Project overview: Advance equity and create a more welcoming environment for employees — and, in turn, visitors — through facilitated workshops and dialogues, employee resource groups, and other relevancy, diversity, and inclusion (RDI) initiatives.

How your support helps: The need to recruit and support a diverse workforce across the National Park Service and Yosemite’s own community has been underscored repeatedly in the news media, by visitors and outside organizations, and internally.

Numerous efforts are in place to recruit a diverse workforce, including the Yosemite Leadership Program, Mosaics in Science internships, and other initiatives that give participants hiring status with NPS upon completion. But many of these candidates still face bias and challenges upon reaching the workplace; meeting an unwelcoming culture, they may burn out and leave.

Your support helps strengthen Yosemite’s RDI efforts — through Employee Resource Groups, facilitated workshops and dialogues, and more — to lead retention and culture change efforts in the workforce, and to better serve each other and our visitors.

This year: In 2022, your gifts will support the training of NPS and partner organization facilitators to work with the community, refreshing the skills of longtime members, as well as providing an opportunity to onboard new members. Conservancy funding will also support a dedicated intern for 10 months to focus on bringing together the multiple employee resource groups for information sharing in order to better advise and strategize with park leadership. Together, these efforts help to bring Yosemite’s workforce to a more equitable and inclusive future.

Project partners: Yosemite National Park, Mariposa County, and Allies for Inclusion Leadership