The mission of the ABCD JEDI Workgroups is to effect change that ensures and promotes justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) at all levels of ABCD, including within our measures and methods and our organizations and universities affiliated with ABCD, as well as to ensure that ABCD data are used and interpreted with the utmost integrity and in a way that prevents further stigmatization, marginalization, or injustice to individuals. The JEDI Taskforce is comprised of three working groups with distinct missions and goals, outlined below.
JEDI Workgroup 1: Equitable & Inclusive Methods
Workgroup Mission Statement
The equitable and inclusive methods workgroup will strive to ensure that all measures and methods used within the ABCD consortium are fair and just to participants of all races, gender, sexual orientation, ability, socioeconomic status, and cultural background.
Workgroup Goals
- The workgroup will review all measures with attention to wording and clarity and with intent to ensure that all participant experiences are inclusive and valued during the participant visit experience. Comments from the review will be added to a shared document.
- Assessing the experience of research assistants to understand their experience/discomfort with current methods at each visit to recommend ways to improve the participant visit experience for both the ABCD staff and participants.
- Members from this workgroup will be attending various ABCD workgroups to provide support and insight during conversations that are directly related to the role and mission of this workgroup.
JEDI Workgroup 2: Diversity & Inclusion in ABCD
Workgroup Mission Statement
The diversity & inclusion workgroup mission is to better understand the historical, cultural, and institutional racism disproportionately impacting ABCD researchers, staff, and participants who are persons of color, while working to promote anti-racism in our research, organization(s), and universities affiliated with ABCD.
Members intend to achieve this mission by addressing institutional barriers and policies that have perpetuated the cycle of excluding Black and Brown voices in research. They also intend to introduce procedural and structural changes that will promote the innovation, creativity, and excellence produced by diversity in race, ethnicity, gender or sexual identity, class, age, or able-bodiedness, as well as the intersection across aspects.
Workgroup Goals
- Promote a diverse and multicultural ABCD workforce at all levels of the consortium to reflect the diversity of ABCD families
- Promote inclusive and safe workplaces within the ABCD Study community where ABCD families feel welcomed, valued, and respected
- Promote inclusive educational and career opportunities to engage trainees and staff from diverse backgrounds, with emphasis on responsible use of ABCD data and preventing and combating stigmatizing research.
JEDI Workgroup 3: Responsible Use of ABCD Study Data
Workgroup Mission Statement
This workgroup strives to promote principles of ethical conduct of research to prevent further stigmatization, marginalization and injustice toward individuals because of racial, ethnic, or gender minority status. Its members strive to ensure that researchers analyze and interpret ABCD Study data responsibly, considering psychological, social, economic and any other potentially harmful impacts their research could have on individuals, communities and society.
Workgroup Goals
- Advocate for changes to the NDA Data Use Certification and required training that includes assurance of ethical/inclusive/anti-racist use of ABCD data.
- Publish a paper outlining recommendations for responsible use of ABCD data, including examples of appropriate analyses and interpretations.
- Track and respond to studies that incorrectly use ABCD data/misinterpret race and/or gender variables.
- Create resources that can be used by all ABCD investigators to ensure responsible use of ABCD data or in response to authors/editors when asked to review a problematic paper.
To view the JEDI Advisory Council members, please click here.
For a list of workgroup members, please visit our Workgroups and Taskforces page.