Diversity & Inclusion
Knowledge Center: Living Together
Knowledge Center: Living Together
Diversity and inclusion: how do you make your organization more accessible?
A diverse and inclusive organization is not just a noble ambition — it also makes you more effective. When you reach people with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, you make better decisions and reach more people.
A diverse and inclusive organization is not just a noble ambition — it also makes you more effective. When you reach people with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, you make better decisions and reach more people.
But how do you put this into practice?
Start with an honest assessment
Who are the volunteers in your organization? And who do you reach with your activities? If this is a fairly homogeneous group—in terms of age, background, or life situation—it is no coincidence. It is the result of choices, whether conscious or unconscious.
This is not an accusation; it is a starting point.
Identify barriers
Why do certain people not participate? Barriers can take many forms:
- Language barriers (information available only in Dutch)
- Physical accessibility (location not wheelchair-accessible)
- Timing (activities held only during the day, making it difficult for working people to attend)
- Social barriers (the organization feels like a closed circle)
- Financial barriers (participation costs)
You don’t have to remove every barrier at once. But addressing even one is better than doing nothing.
Actively recruit from new target groups
If you always recruit through the same channels, you will always reach the same people. To reach new groups, you need to explore new avenues:
- Collaborate with organizations that already have connections to the target group
- Communicate in other languages or use visuals instead of just text
- Organize activities in places the target group already visits
Make inclusion a concrete part of your policy
Diversity and inclusion are taken seriously when they are reflected in the organization's policy—not just as a paragraph in the annual report, but in everyday decisions:
- Who is on the board?
- How are decisions made?
- Is everyone welcome to share their opinion, or do the same voices always dominate?
Be willing to learn
Inclusion is also about making mistakes and learning from them. No organization gets it perfect right from the start. What matters is being open to feedback and willing to make changes.
Actively seek feedback from the people you want to reach—and actually do something with it.
Next step
Want to delve deeper into this? Look for training courses on diversity and inclusion on the platform, or read more about social safety to complement this topic.