Equity & Inclusion

We are committed to creating an equitable organization that is inclusive and representative of the communities we serve.

We value the diverse voices, perspectives, and practices offered by participants, staff, volunteers, community partners, and our board of directors, and we rely on this diversity to craft innovative approaches to providing critical services and to creating positive, systemic change. We recognize that our diversity is our strength and it is critical to advancing our mission and enhancing the well-being of participants, staff, volunteers, and the community.

We seek in principle and in practice to promote justice, equity, and inclusion through:

  • Interrupting oppressive policies, behaviors, and language;

  • Using person-first language; respectfully placing the person before the circumstance (i.e., people experiencing homelessness, not homeless people);

  • Fostering a culture of compassion, acceptance, alliance, and mutual respect;

  • Creating and maintaining opportunities for engagement, education, and discourse around justice, equity, and inclusion;

  • Ensuring that identity—such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, ability, sexual orientation, or any other identity—has no detrimental effect on access to resources, on opportunities, or on outcomes for participants, board, staff, volunteers, and community partners;

  • Recognizing all forms of knowledge, whether acquired through education or through lived experience, as essential to our collective wisdom;

  • Encouraging engagement and participation of underrepresented groups at all levels of our organization and making space for the most marginalized voices to be heard; and

  • Promoting access to available resources and services and awareness of issues around housing and homelessness through outreach, education, and advocacy.

OUR PLEDGE

We pledge to hold ourselves accountable to these goals by ensuring our workplace and the services we offer reflect this commitment. Through the work of our Equity Committee, we will review progress toward these goals annually.