In collaboration with the LTER Broadening Participation Committee, the LTER Network Office is developing a variety of resources for enhancing participation at LTER sites and across the Network. The following strategy guides our approach to this important work.
Network Office Broadening Participation Strategy
As the LTER Network Office, we recognize that our differences in background, culture, and lived experience strengthen the work and well-being of the LTER Network. We aim to create a more inclusive LTER Network by providing practical support and helping to increase the visibility of participation-related activities at the level of the sites, the Network and the LTER Network Office.
We define broadening participation as as:
the many dimensions of diversity and intersections of these dimensions that exist or could exist within the LTER Network. These include but are not limited to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, physical or mental difference, socioeconomic background, career stage, discipline, and intellectual approach.
As the LTER Network Office, we aim to support and strengthen participation in the following ways:
- Engage a broader pool of participants and collaborators across and beyond the LTER network through partnerships with broadening participation-promoting organizations and institutions.
- Enable coordinated leadership for broadening participation work across the LTER network. Examples of enabling activities include:
- Creating virtual and physical spaces to support cross-site communication about diversity policy, issues, experiences, tips, and resources.
- Offering leadership and training opportunities that focus on fostering diversity and inclusiveness.
- Providing information to everyone involved in recruitment and selection of participants for Network Office-led programs or activities on the topics of broadening participation and inclusivity goals, benefits of diverse teams, and obstacles to establish an inclusive workplace culture.
- Evaluate success of broadening participation efforts by examining the involvement of underrepresented participants in leadership and decision making, in addition to counting their numbers. We also aim to examine outcomes for these participants and the groups in which they participate.
- Maintain a process for confidentially collecting and aggregating inclusivity indicators for LTER Network Office activities, including synthesis. Offer similar capacity to individual LTER sites and across the Network.
- Periodically update the LTER community regarding the LNO’s broadening participation goals, the efforts we are making to achieve those goals, and evaluations of those efforts.
