Sharing institutional and individual responsibilities and action steps for fostering belonging and inclusive excellence

Refer to the bullet point below to gain a better understanding of the purpose of this theme and help you start thinking about how to create content.

• Focus on what can students and staff do to advance the creation of inclusive spaces.

The final day is focused on taking the content you’ve engaged with the past two days and identifying how that information can be applied in real time. The advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion must go beyond simply creating conversations. Recognizing personal and institutional responsibilities, as well as creating action steps, are essential to the growth of inclusive athletic communities. What are some action steps that you can personally take in your everyday life to advance this work? What are some action steps you believe your athletic department can take in advancing the student-athlete experience?

Refer to the example action steps below to help guide you:

• Create a list of student-athlete needs and present that to your athletics department leaders.
• Create a mentorship program for marginalized student-athletes.
• Create a schedule to lead monthly dialogues with your team surrounding contemporary diversity and inclusion topics.

Example post: “The Diversity and Inclusion Social Media Campaign is not over yet! Share with us what you plan to do to contribute to fostering inclusive excellence. Don’t forget to use #NCAAInclusion and share this with your friends!”

Activity ideas

Personal reflection

As a student-athlete and/or staff member, identify and write down what you can do in your daily life to foster inclusion and hopefully belonging. If comfortable, invite a group of friends or your team to do this activity as well. After thinking it through, share your thoughts with each other. It may also be helpful to identify someone as an accountability partner to ensure that you’re putting your thoughts into action. Compile a list of your thoughts and post it in the locker room or around your athletic department to continually remind each other of what you engaged with throughout this campaign. 

“Start, stop, continue”

After engaging in this campaign,  think of things that you want to start doing (i.e., stay up to date with DEI-relevant topics, read to foster knowledge surrounding DEI, advocate for marginalized peers), something you want to stop doing (i.e., making microaggressive comments, assuming this work lies solely on marginalized communities), and something you want to continue doing (i.e., continue engaging in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives such as this campaign). Again, it may be beneficial to identity a teammate, friend, or peer who can hold you accountable to these actions.

Host a “town hall” discussion

Ask your athletic director or someone in the athletic department to host a town hall with your athletic community. Ask folks how they feel the institution can better support its student- athletes and identify what steps are needed to achieve that plan. 

Inner circle, outer circle

This activity is a great way to generate conversations on individual, and possibly institutional, action steps that you can take following the campaign. Perform this activity by grabbing five chairs and placing them in a circle. Get 10 participants, with five individuals on the inside of the chairs and five individuals on the outside of the chairs. At each chair, place a discussion question focused on what action items could be taken to advance spaces of belonging within your team or on your campus. Talk with your partner for three to five minutes about the question placed at your chair, then have the outer circle rotate to their right and inner circle rotate to their right so each person has a new partner and new question. After rotating through the whole circle, have a larger dialogue with everyone participating about what they learned from this activity. 

Refer to the questions below as example discussion questions:

• What are your personal goals to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in our athletic community following the campaign?
• What is something you would like to see implemented on your team or in your athletic community to foster spaces of belonging?
• What steps do you think we can collectively take as an institution to elevate inclusive environments on our campus?