Our Statement of Inclusion:
The Ion Center recognizes the intersecting identities of each individual who comes to us for services. When we support someone who has been impacted by power-based personal violence, it is part of our agency’s fabric to remember the additional traumas they may have experienced due to economic status, racism, sexism, ableism, religious discrimination, ageism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia. These traumas stack, compound, and can weave themselves together before even considering the generational trauma that exists in individuals belonging to groups who have been historically oppressed. The Ion Center’s services are offered with regard and reverence for these identities and for the different traumas that one’s identities may carry.
The Ion Center’s Anti-Racism Plan:
Organizing Statement
We are organizing Ion Center staff, volunteers, and our Board of Directors to pursue equitable systems and policies that achieve anti-racist practices by creating a culture of accountability, diversity, equity, and inclusion by dismantling behaviors that support and maintain intersectional forms of racism.
Education
We are organizing Ion Center Staff, volunteers, and Board of Directors to pursue awareness and accountability to achieve the tools needed to proactively combat inequity and prevent resulting violence by facilitating education through discussion, reflection and storytelling.
| We will use the following tactics | To reach this milestone | By | Who is responsible |
| Determine budget for experts/educators through researching grant opportunities, applying for funding, and identifying agency funds that can be used for this purpose | Finance 70% of training | June 2021 | Ion Center Finance, Education, and Finance related Leadership members |
| Create, finalize, and distribute surveys/review previous survey results | Determining education topics | July 2021 | Education Pillar Team |
| Determine and approve experts/educators | Finalization of topics/educators | August 31st 2021 | Ion Center Education Leadership and Education Pillar Team |
| Determine date(s) of sessions | Distributing session schedule to staff/volunteers/b.o.d | January 2022 | Education Pillar Team and Site Supervisors |
| Facilitating sessions | 75% (at least)staff participation | May 2022 | Education Pillar and Site Supervisors |
| Research, identify, and develop resources about interaction of trauma and Identity | To equip staff to discuss impact of identity and trauma with clients seeking services | April 2022 | Ad-hoc committee made up of interested staff; Education Pillar Team |
| Develop language and information about the intersection of trauma and Identity for external community and professional trainings. | 1: To ensure that agency DEI/Anti-Racist stance is communicated to community partners and professionals and training on this topic and its intersection with our work is provided 2: Use information to shape bystander intervention education for staff/volunteers/Board of Directors. | March 2022 | Professional/Community Education Development Team, Education Pillar Team, Prevention Team |
Relationships
We are organizing Ion Center staff, volunteers, and Board of Directors to further pursue familiarity, comfort and trust in our community by identifying specific underserved populations in order to foster genuine relationships with lived experience and experts within those specific populations, engaging our community in programs, volunteering, and outreach.
| Tactic | Time | Who |
Identify relationships in our community that we want to nurture and grow. Identify specific underserved populations we want to provide more outreach to in our community | June 2021 September 2021 | DEI Committee Relationships Pillar |
Make list of events in the BIPOC community that we could be attending or are not currently awareHold meetings with BIPOC community leaders to build trust and rapport | September 2021 December 2021 | DEI Committee / Relationships Pillar Leadership and Staff |
| Host quarterly forums with BIPOC community leaders who are helping us continue to be inclusive with our agencies DEI workION Center staff become involved with at least 5-10 BIPOC community events or activitiesHost at least 1 event a year focusing on the BIPOC community | March 2022 June 2022December 2022 | DEI hosts forums all staff for community events and outreachDEI hosts Yearly Event |
Systems Change
We are organizing Ion Center board, staff, and volunteers to pursue systems change within our agency to achieve internal systems and policy reform by identifying procedures that continue to enable systemic racism and actively ameliorate these practices.
We will do this by actively reviewing hiring procedures, staff guidelines (such as appearance and dress code), holiday time-off, and other related policies
| Tactic | Time | Who |
| Identify 1-2 policies that impact staff, volunteers, and clients each that could be modified to create a more equitable and inclusive environment. | 3 Months | Systems Change team |
| Create a cross-functional group to analyze the policies and make recommendations to better meet the needs of clients, staff, and volunteers. | 6 Months | System Change team will organize Cross-Functional group, the group will make changes |
| Create changes to policies based on feedback of cross-functional group. Obtain feedback from clients, staff, and volunteers regarding policy changes through a focus group. Present to the board our changes for consideration. | 12 Months – Two years | Systems change team to organize focus group, CEO |
Evaluation
We are organizing Ion Center staff to solicit voices, feedback, and experiences from staff, volunteers, clients, and the community to pursue an accurate analysis of the organizations’ DEI efforts to achieve intersectionality of racial equity and community development by December 2022.
| Action | By | Who |
| Create an evaluation team beyond the DEI Evaluation Pillar. | June 2021 | Evaluation Pillar |
| Compile a list of constituents that need to be evaluated. | June 2021 | Supervisors, Volunteer Coordinator, and Christy B. (Board) |
| Create an evaluation tool that is relevant to each population. | December 2021 | Evaluation Team |
| Review previous surveys taken and city and county data that is relevant (DEI, QCC, Law Enforcement) | December 2021 | Evaluation Team |
| Create an evaluation plan for each member of the Evaluation team. | December 2021 | Evaluation Team |
| Conduct evaluations based on evaluation plans. | August 2022 | Evaluation Team |
| Analyze the feedback from evaluations. | November 2022 | Evaluation Team |
| Present findings to DEI Committee | November 2022 | Evaluation Team |