ATA’s Program Team has the company’s dual priorities of sustainability and diversity & inclusion at the front of their minds when they design new programs. These goals are connected, as poverty and inequity are threats to sustainability, and marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by climate change. Therefore, when we partner with organizations interested in uplifting underrepresented voices and developing more inclusive travel experiences, we are also considering the impact these programs will have on the environment. So how exactly does our Program Team weave these themes into new programs?

1. First, we pick a favorite destination. . New Orleans is among the most popular destinations in the US, but most visitors don’t make the connection between racial injustice and climate change. A recent ATA group to NOLA visited the Leona Tate Foundation for Change, housed at the site of the McDonogh #19 school building, one of the first schools in the city to be integrated in the 1960s. While there, the group met with Leona Tate to learn about her experience as one of the first African American to attend a formerly white school in Louisiana. They also visited with Tulane graduates whose grassroots project is using recycled glass to help rebuild the Louisiana coastline and prevent coastal erosion.
   
   
2. We do our research and work closely with our content experts to help us amplify stories from underrepresented populations. A recent Lowcountry trip was led by an anthropologist and expert on Gullah-Geechee culture who brought to life the distinct language, foodways and music of the descendants of enslaved West Africans for travelers. The group toured Hilton Head’s Gullah neighborhoods and traveled to Ossabaw Island in Georgia to learn about the rural experience of African Americans who inhabited the island for more than 200 years.An Iceland group began its climate journey with a Zoom call before departure with an Icelandic writer and environmental film maker. This helped to inform their discussion of alternative energy during visits to several power plants in Iceland.
   
   
3. We connect historical events with current events. In Charleston, travelers engaged in a private discussion with a church historian about the history of Mother Emanuel AME Church, the site of the tragic, racially motivated mass shooting in 2015. On the same program, they savored James Beard award-winning Mashama Bailey’s cuisine at The Grey in Savannah, her restaurant located in an art deco, formerly-segregated Greyhound Bus Terminal.

Thematic storytelling is our specialty. Please reach out so that we may design exciting new programs for your organization!