable opportunity to advance to their fullest potential. Program staff are skillful in discussing race, identity, social/cultural context with students and supporting the development of their critical consciousness.
All staff and boards hold equity work as a crucial priority, are willing and able to navigate conversations about race and identity, and increasingly reflect the racial and other identities of the students we serve. We reflect critically on key organization decisions and actions to ensure we create increasingly equitable and just outcomes, especially for our students and staff of color.
Summer Search’s EDI work started with our regional site staff who, in a desire to better serve our students, identified the need to better understand how racial equity intersects with our work. As the fiercest advocates for our students, staff adapted to our students’ needs locally.
One of our earliest network-wide efforts was the formation of a EDI Hiring Taskforce, which aimed to bring together staff from all sites and the national office to identify how to further our diversity work in talent acquisition. When this group came together, it was clear that there was a crucial need to invest our energy into inclusion efforts – to create a work community that allowed staff of color to show up as their authentic selves without repression.
This led to the formation of the EDI Working Group which was tasked with creating an EDI strategy that met the needs of staff from around the network. The Working Group identified the need to create an equitable decision making framework to guide leadership decisions, training all staff on racial equity, and specific talent and program initiatives.
We are moving forward as an organization, with a shared language and understanding around equitable decision making, leadership operating principles, and foundations of racial equity theory and practice. We've co-created community agreements for how we work together, take care of ourselves and others, and foster safe space at work. Together, we are fostering transformational leadership development and a practice of liberation and equity.
We're hiring and we want to meet you! If you're as passionate about partnering with young people to find their purpose and achieve financial well-being as we are, we want to hear from you. We operate from locations in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, the Bay Area, and Seattle.
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Summer Search is available to all, without regard to race, color, origin, gender, political affiliation, disability, sexual orientation, or religion. Summer Search is a US tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (Tax ID Number: 68-0200138).
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