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Plans, Policies & Reports

Plans

Diversity Action Plan

The Diversity Action Committee is hard at work formulating a plan. The WDI’s intent is to integrate diversity across all levels of the organization to ensure that decision making and programming include diverse perspectives and identities.

Key approaches

  • Recruit, retain, mentor and promote individuals with diverse identities.
  • Examine and reform organizational materials and programming to be more inclusive and to be consistent with our values.
  • Solicit feedback on potential barriers to achieving greater diversity within our organization.
  • Improve the accessibility of the WDI by expanding programming to a broader range of environments.
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Strategic Action Plan

Women’s Debate Institute Strategic Action Plan

Mission

Our mission at The Women’s Debate Institute is to advocate for and facilitate a more gender-inclusive environment that advances educational and professional opportunities for marginalized gender identities in the debate community. We continue to fulfill this mission with the expansion of diverse programming and resources. From our Anti-Harassment Training to our Annual Summer Camp, we are dedicated to providing resources to cultivate an inclusive environment for all.

Vision

We support self-empowerment of the participants in our organization by providing a community that cultivates the skills to be successful debaters, effective advocates, exceptional public speakers and educated professionals with the ability to transform our world.

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Competitive Distinction

WDI empowers participants in our organization to learn advocacy skills through the transformative power of debate. By providing safe spaces, mentoring, free tuition, mobile resources and a supportive network, we seek to reverse the attrition of individuals with marginalized gender identities in high school and college debate communities and to spread norms and values of intellectual integrity, kindness, compassion and respect.

Our efforts do more than contribute to a more diverse debate community; they provide a much-needed pathway for greater gender inclusion in all professions that rely on strong advocacy, public speaking and analytical skills.

Goals

1

Integrate diversity across all levels of the organization to ensure that decision-making and programming includes diverse perspectives and identities.

KEY APPROACHES

  • Recruit, retain, mentor and promote individuals with diverse identities.
  • Examine and reform organizational materials and programming to be more inclusive and to be consistent with our values.
  • Solicit feedback on potential barriers to achieving greater diversity within our organization.
  • Improve the accessibility of the WDI by expanding programming to a broader range of environments.
2

Diversify and expand revenue stream to ensure financial stability, sustainability, and operational flexibility

KEY APPROACHES

  • Develop impactful materials tailored to a variety of fundraising campaigns.
  • Apply for and secure more grants.
  • Identify potential major donors.
  • Establish revenue-generation services.
3

Improve curriculum to better serve our participants and support our outcomes

KEY APPROACHES

  • Formalize program philosophy, structure and operations.
  • Revise curriculum to integrate civic engagement, gender awareness and inclusion.
  • Establish and systematize program evaluation measures.
4

Implement new programming to expand our organization’s impact and reach

KEY APPROACHES

  • Effectively use technology to expand and create virtual spaces for students and coaches to facilitate education and community.
  • Create a Mobile WDI to expand the geographical reach of the organization.
  • Develop and provide training programs and tools for harm reduction relating to issues of gender-based harassment and safety.
5

Increase effectiveness of the organization through improved board governance and transparency

KEY APPROACHES

  • Tailor committee structure to strategic priorities.
  • Develop a transition plan to ensure long-term sustainability.
  • Monitor and evaluate progress on strategic priorities.
  • Construct a user-friendly website with refined content and deliberate messaging.
  • Effectively use social media to direct community members to the website.
  • Develop a communications strategy.

WDI’s Strategic Action Plan (Revised 1-21-16)(PDF)

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Policies

Trans Inclusion Policy

One of the goals of the WDI is to build a strong community with the collective goal of ending gender discrimination in debate. To that end, we adopted a Trans Inclusion Policy in 2014, and we welcome applications from trans students and staff.
To continue the commitment to creating a safe, supportive and empowering space, this policy serves to formally document the WDI’s commitment to trans inclusion and anti-oppression politics.
The formation of this policy has been an iterative process, and has involved WDI students, staff and board members. The resulting policy is the result of input from all of these constituencies.
If you have any questions or suggestions about how we could improve the policy, please contact us.

Code of Conduct

The WDI aims to provide the safest possible environment for learning that is conducive to developing a supportive community. Accordingly, we expect all students to agree to the following standards of personal behavior.
Students who violate any of these standards of conduct may have their family/guardians contacted, participation in WDI terminated, or restrictions imposed as deemed appropriate by WDI staff.

Reports

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