DEI Programs
Opportunities to Engage
DEI at DCD is, first and foremost, about making sure everyone feels seen, heard, and safe on campus. We’re proud of our inclusive, respectful community. From our faculty and staff to our students to our parents and caregivers, you will see engagement in DEI work at every level of our school. When members of a community feel affirmed (seen) by others, they can more easily build a culture of empathy and understanding. We know if we create a community in which every member feels safe, valued, and treated with dignity, that members will in turn try to create the same kind of community when outside of DCD.
Our faculty and staff are diligent about making sure the curriculum for our students is responsive to our demographics and student needs. In addition to our academic and extracurricular offerings, DCD hosts student affinity spaces and dialogue groups beginning in lower school.
An affinity space is a space that allows people who share an identity—usually a marginalized identity—to gather, talk in a safe space about issues related to that identity, and transfer that discussion into action that makes for a more equitable experience at school.
A dialogue group is a space that allows people who do not necessarily share an identity to gather, talk in a safe space about issues related to their experiences, and transfer that discussion into action that makes for a more equitable experience at school.
Lower School Affinity Spaces and Dialogue Groups
Culture Club
Culture Club meets once a month most months during the academic year. The purpose of Culture Club is to bring students who identify as students of color together to discuss their individual identities, and other topics like holidays and heritage months. Culture club began in 2011 under the leadership of Lynne Mayard and is currently facilitated by Ivy Alphonse-Crean.
Middle School Affinity Spaces and Dialogue Groups
Most middle school affinity spaces and dialogue groups meet weekly during X blocks, with one exception. Each year, students are surveyed about space needs, and spaces may be shifted or created according to student feedback and adult staffing requirements. Students in middle school affinity spaces and dialogue groups also assist with planning the annual middle school conference.
LGBTQIA+ Allies
This is a dialogue group for students who identify as LGBTQIA+ and for students who identify as allies to this group to come together and learn more about LGBTQIA+ history and the LGBTQIA+ experience; students also discuss how DCD might better serve students who identify as LGBTQIA+.
Girls’ Voices
This is a space for students who identify as girls to discuss issues related to being a girl at DCD. Topics for discussion have included dress code, body image, advocacy and gendered expectations.
Boys Talk
This is a space for students who identify as boys to discuss issues related to being a boy at DCD. What does “being a boy” mean? What expectations are placed on boys? How do boys move through the world around them?
Students of Color
This affinity space provides a minority majority experience for students who identify as students of color. What does it mean to be a student of color at DCD? How can our community better meet the needs of students of color at DCD?
Social Justice Club
This dialogue group asks the question “what can I do?” Students in the social justice club consider how to get involved and make change so that our DCD community, and the world around us, can continue to know better and do better.
Breakfast Buddies
Based on student feedback in the 2021-2022 academic year, we now have an affinity space for students who identify as Black. Breakfast Buddies meets on Thursday mornings at 7:30 am- 8:00 am. One meeting each trimester is open to 5th grade students who identify as Black in preparation for their transition into middle school.
Neurodiversity
Consider how learning is different for each of us on campus. No brain is entirely alike! This space will offer students the chance to consider themselves as learners. How do we advocate for our learning needs? How might we “think differently” about ourselves in the classroom? And, what does it mean to be a school that embraces many different learners?
Parent/Caregiver SEED
The National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) partners with communities, institutions, and schools to develop leaders who guide their peers in conversational communities to drive personal, institutional, and societal change toward social justice.
The Parent and Caregiver SEED group will meet once a month (on average) during the school year. Facilitators will plan conversations around a variety of topics based on the needs of our parent and caregiver community. Meetings will be hybrid with some offered virtually and others offered in-person. Refreshments will be provided at in-person meetings.
Anti-Racist Learning Group
If you are a parent or caregiver at DCD, you are welcome to join the Anti-Racist Learning Group. This group discusses topics related to race in America, and asks participants to consider how to expand their understanding of race and racism in its many forms in the U.S.
Families of Color
This affinity space is for parents and caregivers who identify as people of color. Through a variety of events, parents and caregivers of color come together over shared experiences.
LGBTQIA+ Families
This affinity space is for parents and caregivers who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Through a variety of events, parents and caregivers who are LGBTQIA+ create community with one another.
Faculty and Staff SEED
The National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) partners with communities, institutions, and schools to develop leaders who guide their peers in conversational communities to drive personal, institutional, and societal change toward social justice.
The Faculty and Staff SEED group will meet once a month (on average) during the school year. Facilitators will plan conversations around a variety of topics based on the needs of our school community. Dinner is provided for participants in faculty and staff SEED.
Affinity Space for Black Faculty
DCD offers a weekly space during lunch for faculty and staff who identify as Black.
Welcome Back BBQ
This event occurs in September, and is a space for families who identify as families of color or LGBTQIA+ families to come together at the beginning of the new school year. Families will hear about DEI related events on the horizon, student programming, and ways to build community.
CommUNITY Event
The annual CommUNITY event, organized by the DEI office and Office of Community Engagement, brings the entire DCD parent and caregiver community together to explore issues of diversity and inclusion. The event is held during the winter term and features a cocktail hour and dinner followed by a presentation on a relevant topic by an outside speaker.
Past speakers have included:
2017: Mahzarin Banaji
2018: Rosetta Lee
2019: Claude M. Steele
2020: SEED
2021, 2022: Dr. Howard Stevenson
Middle School Diversity Conference
Beginning in the 2020-2021 academic year, the Middle School Diversity Conference is a day of workshops for middle school students that range in topics related to identity, diversity, and self-expression and self-care. Adults in the DCD community, as well as outside experts are invited to share their knowledge with middle school students based on student topics of interest. This conference takes place annually in February.
