Ensuring engagement, not just representation
At Dixon Hall, the Regent Park community’s multi-service agency, diversity in the makeup of their board of directors is a given. Eighty percent of the neighbourhood comprises visible minorities speaking Bengali, Tamil, Vietnamese, Chinese, Somali, Spanish and French. Ensuring the board reflects this diversity is engrained in their recruitment strategies used over the past 20 years or more.
But today the board has its eye on more than just representation. It wants to deepen engagement and has conducted an extensive review of its governance practices to do just that.
“How do we ensure that our procedures will not become barriers?” asks Kate Stark, Dixon Hall’s Executive Director. She references a hefty binder that contains board policies on matters like conflict of interest and confidentiality. While they’ve made every effort to ensure the tome is written in plain language, it may still be intimidating for those without prior board experience, preventing them from asking questions and thus, fully participating.
To combat this and other potential obstacles, the board has a buddy system in place whereby new members are paired with long-standing members. They’ve also enacted a self-evaluation process, closing meetings with an informal discussion where the group assesses what’s working and what it needs to do to work better together. New members can use the time to identify what they need to become more involved.
“Did you get the information you need to help make a difference?” This is the question Stark and the board aim to address so that the experience of being on the board is as fruitful as possible.
Stepping up board involvement from individuals living in the immediate community is especially important today as the neighbourhood undergoes a major redevelopment. According to Stark, fear is common and stress levels are high. While staff could have identified these challenges, she says, “when you hear it from people that are experiencing it, it really hits home.” As a result, the board rejected earlier plans to expand programming in another neighbourhood.
“No, this is not the time to withdraw from Regent Park; it’s the time to put more resources in.”
Dixon Hall was the recipient of a Maytree Diversity in Governance Award in 2007.
