When the Michigan Diversity council was disbanded last fall, neither Darlene King Turner nor Ivy Hunter, both of whom had served on the leadership team, believed the work of the council was finished.
The duo decided another organization was needed, and banded together to form the Unity Collaborative, a nonprofit organization committed to advancing transformative change by fostering cultures of inclusion, equity, and belonging across workplaces, government agencies, and communities.
“There is still work that needs to be done,” said Hunter, who serves as the collaborative’s director of events and programming. “Our work promotes growth, understanding, and collective unity for a more inclusive and equitable future.”
The collaborative’s goal is to serve as a catalyst for creating environments where every individual is valued, empowered, and supported through education, advocacy, and strategic collaboration.
The collaborative works with a broad range of partners across various sectors, offering solutions designed to foster inclusivity, equity, and organizational growth. Among its partners are Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, K-12 and higher education, institutions, government agencies, community organizations, health care providers and cultural institutions.
“Our focus is really on how do we create spaces of belonging and inclusivity in changing times right now, not only for business, but for communities as well as for youth and families,” said King Turner, TUC’s CEO and president. “When we look at the trifecta of the three, they are intrinsically linked to one another.”
TUC hit the ground running. It has already hosted a number of events, with more on the calendar, including a “Black Men in Leadership” conference in August and a “Youth Leadership summit in October (details on the Unity Collaborative can be found here).
According to its website, the Unity Collaborative’s purpose is explained in four pillars:
- Education: It equips individuals and organizations with the knowledge to foster inclusive environments.
- Advocacy: It’s efforts champion policies and practices that promote equity and amplify marginalized voices
- Collaboration: Uniting diverse groups, creating networks of allies committed to meaningful change.
- Support: Ensures that every step toward inclusion is met with guidance and encouragement, empowering all to actively build and sustain cultures of belonging.
“We still support organizations in helping them to really navigate how to continue to create cultures of belonging, create cultures of inclusion, to still appreciate diversity for what it is because there’s diversity in everything that we see and that we do,” King Turner said. “We’ll still focus on leadership development. We’ll still focus on the importance of employee resource groups and infinity groups, and how are we measuring the success of the strategic plan to be impactful around equitable outcomes that are creating opportunities for access for all people.”
At the same time, she said, TUC wants to not only share and collaborate around other resources and creating opportunities, it also wants to expand and have a greater reach, have a broader scope and cast a wider net.
Toward that end, the’ve added the community and the unity component. A huge part of what the collaborative does is about expanding and reconnecting community and creating spaces for community.
One area of renewed focus: Youth and families.
“There’s so much to look at when we think about youth and families, especially,” King Turner said. “Youth need so much support in so many different areas because of programs that have been cut, right? Programs that are being cut around arts, around culture, around education, workforce development, the trades resources and access to funds and revenue for them to be able to attend and go to college and all of those kinds of things.
“We will definitely focus on youth in those areas of workforce development, civic engagement, how do we look at youth and help them understand their value and that their voice is important in our civic society?” she added. “How do we get them involved in those areas as well? But also from a global perspective, how do we get them to become ambassadors in a UN program with the UN?”
As the collaborative continues its work, King Turner would like to see it grow to the point where it becomes what she called the “go-to resource” to support and impact community, business and people”
Mostly, she’d like the collaborative to be “that catalyst for change and for having the opportunity and the ability to support all entities and all people in this work.”
“My goal is to continue to remove disadvantages for all people, right?” she said. “Because that’s what diversity equity inclusion has always been about. It has always been about removing disadvantages for all people, creating spaces of belonging. And that is what we want to continue to do. We are now just adding a couple of branches to the tree to be able to do that in a more impactful, in a more equitable way.”
