Blog

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commitment

To support all in reaching their fullest potential, Lifeline Community Services commits to championing policies and practices that promote equity across race, gender, age, ability, religion, identity, and sexual orientation in order to empower a just, inclusive, and equitable society.

Lifeline is a community-based organization that has been engaged since its inception in acknowledging, addressing, and attempting to reduce the impact of various forms of oppression and institutional racism on the individuals we serve.
Lifeline commits to continued growth in this area by looking both internally and externally to identify ways to challenge and interrupt inequities that create trauma for our clients, staff, volunteers, partners, and community members.
We will accomplish this through institutionalizing the practices of organizational reflection, analysis of data and experiences, and mobilizing change in ourselves and our circles of influence toward greater equity and physical and mental well-being for the communities we serve. We commit to continuous reflection and improvement.
Lifeline Community Services will model this commitment respectfully and with integrity through our own collective and individual actions.
 
Demonstrating our Commitment
The Cultural Competence Committee, on behalf of the organization, wants to lead the organization by listening, discussing, and planning activities that will help us achieve this objective. We will build our plan around five areas of activity: Educate, Commemorate, Participate, Advocate, and Activate.

• Educate: We want to educate ourselves about the real history, actions, and consequences of racial and cultural inequity and disparity in our nation and community.
• Commemorate: We want to celebrate and honor the rich diversity and cultures that make up our organization, community and nation.
• Participate: We want to create opportunities for all – clients/participants, staff, and organizational leadership (manager, directors, board) – to engage in activities that increase self-awareness toward making change in our systemic biases.
• Advocate: We want to find specific actions to demonstrate our values and intents to our institutional partners about making these changes for our clients/participants.
• Activate: We want to build our values about diversity, equity and inclusion into organizational operations and programmatic design.