This post is a little bit delayed... and by that I mean three years. In 2020, Diverse Solutions was formally founded by me (Janelle Abela). Before then, I was working in the K-12 classroom as a teacher and also advocating for equity, inclusion, and accessibility. I contributed to academic research [Image 1] and was involved in consulting work here and there. But the work that I was passionate about was only a side hustle and often became overtaken by the endless demands of teaching high school. So I took the plunge. I had a scary conversation with my husband and ultimately decided that I should quit my job (a huge privilege) and follow my dreams. I had no active clients, no leads, and no plan. But I knew that it would make me happy - and it has.
Image 1: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference in Austin, Texas (2019).
Fast forward through the trials and tribulations of starting a business and we are here at the end of 2023. In the past few years I have had many learning opportunities and the chance to engage in critical conversations with people in many different industries. I've worked in athletics, with law enforcement, educators, in finance, manufacturing, trades, agriculture, tech.... really just a bit of everything. I have had the opportunity to work with individuals in these spaces as an expert and support their journey towards improved culture and workplace well-being. This time has taught me a lot.
I learned that education isn't cookie cutter. This was something that I knew when I was teaching high school and now was seeing it in the professional learning space. Too often we try and teach with an A to B strategy without consideration of where learners are at, what is relatable to them, or how they best engage with the content. I too was ignorant to these differentiators. But now I've come to realize these differences and work to curate the programming and support we provide to respond to them.
Diverse Solutions in 2023....
We are a network of professionals that have experience working in leadership, IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility), communication, human rights, and education. We are passionate individuals who excel in our fields of research and have come together to create a comprehensive understanding of issues, with comprehensive strategies that respond to them. We have learned that when we work individually, we only see part of the problem and so our responses are limited. By working together, our clients have more well-rounded and sustainable strategies for success.
Our programming and approach is curated, holistic, trauma-informed, and human-centred. I know what you're thinking... that's a lot of different approaches to focus on. But you have to use various lenses or else you are not investigating the many influences on a situation and you may not be responding effectively. The more lenses, the more information. The more information, the better the response. We have learned that each of these approaches brings a unique set of considerations that support comprehensive engagement and support for our clients. We regularly reflect on how we apply these into our practice and continually review our philosophical considerations. What that really means is that we succeed when our clients succeed and to help them succeed we need to know all about them.
Our mission has never wavered over the past three years. We are committed to making positive contributions toward global change. Through progressive solutions and transformative practice, we aid in the development and implementation of practical strategies. Our research-based approach fuels innovation to meet intersectional needs and advance humankind.
Our goal is focused on the growth of our clients and their communities. We aim to create and enact progressive strategies that are responsive to intersectional needs in our globalized society. We are dedicated to increasing attention to effective leadership, communication, and IDEA within the workplace and larger society, fostering stronger relationships and empowering changes.
To achieve this, we offer a variety of services that are specialized to our client's objectives. We support our clients every step of the way. We offer speaking engagements, workshops, professional development courses, system audits, and strategy development. We are also committing to the supply of public resources in 2024. Be gone with the gatekeeping - we want change and we want you to have the tools to achieve it!
The changes that we've gone through in the past few years have truly transformed the way that we engage with our clients and how we support learning. We have taken every piece of feedback (which we are so grateful to have) and investigated how we can take it into consideration for future work. We succeed when our clients succeed and we truly enjoy being a part of their journey – every step of the way.
As the Founder and CEO, I appreciate how willing people are to have conversations about culture and workplace well-being. I enjoy listening to the perspectives that people have and learning why people think the way they do. As we re-launch in 2024, I look forward to following along with the amazing work that many organizations are doing and seeing how we are all growing, together.
Our 2024 Plan
In 2024 we are making some big committments at Diverse Solutions. We want to share those with everyone because we are excited to grow with you!
- Share our opinion on resources we use (books, workshop supplies, self-care strategies, articles, software, and more). Doing culture and well-being work in the workplace and for yourself is hard. We don't want the challenge of sifting through resources to add to that, so we are going to do it for you!
- Provide free learning. While continuing to providing curated learning to our clients, we will also provide general insights and learning tools as an open education component on our website. Our team knows the struggles of gatekeeping and how difficult it is to do the work without help. The free learning resources are aimed to help you start conversations in your spaces and with yourself as you engage in culture and well-being work.
- Giving back more is a part of our social responsibility as an organization. Alongside offering discounted rates to non-profit organizations and our philanthropic engagements [Image 2], we are committing to an increase of financial contributions to non-profit organizations. While we were building Diverse Solutions, we did not always have the cash flow to give back financially, so we would find ways that we could engage and contribute through service. But now we are in a position to add financial contributions to our support and that's exactly what we aim to do!
- Be human. This blog and our increased social media engagement is aimed to make this type of work more human. There is a lot of controversy surrounding conversations of equity, inclusion, diversity, accessibility, culture, well-being, etc. Our hope is that we can contribute to humanizing these conversations and create opportunities for people to reflect.
Image 2: Coldest Night of the Year event hosted by the Downtown Mission (2020).
Nothing about change is easy. It means we are moving away from something that is comfortable or known to us and into the unknown. Even when things are difficult, we may lean into what is known to us. So the path forward can seem very daunting. It's daunting for us too. As we share our story, we welcome you to follow along to learn and grow with us. Share your insights, your stories, and your successes. We are excited about the opportunity to create a bigger network with more resources and supports – helping everyone succeed. Thank you for taking the time to learn about us and learn with us.
With love,
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