Building a more inclusive Boston starts today. YWBoston Woman Smiling wearing glasses YWBoston Man Smiling YWBoston Woman Smiling YWBoston Man with Clipboard in hands Smiling YW Boston Woman smiling with Boston city scape in backgroun

Together we thrive.

Together we can create inclusive environments where women, people of color, and especially women of color, can thrive.

Photo of team working together in office

For over a century, YW Boston has worked in Boston to eliminate racism and empower women.

We do that through our industry-leading advocacy and DEI services that focus on leadership development, organizational development, and youth development, and through advocacy work focused on reducing barriers to equity in Massachusetts.

Our work focuses on the power that comes when people work together. By harnessing our collective power, we know both individuals and organizations can positively impact policies, practices, and behaviors.

Our four areas of focus

Our experience tells us that impact is achieved through focus. That is why we concentrate our efforts and services in these four key areas.

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Leadership Development

Through LeadBoston we equip mid-to senior-level professionals with knowledge, skills, and network to lead inclusively within their organizations and communities.

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DEI Consulting & Training

Our DEI Consulting and Training services meet organizations where they are to create custom solutions that lead to more equitable and inclusive workplaces.

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Youth Development

Our F.Y.R.E. Initiative empowers middle-school girls and gender-expansive youth of color to make change in their communities and carry inclusive values into the future.

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Advocacy

Our Advocacy work focuses on building coalitions, driving policy change, and influencing legislation that improves the lives of women and BIPOC communities.

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We know driving change
drives business

67%

of candidates
want to join
a diverse team.

30%

Higher revenue per
employee generated by
companies with inclusive
talent practices.

70%

More likely to
capture new
markets as a
diverse company.

Change can’t wait.

$30.5B
PER YEAR

The cost of turnover for companies
without inclusive practices.

Sources: Deloitte, McKinsey & Co.

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One benefit [of our work with YW Boston] has been that people are more prepared and willing to engage in courageous conversations across the board, even when it’s not related to race, racism, injustice.

Employee, Advocates

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While for many years we have set annual goals, the introduction of the [YW Boston] DEI action plan put an emphasis on the importance of our organization’s DEI work and we asked each person to include at least one DEI-related goal in their individual goals in order to hold us accountable.

Government social services worker

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[YW Boston’s] program offered a longer, deeper commitment that we felt would better enable us for lasting change. We wanted to pursue a long-term view that helped us build a framework to bring our full staff, artists, and board deeper into these conversations.

Bradley Vernatter

General Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Boston Lyric Opera

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Of the many insights I gained in LeadBoston, the most essential one may be this: that significant change will only come when leaders break across the artificial boundaries of ‘sector’ and ‘field’ and instead name the entrenched boundaries of race and class that affect people’s lives every day.

Colin Stokes

LeadBoston Class of 2018