CareerVillage.org Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Guidelines

As a social impact organization working to democratize access to college and career advice for all individuals, CareerVillage.org works to close gaps in access, support, and engagement. We build economic prosperity for Individuals who are subject to systems that put barriers and obstacles in their way. Our goal is to empower individuals with the knowledge, tools, and communities they deserve to start successful careers.

These guidelines outline our approach to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) and serve to hold us accountable for continuously improving and upholding an anti-bias platform, service, and workplace. We recognize our power to enact massive change as leaders of this movement and builders of this technology and aim to uphold our commitment to always consider this responsibility through a racial equity and social justice lens.

Our Technology

• Open Access: CareerVillage will be free for users forever.
  • Often, access is not equitable, which is why we provide our technology and services to users for free and always will.
• Inclusive: Our technology should be inclusive for all individuals.
  • We design for learners first, using learner-centric approaches, allowing them to see themselves included in the community (for example, by ensuring the professionals who give advice on our platform are representative of those seeking advice and bringing learner perspectives and voices into how we design our user experience.
  • We are mindful of our international learners and allow for questions to be asked in any language through a Google Translate integration.
  • We build our technology to work for as many individuals as possible, including adopting WCAG web accessibility standards and implementing responsive mobile-and-desktop-friendly interfaces.
• Ethical: We monitor automated systems and algorithms against several principles:
  • Fair: This means ensuring that access to high-quality advice from great volunteers is equitably distributed to our learners.
  • Accountable and Transparent: Our users should be able to understand how our technology matches learners to professionals.
  • Open: We strive to open-source as much of our work as possible so that community members can learn from it and make it easier for them to contribute to it as well.
  • Participatory: We open up as much room as we can for members of the community to contribute to the technology.

Our Community

• We are committed to building a diverse community and reaching underrepresented individuals and historically marginalized communities.
  • We partner with schools, workforce boards, and other nonprofit organizations to reach marginalized communities. We screen partnership opportunities with consideration to ensure that the partnership would close gaps, not widen them.
• As an organization that connects users to advisers, we strive to ensure the diversity of our volunteer corps matches the diversity of our learners on CareerVillage.org.
  • We use Village Censuses and surveys to monitor the diversity of our community and take action where needed to ensure that learner-professional diversity is in alignment.
  • Our partnerships with major employers such as PwC, AT&T, and IBM emphasize the importance of racial justice and equity in the workplace, leveraging Employee Resource Groups and Affinity Networks to diversify our volunteer base.
• We are dedicated to maintaining a platform that is an inclusive space for learners and volunteers.
  • We have established identity-based affinity groups on CareerVillage so students can get personalized advice from professionals with similar backgrounds.
  • Our team of moderators ensure that all content on our platform meets our Community Guidelines, to keep the platform safe for all community members.

Our Team

• CareerVillage is committed to establishing a diverse and inclusive staff and team culture.
  • Our core team is majority female and majority BIPOC. We recognize that it takes extra work to recruit a diverse team and are committed to putting in that work. We share a passion and empathy for uplifting underserved youth, both from personal experience and lifelong activism.
  • We recognize that work experience is valuable but not equitably distributed. As a result, we regularly offer paid internships and work closely with our interns to help them develop their career plans. In addition, we implement equitable hiring practices to ensure our recruitment processes are fair and unbiased.
• Our team thrives on mutual respect, shared learning, and acknowledging, affirming, and celebrating each other inside and outside of work.
  • We make space for dialogue on issues that affect our community, celebrate accomplishments, and support each other through personal hardships. We also regularly engage with experts in DEIJ to help improve our own practices.
  • At CareerVillage, we have a dedicated DEIJ council that helps hold staff accountable.
  • We respect different lifestyles by offering flexible work hours and accommodating family and personal responsibilities.

CareerVillage is an equal opportunity organization and will not allow discrimination based on age, race, ethnicity, ancestry, gender identity, national origin, disability, race, size, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, immigration status, education, location, or any other status prohibited by applicable law. We also hold our registered users to the same standard and reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time, including if we receive external evidence, such as negative publicity or social media, that reveals such discrimination, hate speech, or disrespectful or bullying behavior by a registered user, as determined by CareerVillage in its sole discretion.

We are a learning organization, so if there is anything we can do to improve these guidelines or inclusivity in our operations, please reach out to hello@careervillage.org.

Changelog:

• Updated 03/25/2024 G. Lally
• Updated 5/18/2021 G. Golmar
• Published 5/18/2021 J. Chung