In 2019, RMPM launched a shift to our DEI practices and began to examine the implicit bias within our organization and the media industry, and to incorporate dismantling systems of oppression into our strategy, hiring practices, culture, interactions with the community, and capacity-building. In October 2019, we conducted baseline assessments of our staff’s white fragility and unconscious bias with support from Dr. Tara Jae, a community therapist and Executive Director of Youth Seen, a local organization working to foster and empower the social and emotional well-being of LGBTQI youth and their families in all communities.

Recognizing the importance of mental health and that prolonged exposure to anti-black culture is a mental health crisis, Dr. Jae began supporting our QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color) staff through one-to-one coaching and support. By March 2020, our DEI department was fully formed, with a chief DEI officer, Kim Salvaggio in place. In June 2020, we conducted an in-depth DEI survey, which was completed by 60% of staff and has helped to inform our DEI training sessions. We also shifted our programming strategy toward daily responsive content on our digital platforms that de-centers whiteness. Last year (2022), we developed our full DEI Pod curriculum and began training our staff. We are utilizing a train-the-trainer model, where those that have experienced the full DEI course become co-accomplices in dismantling white supremacy at RMPM and approachable resources on their teams. This year we completed foundational training for 30 staff members and about half of the content team.

We have also created a new mini course on “Public Media 101” tailored for those who are coming from commercial media to understand our mission and work as public media and how this differs from the commercial world. Our DEI team, recently renamed the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) team, is embedded in all of our content and approaches to storytelling, with the intent to establish media equity and accessibility. The IDEA team has four pillars in their work: training, content review and support, mental health support and one-to-one coaching, and community listening and engagement. The IDEA team works closely with our content team to ensure that we are creating restorative media and storytelling.

From start to finish, IDEA principles are entrenched in our content; the content team receives foundational IDEA training, has access to one-to-one coaching and mental health supports, connects with diverse perspectives and community partners through the IDEA team, and ultimately the content is reviewed by the IDEA team prior to publishing. To create accountability and share resources, we have established a robust community engagement approach that invites the community to weigh in on our content, and this feedback is valued and inserted into future storytelling; it is common for one our journalists to hear about a story while working on another story. This approach takes time, trust, and patience. Each team member receives three to six months of small group IDEA training tailored to their role within the organization with the opportunity for additional one-to-one coaching. Establishing relationships and trusts with diverse communities and community partners can take months and is a critical part of this work. We believe that “change happens at the speed of trust” and our content members, who increasingly belong to diverse communities themselves, establish this trust over time. In the next year we will continue training our staff, offering mental health support for our staff, reviewing content with an IDEA lens, and offering capacity building internally and externally through Community Circle engagements.

Our work is focused on entertaining, informing, and connecting individuals to their communities and society, regardless of political affiliation, age, race, gender, ability, socioeconomic status, or educational background. That said, we acknowledge that our organization has historically served mostly white populations, leading to an understandable sense of distrust among Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (QTBIPOC).

Moving forward, RMPM is committed to improving connections with QTBIPOC communities because we believe that listening with ALL communities is our work. QTBIPOC communities are inequitably represented in the media, and it is our goal to disrupt and change this pattern of harm. We believe in building safe and inclusive channels for community feedback, listening with community members through events, partnerships, and on our digital channels, and responding to feedback on our storytelling. We consistently collect quantitative and qualitative metrics, which are evaluated on an ongoing basis to ensure we have two-way communication with our audience. This input is pivotal to ensuring RMPM is accountable in our antiracist storytelling.