The Diversity Coalition San Luis Obispo County is launching a training program to address the lack of representation for people of color in local nonprofit board positions.
The Census Bureau reports that SLO County's population is about 70% white, but an investigation by the Unity Committee and Sheriff's Office found that almost all local board and government leadership positions are made of 80 to 100% white people.
Vickie Prothro is the program director for the Diversity Coalition’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People-of-Color) Board Leadership Training program.
“This has a lot to do with the fact that there is an inequity in board representations serving underrepresented communities and people of color,” Prothro said.
The Coalition is launching the training program to address this imbalance in representation.
“We're trying to do that with creating a pipeline of BIPOC professionals that are board-ready and then matching them with organizations that are looking to diversify their board,” Prothro said.
Prothro said the training program will teach BIPOC professionals necessary skills to become effective local board leaders.
“There is nonprofit finance, there is fundraising and networking, and there's also strategic leadership development,” Prothro said. “So all of these modules will be part of the curriculum.”
The coalition is developing two-day training classes scheduled for this fall.
Prothro said this is a local approach to tackle a national problem.
“There are about 84 percent of board members that identify as white, across the nation, that are representing and making decisions for approximately 60 percent of all nonprofits that serve black and indigenous and people of color,” Prothro said.
Prothro said she’s optimistic about the program’s potential to make a positive impact in SLO County.
“This wonderful movement that's going on– I'm excited to be a part of it,” Prothro said. “I'm honored to be the program director, and I'm looking forward to seeing the impact and the change that's going to happen in this area.”
For more on the BIPOC Board Leadership Training program, you can visit diversityslo.org/training.
