AN INCLUSIVE GUIDE FOR DENVER AND BEYOND
We are super excited to feature Inclusive Guide - a new digital green book - founded by Crystal Egli and Parker McMullen Bushman, powered by community. So honored to hear more about how they are working towards a more inclusive world. It will take ALL of us to fight discrimination and systemic oppression - so please follow them online, share their guide, and check out their go fund me page on how you can support them financially (links at the end of the article).
QDL: First of all, you two are awesome and I love this concept. It's important for us to call out the safe spots to, and as your mission says "guide humanity towards a more inclusive world through solidarity and equity in practice." Tell us a little about what Inclusive Guide is and how you got started?
Inclusive Guide: Inclusive guide is like Yelp for inclusivity.
Users can leave reviews based on their experience in a business and whether they felt safe, welcome, and celebrated in that space. People of all identities can use the site to identify safe places for them to visit and spend their money.
Users can check things like if a building has a ramp, or has gender neutral bathrooms. Businesses can also use the site. They can claim their profile and partner with Inclusive Guide to respond to reviews, have access to demographic information about the types of people visiting and reviewing their business, and have access to DEI trainings and resources. The demographics information would allow businesses to see (for example) if queer white folks feel safe in a space while Black queer people don't, due to the identity information we collect on user profiles. When someone leaves a review, they're contributing their intersection of experiences so these businesses can see more clearly where they need improvements and which communities they need to be doing better by. Information collected on identity profiles will not be posted publicly to protect user privacy and will NOT be sold to advertisers. We take the security and privacy of this information very seriously.
Inclusive Guide got started when its founders Crystal Egli and Parker McMullen Bushman came together in 2020 with the similar goal of building a review based platform for people of different identities. They were inspired by The Green Book, which helped Black motorists identify safe spaces when traveling. They wanted to build a platform that was meant for everyone, including allies, to use and identify safe spaces.
More and more people are more socially aware of the money they're spending and the Inclusive Guide team is hoping to create a place where all people can identify the businesses that are doing the work to do right by their customers and communities. They wanted to create an economic incentive to being inclusive while also creating this tool for people of all identities to review their experiences and find safe spaces.
Together they founded Inclusive Journeys, the company producing Inclusive Guide as their product. When staring out, Crystal and Parker actually tried to learn how to code a website themselves, but they realized they would need outside help. Through 2020 and 2021 they hired a web team, executive assistant, and copy writing staff to help build the site and make it as amazing as it possibly could be.
On your website it says individuals can rate businesses and spaces - do those places need to get a certain number of ratings to be vetted? Are there non-inclusive ratings as well? What makes a place "inclusive"?
IG: So each review will contribute to a numerical score from 1-5 that will be the "Inclusivity Score" for that business. Businesses will have to reach a certain review threshold before that score is displayed. Right now we're still working with our web team and businesses themselves as to what that threshold will be.
As of right now our focus is on positive reinforcement, to reward businesses who are doing the work and are safe spaces to everyone.
Businesses with lower scores will be offered support and resources, and if they want to make improvements in how they run their business we can help them reach their goals. Our goal isn't to "cancel" anyone, or to suppress less inclusive businesses, we want to demonstrate to businesses the economic incentive of prioritizing inclusive business practices. People who experience oppression will be using the site to find the places they know will be safe and go and spend their money there, and we want to help businesses be successful in centering inclusion and demonstrating to consumers that they've done the work
Is the Inclusive Guide nationwide?
IG: Yes! Right now our user focus has been for our community, Denver, to help get a concentration of data, but the website is available nationwide. If a business doesn't see their location listed, they can submit it for approval
Where can we find you? And how can we support you!
https://inclusiveguide.com/
https://gofund.me/7cf40e48
https://www.instagram.com/inclusiveguide/
https://twitter.com/InclusiveGuide
https://www.facebook.com/InclusiveJourneys
Photos provided by Inclusive Guide
