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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

 

Mosaic created by DVFriends Middle School students

 

Delaware Valley Friends School is committed to building and sustaining a learning community that respects and embraces diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). As a school founded and rooted in the Quaker tradition, we believe everyone possesses an inner light and has inherent worth. Furthermore, we believe that the inclusion of diverse voices leads us to make wiser decisions and enriches the nature of our interactions. We nurture a safe and empowering environment that encourages and values individual expression and collaborative engagement.

 

We recognize our role and shared responsibility in striving to support our community of learners to champion change, eliminate bias, and advocate for the inclusion of and appreciation for all people, regardless of their cultural backgrounds and identities. We joyfully celebrate and are proud of our diverse identities which include (but are not limited to) learning profile, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, family structure, age, national origin, viewpoint, and ability. Our respect for diversity, equity, and inclusion is clear and abundant in our mission, our program, our outreach efforts, and our admission and hiring practices and procedures.

 

It is our aim to promote active participation, empathic understanding, and informed cultural awareness within and beyond the walls of our school.

 

DVFriends Diversity Statement | 2019

 
DEIB Work at DVFriends
The DVFriends community engages in a variety of activities designed to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging inside and outside of our school walls. 
 

Our faculty and staff receive training and professional development on DEIB-related topics. Our teachers and administrators, supported by our Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, help our students develop critical thinking skills that contribute to shaping the lens through which they build an understanding of the world. Quaker testimonies of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship, and social justice are embedded in our identity, and these concepts are integrated into our curriculum through Specials offerings in lower and middle school, and elective options and extracurricular groups and activities in the upper school.

 

Students play an important role in helping our community learn and connect across differences. There are student-led groups focused on different identities and social justice that meet regularly in both the middle and upper school, and students attend conferences and events outside of DV that explore issues of equity, social justice, belonging, and Quaker principles and practice. This year, students will attend:

  • Roots to Routes Conference
  • Quaker Youth Leadership Conference
 
Parents/caregivers also play an important role in the DVfriends community and DEIB. It is important for parents to have their own space to form a community based on shared identities and/or lived experiences. To support this connection DVFriends supports the following parent/caregivers affinity groups. 

 

BIPOC Affinity Group --

Parents/Caregivers of students who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color)

 

 

The School shall not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, age, disability or marital status in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletic and other school-administered programs, or in hiring, use of volunteers or board membership. 
Please read our article "DVFriends is a Place of Belonging for Students with Learning Differences," which was previously featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Photo of Stacey Joseph, Director of DEIB at DVFriends
Stacey Joseph
Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging