The mission of May Institute’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Council is to foster and support an environment of inclusion, respect, fairness, and transparency, where differences are celebrated and all opinions are valued.

We work hard to ensure that our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is built into everything we do—from hiring our employees and building our company culture to providing culturally competent services to the individuals we serve. The Council was founded in 2013.

May Renews its DEI Commitment to Employees in 2024

May Institute is redoubling its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts as a result of the employee forums, focus groups, and feedback received.

The goals are to: 

• Expand and enhance DEI training for all staff 
• Incorporate management’s responsibility for DEI-related initiatives into their work expectations and evaluation process 
• Examine the hiring process and provide training for recruitment staff to address any bias in the process 
• Expand the Mentorship Program 
• Recruit employees, especially people of color, with the goal of providing advancement opportunities 
• Seek out seasoned employees across all functions to share knowledge and expertise 
• Increase process transparency 
• Evaluate the process of how issues are communicated to and from Human Resources 
• Regularly revise the Employee Handbook to ensure the clarity and transparency of policies 
• Establish a phone line to report DEI issues  

A phone line setup to report DEI issues will be monitored by the Diversity Steering Committee, and employees will have direct communication with a member of that team. 

 

HR Collaboration

The DEI Council has partnered with the corporate Training and Development department to make the diversity segment of the orientation a more interactive and engaging learning opportunity for new hires. They also worked together to develop a robust diversity, equity, and inclusion module for the supervisor/management training series. The teams will collaborate to roll out a comprehensive DEI training for all staff, aimed at raising awareness, building understanding, and giving employees and managers at all levels the tools to understand and own their roles in attaining the organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives.

Mentoring

The objective of our Mentoring Program is to provide professional development opportunities for employees to learn from the experiences of their seasoned colleagues, while giving senior members/mentors the opportunity to “give back” to their co-workers and their profession. We are in the third year of active, successful cohort and pairings.
 

Training and Education

The Council actively works on speaker engagements, education, and networking initiatives that are available to all staff.
 

Diversity@Work Newsletter

The Council writes and distributes a newsletter three times a year to all employees. Its purpose is to share the work of the D&I Council with the May community, celebrate our diverse workforce, and highlight our employees’ good work with the individuals we serve and in their communities. Read the latest three issues here: Diversity@Work, Issue 21. Diversity@Work, Issue 20. Diversity@Work, Issue 19.  

National and International Outreach

In 2013, we launched the “Helping Hands, Open Arms Campaign.” This employee-led and funded campaign seeks to support national and international projects that are of interest to our employees. This campaign gives the D&I Council an opportunity to lend its support and voice to the charitable efforts of our employees and the charities they support and, in so doing, galvanize the entire organization around a common goal.

We are excited about the work ahead, and look forward to the collective commitment and involvement of all our employees so that we can continue to be a catalyst for change, growth, and continued learning.