Thanks to all who worked on this! Announcement below.
On behalf of the Collective Responsibility project team, we are pleased to announce the release of Collective Equity: A Handbook for Designing and Evaluating Grant-Funded Positions. The handbook is available as a website at https://toolkit.dobetterlabor.
The Collective Responsibility project seeks to address the specific problems of precarity that grant-funded positions in digital library, archive, and museum work create and reproduce, and how those positions impact the lives and careers of workers, particularly workers from marginalized and underrepresented populations.This handbook was developed from two forums in which current and former contingent workers collaborated with the grant team, funder representatives, and LAM managers/administrators.
The handbook consists of an overview and introduction, two guidance documents, and a reference list of related documents. We anticipate expanding these recommendations into a broader toolkit which gathers additional resources developed by the community. The initial documents are:
- Evaluating Project Design for Worker Equity, a one-page document intended for use by those who want to support better positions in the field but are unsure how to thoroughly review and provide feedback on position design. It is intended as a tool to empower both grant reviewers and those designing project positions. It includes questions to ask, resources for evaluation, and the principles which shape the evaluation. Although focused on positions created through grant-funding, it can be used to review any contingent, term position.
- Recommendations to Funders: Promoting Equitable Approaches to Project Staff Design provides granting organizations with concrete application guidelines and recommended language that signal the critical importance of equitable and supportive labor conditions for contingent workers in grant projects. The document addresses each section of a conventional grant application and recommends where appropriate language should be used.
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services LG-73-18-0236. We are deeply grateful for the assistance of our advisory board, the engagement of the participants and reviewers from the community, and those at our institutions who made this project and paper possible.
In solidarity,
Sandy Rodriguez & Ruth Tillman, Co-PIs
Emily Drabinski, Amy Wickner, & Stacie Williams, Co-Investigators