PLEDGE OF INCLUSION
We need everyone’s help; we help everyone.
STEM Gift Drive is committed to creating a program in which donors, volunteers, collection hosts, community partners, charitable beneficiaries, youth, and families are treated with dignity, respect, and equity and can participate without concealing or compromising who they are. Authenticity is welcomed here.
Inclusion is not limited to characteristics protected by law. Our intentional inclusion encompasses all identities, visible and invisible, such as race; color; ethnicity; national origin; ancestry; culture; language; citizenship or immigration status; age; sex; sexual orientation; romantic orientation; gender identity; gender expression; sex characteristics or intersex status; disability; neurodiversity; physical, sensory, intellectual, developmental, cognitive, or mental health status; religious, secular, or spiritual identity (RSSI); marital or relationship status; education level; family structure; pregnancy or parental status; socioeconomic status; housing status; educational background; body size or appearance; military, veteran, or police service status; and other lived experiences.
The STEM Gift Drive team actively seeks and welcomes partnerships with communities that have historically been underrepresented, marginalized, or excluded, including:
- BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color)
- LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual, aromantic, nonbinary, gender-expansive, and other sexual, romantic, gender, and sex identities.)
- RSSI – all Religious, Secular, and Spiritual Identities including minority faith and spiritual identities (e.g., Muslim, Jewish, Wiccan) and AHoSI – Atheist, Humanist, and other Secular Identities
- Disability & Neurodiversity — people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, and disability-led or accessibility-focused organizations.
Specific Pledges
- Secular Program: STEM Gift Drive respects every person’s Religious, Secular, or Spiritual Identity (RSSI), including minority religious and spiritual traditions and Atheist, Humanist, and other Secular Identities (AHoSI). Secular identities may include atheist, agnostic, humanist, freethinker, secular, nonreligious, unaffiliated, skeptic, and other terms or identities. Participation in STEM Gift Drive activities, receipt of gifts, volunteer service, or access to programs will never be conditioned upon prayer, worship, profession of belief, religious instruction, proselytization, conversion efforts, or participation in a religious observance. Religious expression by an individual is respected; imposing religious belief or practice on another participant is not. No one should have to pray to or defer to someone else’s God/s in order to participate or receive help from the STEM Gift Drive.
- LGBTQ+: LGBTQ+ youth, families, donors, volunteers, and partners are entitled to equal dignity, access, participation, and treatment in every STEM Gift Drive activity. Names and pronouns are to be respected, and no participant should be expected to conceal, defend, or change their identity in order to participate.
- The STEM Gift Drive is a member of The Pride Chamber.
- Accessibility: We want everyone to be able to participate in the STEM Gift Drive. We welcome requests for reasonable accommodations and will make reasonable efforts to address physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, emotional, communication, or other access needs that are made known to us. If there is something we can do to make an event, volunteer activity, collection effort, or other part of the campaign more accessible to you, please let us know.
- You do not need to disclose any condition or diagnosis to make a request.
- When possible, advance notice can help us prepare, but accessibility requests are welcome at any time.
- We will work with you to identify practical ways to support your participation.
Representation Matters in STEM
We intentionally encourage STEM gifts, books, games, and educational materials that allow young people to see the diversity of people who discover, invent, engineer, research, build, code, and lead.
We especially welcome materials that highlight women, Black, Indigenous and other people of color, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and others historically underrepresented in STEM.
Everyone participating in STEM Gift Drive activities is expected to treat others with dignity and respect and to uphold our standards of inclusion and belonging. Discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or targeted disrespect based on another person’s identity, characteristics, or lived experience is inconsistent with this commitment.
Organizations participating as official STEM Gift Drive beneficiaries, branches, collection partners, and program partners are expected to uphold this commitment in their participation with the STEM Gift Drive.
STEM Gift Drive reserves the right to limit or end participation by an individual or organization when conduct is materially inconsistent with this commitment.
If there is any way we can make this initiative more welcoming for you, or if you experience or witness conduct associated with a STEM Gift Drive activity that is inconsistent with this commitment, we want to know – please contact us.