The last two months have been a whirlwind in the U.S. due to the election. As a result, our team opted to combine the October and November DEI update.
As always, we want to remind everyone of the seven pillars for our DEI work: equity, inclusion, leadership, learning opportunities, recruitment/retention, spotlight and safety. These pillars help guide and define the focus areas for action items being taken. For more information, check out our July update.
PEOPLE OPERATIONS AND DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION DEPARTMENTS
In September we added the racial demographic breakdown of our staff and volunteers to our DEI page. In October, we added a gender breakdown. This page will be updated periodically.
MLQ Assistant Gameplay Director Ryan Davis is developing the MLQ Mentorship Program. As first mentioned in our August DEI update, we plan to connect established leaders within MLQ with the new innovators in the sport. MLQ has a range of athletes and volunteers and many are involved in the USQ season on some level. Our hope is that this mentorship program will connect players, officials and volunteers of varying experience levels. Outside of creating collaboration between community members to share new ideas and perspectives, our aim is for these mentors and mentees to create meaningful relationships in their lives and lasting friendships off the pitch. If you would like to join Davis on this project, we currently have an opening for a project manager.
Each month our DEI team selects an organization to highlight that you can give time or money to in order to increase DEI within our larger society. This month we’re highlighting Athletes for Impact.
Athletes for Impact (A4I) partners with athletes across different sports to enact social changes in their communities. A common sentiment is that athletes should be quiet and play their sport rather than speak out against injustice, but A4I supports athletes’ rights to stand up for the causes they believe in.
Current A4I campaigns include #SaveThePostOffice, Knock Out Human Trafficking, A Global Call for Racial Solidarity during COVID-19 and Love is Uninterrupted. Each campaign features a list of action items to take, making it easy to support the causes you care about. Their Rapid Response Resource List provides educational articles, wellness tips, safety tips for protestors, donation links and more.
Want to join the movement? Check out the Rapid Response Resource List or donate.
FINANCE, GAMEPLAY AND EVENTS DEPARTMENTS
The MLQ Virtual Run Series is back with the MLQ Ugly Sweater Cycle and Dash. For this race series, 80 percent of profits will be allocated toward the MLQ Athlete Advancement Program BIPOC Grant.
The finances necessary to engage in a quidditch season have been an active barrier to players in the sport. This barrier is one that, in addition to the likes of legitimacy and perspective of the sport, have contributed to the lack of racial diversity across the league. This grant is meant to weaken the barrier by opening the door for more players to find their place in quidditch. It is meant to make quidditch a possibility for more BIPOC athletes by lessening the financial impact on their lives.
If you would like to help fund the MAAP BIPOC Grant, you can sign up for our race series (early bird pricing ends Nov. 30, so sign up today!). If you’d rather give directly, fill out this form. We currently have $1,000 committed by four individuals.
To continue developing an atmosphere for top-level quidditch competition across the U.S. and Canada, MLQ has been working on the creation of an anti-bias module for all officials. Spearheaded by Interim DEI Director Christian Barnes, with the support of Gameplay Project Manager Josh Mansfield and DEI Strategist Tawfik Abbas, MLQ’s anti-bias module for officials will be the next step in fostering a community of high-ranking officials for all competitions. The module–created using feedback from players, coaches, managers and officials throughout the sport–will utilize in-game situations to establish a foundation for rooting out implicit and explicit bias that has been exhibited in the sport to date.
“Although the initial call for anti-bias modules focused on officials on pitch, we have decided to expand and create modules for coaches, officials and volunteers/staff,” Barnes said. “The creation of three separate modules that focus not only on general anti-bias knowledge but also uses situational awareness will develop a better lens across more stakeholders.”
We are in the final stages of the module and are seeking referees to provide real-game situations they encounter so as to keep the module interactive. Interested? Sign up. We plan to eventually develop a similar module for coaches, managers and other volunteers.
On behalf of MLQ, Events Director Emily Hickmott, DEI Strategist Dana Dixon and Assistant DEI Director Ema Shiroma-Chao served as presenter-panelists at the 9th Annual Harry Potter Academic Conference, held virtually by Chestnut Hill College on Oct. 16-17. The presentation, titled “Creating an Equitable Pitch: Gender in Quidditch and Next Steps for Improved Equality”, highlighted gender and racial inequities in our sport as well as areas in which MLQ is taking action in order to prioritize the inclusivity of the league.
MARKETING AND DIGITAL MEDIA DEPARTMENT
Commentators are crucial to the reach and accessibility of not only MLQ, but the sport as a whole, with this in mind, Project Assistant Kieran Collier, Video Manager Nik Jablonski and Commissioner Ethan Sturm have been developing the MLQ Commentator Training Program.
The program’s purpose will be not only to teach commentators the basics of commentating, but to ensure that these extremely influential representatives are informed about best practices regarding using language that is respectful of all identities. With the program currently in the module creation stage, the DEI team has been tapped to identify educational resources and contribute to two distinct sections on race and gender. The module creation will continue to be a major focus for the DEI team throughout the winter.
In case you missed it, the MLQ DEI and social teams have identified commemorative days and months to highlight in an effort to honor the cultures and identities of our diverse community. If you are a current or recent MLQ athlete or volunteer and would like to share your experiences or connections in relation to a commemorative day or month, please complete this form and we will touch base with you in the near future. In October, we highlighted Project Assistant Collier for National Coming Out Day and MLQ athletes Miguel Esparza, Isla McNamara and Carlos Prado for National Hispanic Heritage Month. In November, we spoke to the San Antonio Soldados’ Taylor Tracey for Veteran’s Day and League City Legends Head Coach Dilan Freeman for National Native American Heritage Month.
As first mentioned in our August update, MLQ has released a media project to center Black quidditch athletes in a film of their own. MLQ worked with Billy Quach, the Let It Fly Media Creative Director and an NFL content creator, and pulled highlight film from across MLQ and USQ, including work of filmmakers such as Gerry Taylor and Ariel Heiblum, to focus on the talent of the Black athletes already performing on pitch. After creating this reel and learning even more about the limited representation of Black athletes in our sport, our DEI team sat down with two Black women, Olive Jim-Daniels and Shadé Jaiyeola, who have played quidditch at an elite level in multiple leagues, to discuss their thoughts on intersectionality in our sport.
This project was ultimately inspired by DEI Strategist James Hicks’ idea to create a recruitment plan and materials to bring more Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and their students into the sport. We are forming a project team to build a larger-scale recruitment plan that includes creation of marketing materials like this reel. If you’d like to join, email us at [email protected] or reach out directly to Barnes and People Operations Director Jamie Lafrance.
On the topic of the Boston franchise’s rebranding: MLQ’s Creative, DEI and Marketing Departments have partnered with a student-run marketing organization at a local Boston university. Using results from previous surveys completed by the Boston community, the students will present three to five brand concepts for review. MLQ is expecting this process to be complete by late December 2020. A new brand will be rolled out at the beginning of 2021.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
MLQ, as an organization, wants to foster a welcoming community within quidditch as well as society as a whole.
Today we want to draw your attention to the #AntiRacismFund, an organization dedicated to reforming the justice system and providing accessibility to quality healthcare and education. The ARF works on a rotating basis, selecting different initiatives to support every 60 days.
The Fund is currently raising money towards “The Homecoming Initiative,” focused on providing four HBCUs with funding to support Black and African-American students. Howard University, Florida A&M University, Spelman College, and Morehouse College are all historically significant places of learning that provide a diverse range of students a wealth of opportunities. All of these HBCUs are currently at risk of losing federal funding, which would deal a devastating blow to their students, faculty, and staff.
To support these schools, you can donate.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Feel free to contact our DEI team at [email protected]. If you’d like to get involved in MLQ’s DEI department, check out our openings.