5 Organizations Working To Amplify Underrepresented Voices

Due to structural inequities, the voices of many people aren't heard in traditional arenas of politics, business, and the media. Luckily, there are organizations fighting to uplift and support underrepresented groups. This list, in no particular order, shares a few of them.

Kicking off the list at #1 is AI4ALL, an Oakland, California-based nonprofit that works to open doors to the artificial intelligence industry for historically excluded talent through education and mentorship. The organization's summer programs are either free or offer extensive tuition assistance.

College Pathways is an initiative designed to spark interest and increase persistence in AI-related careers for undergraduate students who represent new voices in the field. The program offerings are co-hosted with universities and connect participants with an introduction to AI, internships, career resources, and an on-campus peer community.

At #2, we have Rural Assembly, an organization that works to amplify rural U.S. voices and leadership. In doing this, the group hopes people of these areas of the country will shape a more inclusive nation as culture-bearers, practitioners, influencers, and decision-makers.

Rural Assembly Everywhere is the organization's annual conference, intended to give participants a place to wrestle with questions about how to build a nation that serves everyone and respond to calls for unity and repair. The programming features experts, poets, civic leaders, culture-bearers, and more.

Coming in at #3, we have Informed Opinions, a charitable nonprofit working to amplify women's voices and achieve gender balance in Canadian media. It offers practical workshops, presentations, and professional editing support to help make women's ideas more accessible to a broader audience and increase their impact.

Through Informed Opinions' ExpertWomen database, journalists, conference programmers, and others can search through a diverse pool of professional women able and willing to offer commentary on a wide range of issues. The organization is based in Ottawa.

The #4 entry is Change Catalyst. This organization aims to build inclusive tech ecosystems through strategic advising, startup programs and resources, and a series of events around the globe. Its work has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, the Huffington Post, and elsewhere.

Change Catalyst advises the tech ecosystem to drive diversity and inclusion across various verticals, like education, entrepreneurship, policy, and more. It has consulting services available to governments, tech hubs, and early-stage startups.

To close out our list at #5, we present The Census Project, a group that advocates for Congress to fund all phases of the decennial censuses and to ensure that socio-economic and demographic data are collected to support informed decision-making in the public, private, non-profit, and academic sectors.

“The census count isn’t just about political power, but it’s also a tool used by the private sector to decide where to put that next mall or store, real bread-and-butter stuff that determines where you might be able to shop or work locally,” says Howard Fienberg, co-director of the Census Project, the nation’s largest census advocacy group.

The Census Project also supports maintaining the American Community Survey as mandatory. It hopes this will preserve the availability of reliable data for all communities, including rural areas, neighborhoods, American Indian reservations, Alaska Native villages, and small population groups, such as people with disabilities and veterans.