The Chicago Wilderness Alliance has partnered with August M. Ball of Cream City Conservation & Consulting, LLC to establish a benchmark of how we are doing in cultivating belonging and equity among both the Chicago Wilderness Alliance and individual partner organization (employees, volunteers, board members). This is the initial phase of Chicago Wilderness’ Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) work.

A Culture survey was launched from August 2-September 10, 2021 to help capture feedback anonymously. The survey is now closed. 

Free workshops

The survey results will inform a series of free workshops hosted by Cream City Conservation to help your organization understand and implement changes to increase justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace and in our communities.

About the survey

The survey goal is to identify blind spots and highlight any disparities in experiences of Chicago Wilderness Alliance members and CWA member organization’s team based on social identities. Responses will be collected in a secure application developed by a third-party company called Culture Amp. To make the results more actionable, responses may be grouped using information asked in the survey (e.g., Department, Tenure, Age etc.). However, results will only be displayed where there are at least 3 submitted responses within a demographic group.

The Culture Survey considers differences and similarities based on factors such as ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, age and physical ability. The tool will help Chicago Wilderness identify where our industry is thriving and where our areas of opportunity are in cultivating belonging and equity for people of all socio-demographics. 

Each organization that participates will receive a data report specific to their own organization. These assessments start at $12,000 and CWA is excited to be able to offer this to our members and partners free of charge.

Frequently asked questions about survey.

Learn more

To learn more, view the recorded session from our Quarterly Executive Council Meeting which was held on July 21, 2021 where August M Ball provided an overview of the survey methodology and responded to questions asked by Chicago Wilderness members/partners.

With appreciation

Because trees are important to equity as well as to human health, this work is supported by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Urban and Community Forestry Program. The funding supports assessment workshops and training so Chicago Wilderness can help more communities improve urban tree canopy forests across the region, including through participation in Tree City USA. For more information, see the Tree City USA manual and this summary of Tree City USA.