Rhode Island Historical Society's
IDEA Action Plan
Our Mission The Rhode Island Historical Society, through its collections, museums, and educational initiatives, welcomes everyone to engage with Rhode Island’s complex and significant past.
IDEA Impact Statement We will serve as humble stewards of the stories of all who call or have called Rhode Island home; collaborate and build relationships with enduring and emerging community partners that prioritize integrity and access; and, become catalysts in the creation of a more connected and empathetic Rhode Island.
Our Priorities
RELATIONSHIPS
INSPIRATION
Relationships, Inspiration, Honor, and Sustainability will be the priorities that guide the Rhode Island Historical Society as we seek to ensure inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility are woven into all of our work, both internal and external. While these concepts are independent, they are meant to complement one another, each ensuring we are able to achieve our desired impact while remaining true to our shared values and mission. HONOR
SUSTAINABILITY
RELATIONSHIIPS
The RIHS exists in a dynamic ecosystem of history and heritage. At the core of our work are relationships that allow us to bridge gaps in knowledge, skills, and access while building a better understanding of the evolving needs of our community. The RIHS seeks to maintain and appropriately scale trusting and respectful relationships, always remaining humble and open to the expertise and lived experiences of others. To forge a workplace that is increasingly welcoming, inclusive, diverse, and empowering, we seek to create and share opportunities for staff to actively exchange information, expertise, and ideas to build leadership, collegiality, and internal collaborations. To better position our teams within their respective specializations, we will organize a variety of non-required, all-staff opportunities, such as topic-specific meetings, reading groups, field trips, and/or seminars, around IDEA topics, trends in the field, and emerging best practices. We will develop a strategy for internally disseminating progress on our IDEA Action Plan, as well as highlighting individual and team progress and successes. We will charge the IDEA Committee with convening an annual, internal IDEA summit, during which staff members can discuss present and future initiatives.
We strive to nurture existing partnerships and collaborations with individuals, organizations, and communities that represent the diverse perspectives of those that call Rhode Island home. In order to better understand the current scope of these relationships, we will create a “matrix” of our existing history and heritage partners, including recent projects and contact persons when possible. With the knowledge gained and shared in the creation of the partner matrix, we will identify and build upon those current relationships within the history, heritage and cultural sectors that will help us better embody our values and fulfill our vision for the future. We will highlight the interconnectedness of our collections and our peoples, and together share the stories embedded in these materials more broadly and deeply to help build stronger and more enduring relationships with the individuals, organizations, and communities who are and will be represented in the collections for which we care.
As the RIHS moves into its third century, we endeavor to form new relationships with individuals, organizations, and communities whose stories we need to amplify further to make all of Rhode Island’s history available and accessible. Using the Relationship Matrix developed for Goal 2, we will identify categories within our known audiences on which to focus developing new relationships. We will expand educational programs, resources, and access to build stronger relationships with thus far underserved communities of students and teachers. Through the use of technology, we will work to broaden our relationships with new individuals, organizations, and communities across the globe to better activate the collections we steward.
INSPIRATION
Inspiration includes all the ways we use Rhode Island’s history to spark curiosity, reflection, and action. In turn, the stories and experiences of those who call and have called Rhode Island home inspire us and drive our work. Through encounters with RIHS sites, collections, and programs, we aim to motivate and embolden people to move from learning about Rhode Island’s history to building a more equitable and inclusive future. We seek to use our sites, programs, and collections, physical and digital, to reflect the experiences, stories, and global impact of those who have called Rhode Island home. We will develop new exhibits, permanent and temporary, at the John Brown House Museum and Museum of Work & Culture, that emphasize dialogic engagement and reflection on a broader narrative of Rhode Island’s history. By harnessing our digital outlets, such as our website, RI history textbook, and social channels, we will deploy our collections to encourage individuals, organizations, and communities within and well beyond the geographical boundaries of RI to connect their stories not only to Rhode Island’s, but also to each other’s so we may all better understand the deep interconnections among all of our stories. We will move beyond the boundaries of our sites to provide opportunities for all Rhode Islanders to engage with history in varied and non-traditional spaces.
We strive to motivate the public to grow their engagement with the RIHS and better understand how the past impacts our current world. We will create programs and initiatives across sites that emphasize the contemporary relevance of history and respond to our annual themes, in an effort to encourage new visitation and repeat audience engagement across sites and platforms. By leveraging current educational programs, we will seek to grow participation in National History Day amongst underrepresented schools and learners. To help inspire the next generation of professionals in public history, we will expand opportunities for young people to meaningfully engage “behind-the-scenes” with our team and across our field.
To help ensure our staff are able to translate their excitement and insights into innovative and groundbreaking experiences for our communities, we aim to provide pathways to find and share inspiration. To spark collaboration and creativity, we will create a pipeline where staff members can contribute historical and contemporary Rhode Island facts, stories, or notices on IDEA-related topics. We will develop a more structured system of project proposals that includes connections to IDEA and strategic goals to encourage staff in the development and pursuit of IDEA-related projects with organizational resources behind them.
HONOR
Honor reflects our deep respect and steadfast commitment to fulfilling our obligations to all those we seek to serve past, present, and future. As stewards of Rhode Island's ever-increasing history, we strive to honor all those who have contributed to our state's history by interpreting and preserving their stories inclusively, empathetically, and accurately. We seek to expand access to the histories and lived experiences of all those who call or have called Rhode Island home, especially those from historically underrepresented communities. After finalizing the disposition of our South County Properties, we will continue our efforts to share the stories and contributions of Indigenous peoples across the state through interpretative, educational, and programmatic efforts. We will augment our existing policies and practices to confirm that in the case of both the collections we currently hold and those which become available, we are the appropriate repository for such cultural materials and if we are not, then the steps by which ownership is to be transferred. We will share the stories of those who lived and labored at our four sites.
We will value and showcase the specialized knowledge and expertise of our staff. We will develop an internal structure for staff members to participate in IDEA-content feedback sessions and reviews for initiatives and projects that are in development. Through the use of internal and external communication channels, we will provide staff members with opportunities to share their reflections and recommendations on IDEA-related topics and events. We will devote a section of our bi-annual member magazine, The Times, to highlighting IDEA work by staff members.
We strive to amplify the voices of our partners and communities. To respect the identities of those we serve, we will create a recurring review procedure of the language we use to describe our communities in all internal and external communications and documents. To best value the contributions of our partners, we will codify the ways we recognize and include the voices of our collaborators in the creation and promotion of all initiatives. We will utilize our physical and digital spaces to showcase new and exciting projects created by individuals and organizations in our community.
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability encompasses all the ways we ensure our work is built on an enduring foundation. It is crucial that this footing is resilient and remains adaptive to the changing needs of those we serve so we can continue to make a long-lasting impact. We must invest in creating an infrastructure that balances our responsibilities to our staff, stakeholders, partners, supporters, and collections with a willingness to evolve and change alongside our community. We aim to maintain and grow a team of staff, board, and volunteers who feel supported and equipped to embed the principles and priorities of IDEA into their work for the RIHS. We will create a structure for the future of the IDEA Committee, defining its charge within the organization and the selection and service of its members. In order to make sure that each member of the RIHS team is equipped to incorporate the values of IDEA in their work, we will develop a framework for regularly scheduled staff and departmental IDEA-related training and dialogue. We will establish recruitment policies and strategies that prioritize attracting a diverse pool of applicants for any and all open staff, intern, and volunteer positions.
To limit barriers to accessing our sites and programs, we seek to invest in improvements to the infrastructure of our physical and digital spaces. We will assess opportunities to enhance physical access across our sites and evaluate resource needs in order to create and appropriately prioritize a long-term improvement plan. So we can be certain that all future initiatives account for access needs and adaptations at the earliest stages, we will create an IDEA screening guide for new major projects. As we seek to create equitable access for all users and audiences, we will invest in our digital infrastructure to provide high-quality, affordable experiences in person and online, as well as hybrid programs.
So that we may ensure a lasting and meaningful impact, we seek to develop diverse funding sources to support our IDEA priorities. We will produce a grant guide, identifying funding sources for IDEA projects and sharing application language and resources with all staff members. To support these priorities across the organization, we will create IDEA-specific budget lines for all departments. As we look ahead to our third century, we will develop a long-term financial strategy for the continued funding of IDEA endeavors.