The ARIDO Power of Colour: Being Black in Design panel series was the first of a series of conversations around the barriers and issues in the industry with a mandate of raising potential avenues for change. The series was hosted and moderated by Chandran Fernando of Matrix360 and led by several practicing designers who were both members and non-members of ARIDO.
Following the first two sessions, the panelists regrouped with ARIDO leadership and the Co-Chairs of ARIDO’s Equity, Diversity, Accessibility, and Advancement Committee (EDAA) committee to discuss next steps.
The first two sessions within this series have been successful in bringing important experiences and issues to the forefront. We have learned over the past year that as we continue to move forward moments of reflection and readjustment can ensure that ARIDO’s commitment to advancing the work in this area is positive and results in impactful change. This is one such moment where we will pause to further reflect on the first two sessions in greater detail and as a result, the third session scheduled to occur on September 21 will be postponed to a later date.
The panel series has brought to light that solutions and actions towards real change can be accelerated within EDAA’s Committee work as it continues its mandate. ARIDO leadership and the EDAA Co-Chairs have received several recommendations from the panelists that focus on actionable next steps.
ARIDO will present the recommendations received from the panelists to the EDAA Committee who continue to lead as the current gatekeepers of all organizational matters related to Equity, Diversity, Accessibility, and Advancement within the organization. The recommendations will be reviewed by the Committee against their mandate and the ARIDO Board’s Strategic Plan; specifically, the targets and strategies identified in the Equity, Diversity, Accessibility, and Advancement Pillar.
The EDAA Committee has also received the Phase One recommendations report from Matrix360 and will assess the recommendations submitted by the panelists against the identified next steps in this area of work for ARIDO.
Within the coming days, ARIDO will be releasing the results of the DIVeIN Survey and the Phase One Report. The survey was released to the membership in late March to help ARIDO understand member’s perspectives, attitudes, and experiences as well as identifying member demographics and key trends to help build best practices with diversity, equity, accessibility, and advancement in mind. The Phase One Report outlines a series of recommended next steps for ARIDO in response to the survey results and organizational training carried out to date.
We recommend all members review these documents and welcome any feedback or comments from the membership at large. Comments can be sent directly to Sharon Portelli, Executive Director, and Registrar at sportelli@arido.ca.
We will also report back to the membership plans to continue the work resulting from this panel series once the EDAA Committee has reviewed and identified appropriate next steps.