Messaging: Promoting & Outreach

Key Concepts

• Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity help raise the bar and make us better practitioners, better professionals and better leaders

• Tell the story, tell it again, tell it once more and keep telling it

• Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity are strategic goals and values of the Associations

• Bar associations are leaders of our profession's values and priorities. We set the standards and vision in our communities. When bar associations prioritize EDI, they institutionalize critical values.

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Include the topic of EDI on every section agenda & discuss goals regularly

Review the CBA’s Strategic Plan REFOCUS 20/20 and the CBA|DBA Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity Action Plan
Ensure that equity, diversity& inclusivity are included in your section’s priorities
Include the CBA’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity Mission and Values Statements on your section’s meeting agendas
Include your section’s equity, diversity & inclusivity goals and priorities in your leadership training (see Implementing: Tools to Succeed, Schedule educational programming)
Encourage each member of your section council and your leadership teams to take the online Harvard Implicit Association Test and facilitate an open discussion about what was learned

Engage in personal one-on-one outreach to section members, not just emails

Design a welcoming and encouraging invitation to new members and members you are inviting to be more involved with your section – make the ask a give
Make time for outreach with new or potential members after meetings or events
Consider sponsoring a potential new section member by covering their fee to an event or CLE to show the value of section membership

Collaborate with other sections on EDI ideas, events & strategies

Use the CBA online communities to promote section collaboration
Considering a section liaison to other sections to facilitate collaboration and learn what is working for other sections
Plan joint events with other sections

Create consistent messaging and promotional materials

Update your section’s webpage quarterly to ensure that new members know how to join, attend meetings and events and how they can learn more about your section
Be mindful of imaging and photos that promote EDI in your online and print publications
Incorporate EDI in your section’s publications
Prioritize diverse authorship as you fill content for your section’s print publications – this can develop into micro-volunteering opportunities
Include the CBA’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity Mission and Values Statements on your section’s meeting agendas
Re-publish relevant articles from the ABA, the Associations, and other resources in your section’s newsletter
Promote EDI on online platforms (e.g., social media, your section’s online community) and communicate with your section liaison if you need help from the CBA’s Communications Department
Use your section's publications and promotional materials to lead members to the EDI webpage, your online community and work that your section is doing

Ensure diverse speakers at CLEs and other section events

Ask section councils to monitor their CLE speakers and panels to ensure diversity at each event
Invite diverse speakers to CLEs to discuss substantive law not just equity, diversity& inclusivity topics
Collaborate with CBA-CLE and your CLE liaison to invite diverse speakers to your section's programming
Reach out to specialty/diversity bar associations and others to recruit and identify diverse speakers

Resources for Messaging, Promoting & Outreach

Links to useful resources

2019 – 2020 The State of Diversity and Inclusion in the Legal Profession [Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession]

Diversity & Inclusion Resources [ABA]

The Value Proposition of Inclusion [Diversity Forum]

Different bars, different ways to work toward diversity and inclusion [ABA]

How Two Associations Built Diverse Boards [Associations Now]

Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity Home Page