Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI)

Guiding Statement

America’s Service Commissions (ASC) will create an equitable and inclusive environment through learning, advocacy, and training in its internal work and with the network of state service commissions, their programs, and other stakeholders in order for national service and volunteering to grow and thrive in a manner that is reflective of the communities in which it serves.

ASC is committed to listening and learning as we move forward on the path to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. ASC will use our position as a national membership organization to work towards the goal that all people have access to service opportunities and are included in the leadership, development, and implementation of those opportunities. We will take action and advocate for policies that will advance equity across race, gender, disability, age, class, and geography. We will do this through continued dialogue, training, coaching, feedback, and empowering voices that are often silenced to speak. We will hold ourselves accountable to operate outwardly and inwardly as a learning organization that strives to be actively anti-racist and inclusive. We will prioritize the professional development and learning of our staff, board, and members to build the knowledge and skills to support our goals for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. We will amplify other voices when it is not our voice that needs to be heard, we will expect growth from each other and our membership, and we will put the learning into action as we advance towards being advocates and allies.

View our organizational land acknowledgment here.

ASC JEDI Plan

ASC created a Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Plan in 2020 that complements our three year strategic plan. Our JEDI Work Group, which reports to our Membership Committee, meets monthly to provide accountability to us in meeting our JEDI goals and input into our related priorities and activities. View our full JEDI Plan. This plan is dynamic and will continue to be reviewed to reflect new priorities and learning as we move throughout our work.

Making National Service More Accessible

In early 2021, ASC solicited input from our network on ways the federal AmeriCorps agency and policymakers can make national service more accessible, equitable, and inclusive. The result is a detailed set of recommendations we sent to the federal agency in early 2021. These recommendations are not exhaustive and represent a snapshot in time. Until many of these barriers are addressed, it will continue to be challenging for national service resources to be accessible to all communities (potential grantees) and individuals (potential AmeriCorps members and volunteers). 

In August 2021, ASC built off the above recommendations to respond to the "Barriers to National Service" public comment opportunity. That comment opportunity limited responses to 5,000 characters so a shortened comment was provided with a link to this more extensive comment which can be viewed for download here. 

With questions on ASC's JEDI priorities and work, please contact Rachel Bruns.