Equipped NCFRP and their partners with sustainable facilitation tools to increase equitable engagement with one another and those they serve
NCFRP and its partners are connected to a network of multidisciplinary teams throughout the United States that address important community, prevention, and public safety initiatives, particularly in the arena of child injury prevention. Most of these teams involve inter-agency partnerships between organizations from across the communities they serve.
As a national network that works with a diverse collection of agencies and teams, NCFRP was uniquely challenged with developing and advancing a shared understanding and commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion that accurately reflected each agency’s needs. NCFRP and their partner agencies set out to create a guiding framework for decision-making, facilitating dialogues and advancing health equity in their respective communities. They sought to develop a document that would honor the mission of each agency, while being mindful of the array of internal and external policies, practices, and political considerations that must be taken into account. This is a common challenge for multidisciplinary teams in both large and small organizations and networks – bringing together different perspectives, commitments, and understandings of DEI.
To meet this need, NCFRP and their partner agencies, Children’s Safety Network and Safe Kids Worldwide, reached out to Krista Rowe at Event Garde. Krista was able to provide in-depth guidance on the creation of the Facilitator’s Manual called Health Equity: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Assessment Guide for Multidisciplinary Teams (the Guide). The goal of the Guide is “to produce knowledge that will equip multidisciplinary teams and their leaders to identify and act on growth opportunities within the team and community contexts and support a shared understanding of the multidisciplinary teams’ commitments to DEI and advancing health equity in the community.” Krista facilitated a process to ensure that the language and tone used in the Guide was inclusive, accessible, and equitable. Krista helped the team avoid jargon or terminology that may inadvertently exclude or alienate marginalized social identity groups. Once the initial draft of the Guide was prepared, Krista facilitated sessions with key stakeholders whereby they could review and revise the document. This iterative process helped refine the Guide, address any gaps or inconsistencies, and ensure it accurately reflects the multidisciplinary team’s DEI goals and values while honoring those of each partner agency. Krista further assisted in developing strategies to effectively implement and communicate the Guide, particularly providing resources for effective facilitation strategies to promote understanding and engagement among teams. Event Garde and Krista provided ongoing support to NCFRP throughout the development process, conducting regular check-ins, and assisting with the continuous improvement of the Guide through to its launch.
Multiple multidisciplinary teams from across the country piloted and provided feedback on the Guide. Based on feedback from the pilot sites, the Guide was developed to support effective facilitation and use of the document with multidisciplinary teams, and to provide additional resources that may support facilitators, multidisciplinary teams, partner agencies, or individual team members in getting the most out of the Guide. By leveraging the expertise and experience of Event Garde consultants, NCFRP and their partners created a DEI manual that is tailored to their specific context and contributes to building more inclusive and equitable multidisciplinary teams. This is intended to provide more equitable outcomes for community, prevention, and public safety initiatives, particularly in the arena of child injury prevention.
