Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Equity Statement
Travel Southern Oregon (TSO) is committed to ensuring that our work with the regional tourism industry helps Southern Oregon become a more equitable, inclusive and accessible destination for all visitors. Our work aligns with larger state efforts to value Oregon and all of its communities, regional staff and industry partners.
- Equity: Promoting justice, impartiality and fairness within the procedures, processes, and distribution of resources.
- Accessibility: Giving equitable access to everyone along the continuum of human ability and experience from public accommodations and leadership opportunities to representation in content for all.
- Inclusion: Authentically bringing traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities, and decision/policy making in a way that shares power.
Our creation of the Tourism Inclusion Council of Southern Oregon (TICSO) in 2017 with a cross-regional group of industry partners recognized the importance of doing this work then, and the continued need to engage in the work of creating a truly equitable and inclusive destination. This open collaboration will continue to serve our regional industry with training, education and advocacy for equity and inclusion in Southern Oregon.
Our goals are to ensure equal access for all to safely and joyfully travel throughout Southern Oregon. We commit to doing the work of understanding what equity is and acknowledge that not all people have the same starting point. We strive to be life-long learners and commit to the necessary repair work when we misstep and we will work to ensure our intentions align with our impact. We will engage TSO staff and board members as well as regional partners and industry staff in this work.
We believe a celebration of people’s held identities helps us to build a stronger more unified Southern Oregon community—a community where do we see race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, religion, visible and invisible disabilities, socio-economic status, and all the intersecting identities therein, and we know that in these differences lies our collective strength.