Rotary Youth Exchange builds peace one young person at a time

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is to provide tools and resources to all participating districts within the North American Youth Exchange Network.

Our position on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is to strengthen efforts where every Rotary Youth Exchange participant feels welcomed, valued, included, championed, heard, and a sense of belonging.

We seek to educate district youth exchange personnel around best practices to ensure Rotary Youth Exchange students across all spectrums of diversity are supported.

Some of the education includes:

• Annual Unconscious Bias Training
• Recruitment, Marketing, and Outreach
• Training and Development: Club Members and Program Volunteers Cultural Sensitivity
• Intercultural Learning
• Culture Shock and Reverse Culture Shock for student participants
• Financial Support Opportunities
• Knowledge Resource Communities related to students focused on the following: LGBTQ+, Disabilities, Gender and Racial Diversity, and Access for all Students (Low Social Economic Status Families, Diverse Cultures & Identities, etc.)

We understand diversity, equity, and inclusion may contain various meanings depending on demographics, culture, and geography around the world. However, we define the terms as the following:

Diversity: The blend of different backgrounds, experiences, talents, mindset, and perspectives. Our individual differences both visible, i.e. gender, and invisible, i.e. experiences, values, education, sexual orientation or religious background make us a diverse organization.

Equity: An approach that ensures everyone access to the same opportunities. Equity recognizes that advantages and barriers exist, and that, as a result, we all don’t all start from the same place. Equity is a process that begins by acknowledging that unequal starting place and continues to correct and address the imbalance.

Inclusion: Respecting all visible and invisible differences to create an equitable, healthy and high-performing organization in which all individuals feel welcome, valued, championed, heard, and their contributions are appreciated.

To understand more about Rotary International commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion please visit https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/about-rotary/diversity-equity-and-inclusion

Any questions or for more information about NAYEN Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, please reach out to Dr. Todd Jenkins, NAYEN Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Chair at [email protected]