Anti-Racism & Inclusion Action Plan

ANTI-RACISM & INCLUSION ACTION PLAN

Active Minds commits to the continued work and process of becoming a more anti-racist and inclusive (ARI) organization. This ongoing work requires us to intentionally evolve both internally and externally to keep anti-racism and inclusion as strong pillars of our organization’s identity.

Since we publicly shared our Statement on Racism in 2020, the Active Minds team created an action plan to ensure we are, and will continue to be, the anti-racist and inclusive organization we believe we are. During the summer of 2021, we reviewed our accomplishments and our challenges to date (with a resolve to do so annually). We revisited our plan to hold ourselves as Active Minds team members and leadership accountable for continued work and growth. We committed to continuing our work and have once again broken our staff into small teams to collectively develop and action on organizational metrics for each area within the ARI Action Plan.

---

 

Staff and Leadership

We are committed to evolve and expand our organizational worldview to better support BIPOC and other marginalized communities’ mental health through training; development of a recruitment, hiring, and onboarding process for staff, interns, and contractors; and ensuring representation, inclusion, and retention on all organizational levels. We will provide opportunities for all staff to participate in anti-racism, inclusion, diversity and cultural awareness education or training, support supervisors in completing DEI training for the creation of a more inclusive workplace, and work with the Board to implement recruitment strategies for more diverse representation.

 

Organizational Impact

We continue our commitment to amplify, endorse, and utilize an exceptional list of organizations that support BIPOC and other marginalized communities. As we evolve, we will continue to review our existing programs and create recommendations for program development with a health equity lens. We commit to create and sustain strategic business partnerships and implement processes for review and quality assurance for health equity program deliverables. We will conduct organizational assessments to evaluate areas of need that will foster transparency throughout the organization and hold staff accountable for the vetting and approval process for high-profile partnerships to support the organization’s values and equity goals.

 

Policy

In addition to publicly declaring these strategies to our community to hold us accountable, we commit to assessing our 2017-2022 Strategic Plan to reflect the initiatives represented here and will review our progress annually with and for the Board of Directors. More so, we will ensure that applicable content from our ARI strategy is embedded with intention into the 2017-2022 Active Minds Strategic Plan and engage staff in the development in the 2023-2028 Active Minds Strategic Plan.

 

Transparency and Commitments

These commitments are intended to last more than a moment. We commit to maintaining organizational transparency by publishing our goals publicly and by instituting regular internal review of our team’s progress in achieving our time-bound goals. Knowing that this is a journey and errors may be made, we will offer opportunities for our team to provide face-to-face and anonymous feedback related to experiences of racism, or gaps in equity. We commit to engage in bi-monthly discussions by inviting all staff working on related efforts to consistently contribute, as well as establish quarterly meetings with our Executive Director to increase transparency of organizational updates regarding our ARI plan.

An emotionally healthy world is not possible without a just world. Systemic racism is a mental health and public health crisis: changing the culture around mental health includes ending the systemic racism in that same culture. And that change starts with each organization and each individual – including us. As we continue to grow and improve we will continue to be here for you: those in the Active Minds community, and beyond. #HereForYou.