YAAS: Diversity and Inclusion in the Real World

If you want to learn about the original conception and mission of this program, read my What is YAAS? post. TL;DR: It's a weekly group for youth age 14-24 where we'll be doing community service work, library programs, hosting guest presenters, and making connections with peers in a safe and welcoming environment.

Tonight's program was used as a "kickoff" for a teen programming series that my coworker is running at our library for the next three days. The program is Adulting 101, so you can probably guess the content, at least vaguely. The concept of Adulting 101 has been used at lots of libraries, but the specific subject matter changes from system to system because there are so many different aspect to "adulting." For ours, my coworker booked guests over three days to talk about the following topics:

• Diversity and Inclusion in the Real World (presented by me)
• Financial Know How (presented by a local financial consultant)
• College Planning (presented by staff from Mesa Community College)

For my presentation, I wanted to focus on the difference between tolerance, diversity, and inclusion in the real world, and specifically in the workplace. I won't share the entire PowerPoint here, but if you're interested, inquire on the home page and I'll happily email you a copy of the presentation and its companion worksheet. Here are the highlights:

We began with a pop quiz to see how many of the pride flags and everyday icons related to different kinds of diversity. After the answers were revealed, we talked briefly about the ones not too many people recognized.

Then we went over the three words that the presentation was based on: tolerance, diversity, and inclusion.

Moving into a discussion about the workplace, we talked about reasons why diversity and inclusion are important at work, and why it's important to look for workplaces that don't just tolerate people who are different, but celebrate them.

Finally, I profiled my friend Brittany's workplace (you might remember Brittany from her fabulous book reviews). Brittany works in the fraud prevention department at Grub Hub headquarters. Everyone on her team comes from a different background, has different skills and interests, and many were raised in different parts of the country or in another country. I won't share the team members' personal information or photos here without their permission, but Brittany was kind enough to get a group picture of her team and several testimonies about why the diversity on their team makes their work more effective. 

At the very end of the presentation, I asked the participants to name three things they heard that were new ideas to them, two questions they had after the discussion, and one thought they would like to share with the group. Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of time to spend on this final exercise since we did a lot of discussing throughout the presentation. While this slide would have provided the group with a good wrap-up of the topic and maybe answered some questions that arose, I still feel like the night was successful and the participants came away with some new info and ideas.

Special thanks to the Grub Hub fraud prevention team for letting me share their stories and experiences with YAAS! I surveyed the group about the program afterward, and many of the anonymous surveys mentioned that they specifically appreciated the real-world example of an inclusive workplace.