To: All Support, Inc. Staff, Families, and Providers
From: CEO Bentley SmithIn light of recent events over this past week including another incident of social injustice, I want to acknowledge the impact that this has on our entire Support, Inc. network, and especially our Black community. With these types of events, compounded by the pandemic, wildfires, and even hurricanes, it makes for a trying time. But through these trying times I am encouraged by the growing support from key communities, along with the efforts of our own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council that was created in July. Having a group of dedicated Support, Inc. staff focused on navigating these times gives me comfort and encouragement. Below, I would like to share a communication from this group:
To our Support Inc. Community,
We are saddened by the continued display of social injustice in our communities. In our current social climate, our company has committed ourselves to answering the call for creating change. Supported and encouraged by Founder Dennis Kirkman and CEO Bentley Smith, our company wants to dedicate resources in time, presence, education, and financial support to variety of social justice issues. Our first step was to create a committee of Support Inc. employees ranging from Directors to DSP’s and across our various departments.
Support Inc. has chosen to create a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council. Effective 7/1/2020, Support Inc. embarked on a mission to address, explore, educate, learn about, and respond to the diversity of the human experience. To do so, we have created a DEI Council and Committee to identify ways to impact our community and improve equality both inside our organization and outside of it.
Guided
by a set of ideals, this council strives to encourage and support our company’s
full understanding of diverse cultural perspectives and backgrounds by
listening to personal experiences and calling on the use of critical thinking,
empathy, and a deeper appreciation of others. Additionally, we will work to
create an inclusive, equitable, culturally competent, and supportive
environment where employees model behavior that enriches our community.
Our
objective is to lead and hold the organization accountable in the incorporation
of diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the work at Support
Inc.
Our DEI
Initiative is Guided by several ideals:
- Be present and respect the space
- Share your experiences, use “I” statements
- Assess your safety and use your discernment
- he stories of others are theirs to share, maintain confidentially and trust among the group
- Step up, step back
- If you experience yourself making judgements, ask yourself where those feelings came from
- Consider and address the impact of actions rather than focusing on your intentions
- Consider your privilege
- Acknowledge pain or offense in the moment using “ouch” and have the option to discuss it or not at that time
- Confront, critique, and challenge your discomfort
We have
defined Diversity our Core Principles:
Definitions
Diversity: The range of human
differences, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, gender
identity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, physical ability or
attributes, religious or ethical values systems, national origin, political
beliefs, and cultures.
- Diversity means more than just
acknowledging and/or tolerating difference. It’s a set of conscious practices
that seek to understand and appreciate the interdependence of humanity,
cultures, and the natural environment.
Equity: Ensuring that everyone has support
and access to the resources needed to be successful and identifying and
eliminating barriers that have prevented the full participation of communities
most impacted by systemic oppression.
- Improving equity involves increasing
justice and fairness within the procedures and processes of institutions and
systems, as well as in the distribution of resources. Tackling equity issues
requires an understanding of the root causes of outcome disparities within our
society and institution.
- Equity differs from equality.
Equality refers to treating everyone the same but does not necessarily lead to
equitable outcomes because diverse communities have diverse needs and have
faced varying obstacles and inequities.
Inclusion: Ensuring that people of all
backgrounds, identifies, abilities, perspectives, and beliefs have an equal
opportunity to belong, achieve, and contribute to their communities. An
inclusive organization and community promote and sustains a sense of belonging;
it values and practices respect where all people are recognized for their
inherent worth and dignity, talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of living.
Cultural
Competence: An
understanding of how organizations and individuals can respond respectfully and
effectively to people from all cultures, economic statuses, language
backgrounds, races, ethnic backgrounds, disabilities, religions, genders,
gender identifications, sexual orientations, veteran statuses and other
characteristics in a manner that recognizes, affirms and values the worth, and
preserves the dignity, of individuals, families and communities.
Meeting weekly, our objective is to create change amongst a wide scope of issues experienced in our community. That scope is vast and encompasses a lot of aspects, which can be a large weight to carry and one we are excited to do so.
Our
Scope
The
committee will guide the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion at our
institution through the following:
- Assessing the implementation of the
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan
- Monitoring the development,
implementation, and evaluation of standards for cultural competence for
employees and care givers
- Providing input on organizational
policies and procedures to address diversity, equity, and inclusion issues
- Focus on organizational policies and
procedures to address diversity, equity, and inclusion issues and make
recommendations when appropriate
- Evaluating and recommending
solutions where organizational inequities exist
- Informing and consulting with
clients, caregivers, contractors, employees, and leadership regarding
diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
- Ensuring the maintenance and
dissemination of best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion in
institutional policies, teaching, training, hiring, and retention of employees
and contractors
- Serving as a resource for guidance
and consultation regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion issues for
employees, clients, caregivers and contractors
- Disseminating information about
ongoing professional development training around diversity, equity, and
inclusion for employees and contractors
- Seeking
regular feedback from contractors, caregivers, clients and employees to inform
decision-making and understand opportunities for improvement
- Sharing
the work of the committee with the Support Inc. community
To
date; our group has created a DEI Charter to guide our efforts, we have created
a questionaries’ that will be available to our community for feedback in the
creation of initiatives, reviewed our implemented Discrimination Policy, and
created a Further Education List for DEI initiatives to be distributed soon.
Additionally, we are developing a strategic plan to address trainings and
internal/external initiatives.
