Adirondack Diversity Initiative
We work at the intersection of environmental and transformational justice, so that everyone — resident or visitor — feels a sense of safety, connection and belonging here.
The Adirondack Diversity Initiative is a small team working to make the Adirondack Park and the North Country a place where everyone feels safe, connected and welcome — people who live here and people visiting. We train police agencies and businesses, run leadership retreats and outdoor programs, publish resources for schools and families, and bring people together to talk about what belonging here actually means.
ADI is a program of the Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA), a regional nonprofit building shared prosperity across 14 counties of northern New York. More about ADI and ANCA
ADI's programming, outreach and advocacy concentrate on three areas. Every program on this site sits in one of them.
Community Policing, Cultural Consciousness Building, the Welcoming & Belonging micro-credential, the Schoolyard Response Toolkit, and the Sustaining BIPOC Leadership Initiative's retreats.
165+ officers and DEC rangers trained across all 14 counties
The Emerging Stewards Initiative, Claiming Space, Alternative Spring Break, and ADI's work on visitor use management in the High Peaks.
Developing new generations of Adirondack stewards from marginalized communities across New York State
ADI Symposiums, the Arts Inclusion Initiative, the Listening and Speaker Series, and support for cultural celebrations.
Gatherings, art and celebrations that bring the North Country together
John Brown Farm State Historic Site, Lake Placid · Guided bird walks, a keynote from J. Drew Lanham, and the Timbuctoo exhibit. ADI's second annual celebration of Black Birders Week for the Adirondack region.
A retreat in the Adirondacks for leaders who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color, built around rest, connection and nature as healer.
A gathering for LGBTQIA+ leaders across the North Country, with facilitators, accommodation and a published programme.
ADI's team is three people, responsible for a broad range of issues across an extensive territory: race and ethnicity, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, religious and spiritual beliefs, age and generation, disability, and socioeconomic status — across Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida, Oswego, Saratoga, St. Lawrence, Warren and Washington counties.
The website's job is to do the explaining, signing up and registering that three people cannot do one conversation at a time.
