Inclusive Guide: Digital Green Book Website

THE PROBLEM

Birdwatching. BBQ'ing in a park. Browsing a store. Eating at a restaurant. These activities can be either fun and enjoyable or dangerous and deadly, depending on the color of your skin.

It isn’t always easy for people of marginalized identities to tell if a business or location is safe or welcoming for them. This can lead to emotional trauma, threat of physical danger, or in cases like George Floyd, result in death. Conversely, business owners can’t always tell when their conscious or unconscious bias is reflected in their customer service for people of marginalized identities, which can have negative impacts on their bottom line.

In 1936, the first edition of The Negro Traveller’s Green Book was published by a Black man named Victor H. Green, in Harlem, New York. The Green Book provided a directory of Black-friendly businesses, from restaurants to gas stations, mechanics to doctors, so that Black travelers could protect themselves from discomfort and danger by planning ahead.

The original Green Book stated, "The purpose of the Green book is to give the negro traveller information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassment, and to make his trip enjoyable.” 

It also said, “There will be a time in the future when this guide will not have to be published.” The last print edition was published in 1966-1967, as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial discrimination. Unfortunately, as we know all too well, just because something is written into law doesn't necessarily mean it's no longer happening.

Visit our press page 


THE SOLUTION : INCLUSIVE GUIDE

Imagine a business whose sole purpose is to guide humanity towards a more inclusive world through solidarity and equity in practice. This is Inclusive Guide — the new digital Green Book and “Yelp” for inclusivity. The guide features customer reviews that generate “inclusivity ratings” for businesses. Individuals can rate spaces and businesses on their customer service experience as it relates to a person’s specific identities (race, ability, gender, etc). Businesses can be rated on a range of criteria, such as courtesy of staff, ADA compliance, sense of personal safety, gender neutral bathrooms and more. These reviews help people find spaces others think are safe and welcoming, while giving businesses feedback about how the community perceives their experience. We believe that Inclusive Guide’s community has the power to change the world.

Visit the Inclusive Journeys home page 
Visit the Inclusive Guide 

OUR ASK

Anything helps, seriously. If you have $1 or $1,000,000, it all goes toward helping us in this work. As you may know, just 1% of venture-backed startups have a Black founder. And in 2021, of the $147 billion in venture capital invested in U.S. startups, Black women entrepreneurs received only 0.34%. We’re not letting these injustices stop us. With the help of so many amazing people and allies we’ve met along the way, Inclusive Guide has raised over $87,000 as of Nov 2021 through individual donations. 
 
The most important thing anyone can do beyond donating money, is to share our story and this gofundme page. Donations in combination with future investments will allow us to continue to develop the feature of the guide. 

Learn about the Quilt Code 


A MODERN DAY UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Businesses who achieve a high enough "inclusivity score" from the public can receive a free business sticker to display on their door. The Inclusive Journey logo is a modern take on a "quilt code" pattern used on the Underground Railroad. Networks of abolitionists would sew nuances into a variety of common quilt patterns, in order to communicate instructions and directions to those escaping to freedom. Our logo is derived from the "flying geese" pattern, which designates safe food, water and shelter. At Inclusive Journeys we feel that this pattern and code is the perfect symbol for our work. We see a world where our quilt code hides in plain sight, allowing people of marginalized identities to spot safe and welcoming spaces as they go about their daily business.

OUR TEAM

Co-Founder, Crystal Egli: Crystal is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant and trainer with a decade of experience in computer networking for film and television editing departments. Next, she spent five years working in marketing for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, after which Crystal was invited to be a member of the Colorado Governor’s Inclusivity in Travel Advisory Group. In 2019 Crystal was the recipient of the national Stephen Kellert Award from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, for “outstanding service in advancing connections between humans and the natural word to all peoples in a diverse and inclusive manner.” In addition to being a board member for Environmental Learning for Kids and Hunters of Color, Crystal enjoys fly fishing, hunting, gardening, water and snow skiing, and watching the Great British Baking Show.


Co-Founder, Parker McMullen Bushman: Parker is Inclusive Guide's Chief Operating Officer and founder of Ecoinclusive Strategies. Parker is a dynamic speaker and facilitator that engages organizations in new thinking around what it means to be a diversity change-agent and create dynamic organizational change. Parker’s background in the non-profit leadership, conservation, environmental education and outdoor recreation fields spans over 24+ years. Parker has a passion for equity and inclusion. Her interest in justice, accessibility, and equity issues developed from her personal experiences facing the unequal representation of people of color in non-profit organizations and green spaces. Parker tackles these complex issues by addressing them through head on activism and education. 

Lead Web Developer, Miles B. :   Miles has spent the last ten years designing and building applications on the web. His relationship with technology is inextricably tied to his love of language and artistic creation. While majoring in French Language & Literature at Boston University, along with studying acting and music production, he co-founded a small web development agency, Lucid Structure, that would build applications for several notable clients including: Pearson Education, Harmonix Music Systems, and the US Department of State. Nowadays, he occupies himself professionally as a lead Front End Engineer; obsessing over bleeding-edge technologies and best practices in the world of Javascript and NodeJs.

Learn more about Crystal & Parker 

To learn more details about this project, please visit InclusiveJourneys.com
To see the guide and register visit www.inclusiveguide.com


We thank you from the bottom of our hearts,

- Crystal & Parker