BY ASHLEY PARISH
PALS Community
Development Associate
PALS is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion, and we are actively working to bring our programs to folks of different backgrounds. We love our community and want it to be accessible to everyone. Thinking about summer camp, it can be challenging to identify the barriers that prevent folks from attending. At a glance, camp seems accessible for both campers and volunteers: We offer scholarships to families to make tuition more affordable, and volunteers attend camp for free. Still, there are other factors at play that may impact someone’s ability to participate.
An important component of diversity and inclusion is a person’s access to resources. Some people inherently have more access to resources than others, and this access offers them opportunities and experiences that other folks don’t have. For example, a person who uses a wheelchair may have every right to enter a building, but if that building isn’t wheelchair friendly, they don’t really have access.
“Our goal is for our groups to be reflective of the communities in which we operate. ”
Access can go beyond physical barriers, however, and these inhibitors aren’t always apparent if you’re not the person being impacted by them. With regard to summer camp, many families don’t have the resources to send their children to programs that cost money. Oftentimes, they are unaware that financial aid is available. Also, many people don’t know that programs like PALS exist in the first place, so they don’t have the opportunity to join our community. We’ve found that most of our participants learn about PALS by word of mouth. We love that our participants hold us in high esteem, and in turn bring their friends to our programs. However, many of our participants come from middle class or wealthy communities. If folks continue to learn of PALS primarily by word of mouth, we miss opportunities to reach folks outside of those circles.
PALS is actively working to promote diversity and inclusion, and has assembled a task force who meet regularly to assess areas where we can grow. This team is identifying opportunities to improve volunteer training, leading a diversity and inclusion session at the PALS leadership summit, and working on resources to develop strategies to recruit more diversely. These staff members hold varying roles within PALS, but all share the same commitment toward promoting diversity and inclusion within our organization. Their unique backgrounds, skills, and experiences encourage powerful collaboration, and help us bring meaningful growth to our organization.
Earlier this year, PALS was the recipient of generous grant funding as part of an initiative to further our diversity and inclusion goals. The grant enabled us to hire new staff whose roles focus on increasing the diversity of our community. These staff members – Jordan Rosalyn Henderson, Kirsty McDonald, and myself – are working to make PALS more accessible to diverse participants. Our goal is for our groups to be reflective of the communities in which we operate. The PALS community should represent a spectrum of people with varying cultural backgrounds and identities – we appreciate the diversity of the communities we operate in, and we want our participants to both reflect and celebrate that.
Kirsty, our Family Resource Associate, is actively working to enhance our accreditations so we qualify as a waiver provider. In each state, there are funds available for people with disabilities to use for programs of their choice, and her work will qualify folks to use those funds toward the cost of our programs. Becoming an officially listed waiver provider will increase our visibility. Additionally, families – instead of having to apply for financial aid – will be empowered to use the funding resources readily available to them. We happily extend financial aid to those who need it, but we recognize that it can be uncomfortable to ask for assistance. Kirsty’s work will help alleviate that obstacle.
Jordan and I are Community Development Associates for the Philadelphia and Los Angeles areas, respectively. Our roles center around bringing new people into our community. We have been identifying the barriers that prevent folks from coming to PALS, doing grassroots outreach, and making connections with community partners. Once we begin recruiting for our 2021 programs, Jordan and I will be making personal connections with new families and potential volunteers, helping them through the application process, answering questions they may have, navigating the financial components of camp, and providing resources to make our programs more accessible to them.
Many folks don’t have a community of belonging like ours to call home. We know how enriching PALS could be for them, just as we recognize how important it is to bring their voices and experiences to our community. We want everyone to experience the PALS magic. In an ideal world, everyone would have access to the same resources, and everyone would know about PALS. Until we reach that point, we will continue working to bridge the gap to bring as many folks into our community as possible.