Equity Trail Map

See all our ongoing Progress Reports/Updates

Here below -- is our original summary overview of our project: Equity Trail Map

Click to open our chapter's full  Equity Trail Map document (29-pages)...   

The design and development of the Grand Canyon Chapter Equity Trail Map stems from the chapter’s ongoing commitment to equity, justice, and inclusion and work to acknowledge past harms. The development of the Sierra Club Multi-Year Equity Plan in 2015, the Growing for Change curriculum and ideas generated through the subsequent equity workshops from 2016-2019, and the Cultural Transformative Initiative in 2021-2022 have all served as stepping stones to the development of the chapter’s Equity Trail Map (ETM). 

The Cultural Transformation Initiative (CTI) is a holistic and sustained capacity building effort intended to support the chapter in building the skills, relationships, and structures to become an effective, equitable, just, and inclusive chapter. Through the CTI process, volunteer leaders and staff learned and practiced core equity skills in a facilitated peer setting. Out of those facilitated spaces, volunteer leaders and staff identified specific areas that need to be addressed in order to change the chapter culture and structure. The ETM was developed to actualize those specific areas. Additionally, the chapter formally adopted a set of equity values in October 2021, which guide our current and future shared work. 

A working group was formed to develop the ETM and coordinate the initial stages of its implementation. The working group members include: Oscar Medina, Stephanie Vazquez, Kathy Mohr-Almeida, and Sandy Bahr with support from consultants, Elli Nagai-Rothe and Levana Saxon. The intention is for the chapter as a whole to share responsibility for implementing the ETM as part of our ongoing equity learning journey and commitment to centering equity, justice, and inclusion within our chapter.

We envision a welcoming, just, equitable, and inclusive Grand Canyon Chapter. We envision a chapter where people who have been historically and perpetually excluded and marginalized from the work of Sierra Club, feel welcome, supported, represented, and hold leadership positions within the chapter. In particular we lift up young people and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in our work. We envision volunteers and staff of all backgrounds and identities working together effectively to address equity, inclusion, and justice in all aspects of our work, both internally and externally. We aim to reduce harm to the volunteers, staff, and partners who are disproportionately impacted by social and environmental injustices. We know that we can play a pivotal role in supporting effective, collaborative campaigning and movement building as we work towards climate justice. Our work as environmentalists is intrinsically linked to life-long learning and unlearning around systems of oppression.

The ETM is organized around three primary goals and under each goal are a set of projects with progress indicators (“trail markers”), timelines, and a responsible team or leader. The goals are:

Goal 1: Create a welcoming and inclusive chapter that centers the communities most impacted by climate and environmental degradation in Arizona

• Project 1: Survey(s)
• Project 2: Onboarding for Volunteer Leaders
• Project 3: Buddy System

Goal 2: Ongoing equity learning and practice for self-transformation and accountable, Just relationships

• Project 1: Equity Learning
• Project 2: The Cactus Wren
• Project 3: Accountability Process for Harmful Behavior
• Project 4: 360 Feedback Process

Goal 3: Center equity and justice in our campaigns and organizing and establish more inclusive and just relationships with our partners

• Project 1: Equity in our Campaigns
• Project 2: Partnerships and Protocols
• Project 3: Outings & Service Projects

Open our full Equity Trail Map document (29 pages) -- updated with details about each goal and project area.