Supporting Community, Celebrating Diversity

When you see or hear the word community, what images form in your mind? You might picture a crowd of various people, or your thoughts might be more specific to a local event where residents are spending time connecting and interacting together. You might even visualize your own neighbors or colleagues. The point is, it’s difficult to imagine a community, any community, without diversity.

April marks Celebrate Diversity Month, so I wanted to put together a DEI reference guide below to include info on several ways you can commemorate, engage and explore opportunities for growth in your pursuit of upholding diversity, this month and beyond.

Celebrating Diversity in the Credit Union Movement

When considering our industry, it’s clear that the credit union movement can have an immense impact within a community. In 2019, the movement (and by association, Vizo Financial) made diversity, equity and inclusion our eighth cooperative principle, and we stand by it, now more than ever.

It’s important to acknowledge that we share an important responsibility to better understand and support each other in our continued DEI journey, especially within our communities. We all come from different backgrounds, and we all deserve to have our voices heard in a safe space. Celebrating diversity means leading by example to support strong communities.

In Defense of DEI

What are some additional ways to honor and defend DEI? The best way is to start by deepening your own understanding!

1. Look for opportunities to be more inclusive and foster belonging in your day-to-day life at work, home or around town. This can be done in several ways, and you can start in small steps or take big strides as you find opportunities to do so. Create a welcoming environment by listening and being supportive, considering others first. Welcome new opinions from others in the community, especially from voices you don’t often hear from. Look for new avenues to support accessibility whenever possible, such as confirming your website is ADA compliant. Take initiative! Consider joining (or leading) a DEI committee or club within your institution or community.

2. To expand your own understanding, be reflective and acknowledge your own unconscious bias. This might take time to un-learn certain aspects you had previously made a pattern. Harvard University has a test available through its Project Implicit, and you can access it using this link.

3. Before talking with others about DEI, do some research on how to best start and maintain meaningful conversations. This can be especially helpful when approaching a difficult discussion for the first time. This article shares helpful tips on ways to frame the conversation, such as first selecting one DEI topic to center the conversation around and making it clear you want to keep the dialogue open in the future. You certainly can’t cover all the important facets of DEI in one conversation, which is why it’s imperative to keep talking.

4. Start the conversation for long-term change. Don’t underestimate your impact. We all play a role in ensuring the success of DEI. As this piece on maximizing impact states, in order “for DEI work to succeed, DEI cannot be siloed into a single program, person or team.”

Additional Resources

• This article from the Academy to Innovate HR offers a great overview of the 10 types of diversity in the workplace, including: linguistic diversity, age and generational diversity, racial diversity, gender diversity, sexual orientation diversity, cultural diversity, religious and spiritual beliefs diversity, disability diversity, geographical diversity and socioeconomic status diversity. The article also explores the many benefits of supporting workplace diversity, such as increased creativity and reduced employee turnover. It’s definitely worth reading.
• If you would like to learn more about the ways that Vizo Financial is working to uphold our eight cooperative principle, please visit out the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) page on our website.

Melanie Lambie is Vizo Financial’s senior human resources generalist. She has over 15 years of experience in human resources and maintains several certifications, including her Certified Plan Sponsor Professional status from the Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA), Professional in Human Resources certification from the HR Certification Institute (HRCI) and Certified Professional designation from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). In May of 2022, she completed the National Credit Union Foundations’ Development Education (DE) program, earning her a Credit Union Development Educator (CUDE) designation.