Board Statement regarding racial equity

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We believe that Black Lives Matter.  We stand in support of racial equity and social justice.  

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We acknowledge that: 

 

• There have been historical injustices of structural and systemic racism

• We need to be part of the movement for racial justice

• There is a sense of urgency.

 

We commit to:

• Take responsibility for our actions, including when we allow people to be mistreated

• Educate ourselves on an individual basis and as Compass Center Board

• Collect more data regarding who we serve and the needs of our community

• Review our policies and look through a racial equity lens and seek to correct biases that we discover

• Go outside our networks and work to increase board diversity

• Reassess the Compass Center strategic plan

• Support openness and honesty among the board so differences of opinion can be shared and heard

• Be open to feedback and collaboration from staff, clients and volunteers

• Create a culture of inclusion

• Create measurable goals to hold ourselves accountable to these commitments.

 

We will advocate for:

- Agencies and organizations with which we interact to demonstrate their efforts to improve racial equity and social justice

- Clients who we may have underserved in the past by seeking to understand how to reach out to them or lower barriers to accessing our services 

- Each of our employees who have experienced inequity in their work with us or with agencies we interact with. 

 

We will challenge ourselves to

• Understand where we need to improve:  our desire to correct injustice does not automatically mean we will be able to see it more clearly. We will need focus and assistance to create measurable improvements.  

• Learn effective ways to implement change in vision and practice

• Open our conversations to a diverse range of voices.