The Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities is committed to promoting inclusion, challenging assumptions, and advancing understanding all across the Commonwealth.  Here’s how…

Promoting Inclusion
The mere presence of difference does not result in environments of inclusion.  Just because people of diverse backgrounds, interests, and perspectives come together does not necessarily mean that all voices are heard or all individuals feel valued.  Maximizing the potential that diversity holds requires a genuine and lasting commitment to inclusion.

Through distinctive human relations programs, the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities helps individuals to understand the roots and subtleties of prejudice and discrimination and to find areas of common ground even amidst perceived differences.  Participants leave our programs more mindful of how to foster environments that are inclusive, affirming, and just.

Challenging Assumptions
More and more across Virginia, we are navigating the opportunities and challenges that come from changing demographics and emerging communities.  We learn new things about our neighbors, co-workers, colleagues, and peers all the time.  Sometimes what we learn is familiar, and at other times it can be new and different.

At the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities, we believe that our differences should encourage opportunities for increased dialogue, learning, and valuing of others.  Rather than allowing differences to create divisions, our programs build bridges across lines of difference, facilitate intentional encounters among diverse groups in order to break down assumptions, and lift up the shared values that strengthen a sense of community for all. 

Advancing Understanding
The process of working for understanding requires a commitment beyond learning about others or speaking about the importance of inclusion.  While those are important steps, advancing understanding requires a commitment to thoughtful action.