Can we add a tag or other identifier on the company/project side such as Indigenous owned, women owned, or other specific social/environmental identifiers.
planned
Shokoufeh Moradi
Merged in a post:
Additional Categories - Indigenous Owned, Minority Owned Business, Women Owned Business
Melissa Carr Rowe
For project and business categories, add a designation that would designate projects/business as aligned with DEI initiatives. Some schools can use this information for grant applications, certifications, and alignment with institutional priorities.
Amanda Boone
- We have specific requests from educators to work with organizations that are Indigenous-owned, there is currently no way for them to search for this unless it is in the company name or project title. The goal would be promoting diversity and giving better visibility to organizations that fall within these categories. Some institutions also have strong initiatives to improve their work with Indigenous communities, being able to clearly show them what is available (and maybe even report on them) is a huge value add.
- None have mentioned a comprehensive list to me personally, but I've gathered from my conversations with educators and my team members who have similar conversations that this is becoming increasingly popular and many have mentioned various areas of equity deserving groups or eco-friendly they would like to work with.
Shokoufeh Moradi
Amanda Boone:
Thanks, Amanda. We have added this to our backlog.
Shokoufeh Moradi
Amanda Boone
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
I do have follow-up questions:
- Could you please clarify the objective behind adding these tags/identifiers? For example is the goal for compliance, promoting diversity, or enhancing user experience? What are the benefits for companies/projects?
- Do you know of or have any of the companies mentioned a "comprehensive" list of the specific tags they are considering such as the indigenous-owned or women-owned examples you have mentioned?
Amanda Boone
Shokoufeh Moradi - so sorry, I did not see this message!
- The objective is to allow educators to search for businesses that have these identifiers as it is a part of their programming or institutional priorities to enhance learning, experience, and support in diverse areas. The benefits for the companies/projects is for instance if an Indigenous-owned company uses the tags they will be easier to find by educators seeking a specific experience for their students. A recent example is I met with the Chair of Anthropology at StFX University and they're interested in grant writing for Indigenous-owned organizations - there is currently no way for them to search unless the business has mentioned Indigenous in the title of the project or it is in the title of their organization.
- No companies have mentioned this to me, but it could be something like: Indigenous-owned, BIPOC-owned, Woman-owned and grow based on feedback :)
Shokoufeh Moradi
planned