Colbeck Equity Strategy – Unused

Colbeck Equity Strategy – Unused

Our equity strategy is a building block in our organization’s desire and commitment to be more anti-oppressive, anti-racist and just. This strategy provides an opportunity for us to self-reflect, not just on an individual level, but as a practice. It is a means to challenge ourselves, our biases and our perspectives to be better allies in the battle against racism and inequity. To do so, we need to understand the moment we are in and the healing that needs to take place.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the long existing disparities and inequities that harm Black and Indigenous communities in all aspects of life. It has shown us the need to not just stand in solidarity and put out statements, but for us to do the necessary work to understand and acknowledge our own contribution to inequities and to commit to improving. This is an ongoing and personal mission for us, one that requires our willingness to change and develop with the help of people in our communities. This is our commitment to do and be better. 

1. Learn

Goal A: Create and cultivate a culture of “ongoing learning”

  • We will dedicate time weekly to educate ourselves on instances of injustice and anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices and systems, particularly concerning anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism. 
  • We will hold internal monthly meetings to brainstorm and identify action items to address issues uncovered in our learning. 

 

Goal B: Engage in ongoing dialogue with other consultants and facilitators 

  • We will continue reaching out to and establishing relationships with equity professionals who can educate and guide us on how we may better incorporate anti-racist and anti-oppressive approaches in our practice and improve our equity strategy.  
  • We will learn from other facilitators of strategy development work to better understand how they incorporate anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices in their approach.

2. Act

Goal A: Put in place internal practices that drive toward greater equity

  • We will take part in formal anti-racism and anti-oppression training opportunities as a staff (in addition to ongoing learning).
  • We will intentionally seek ways to ensure the accessibility of our support, which could be in the form of helping clients access subsidies, offering pro-bono facilitation and coaching, sharing tools and resources, and formally volunteering our time on nonprofit boards.
  • We will implement strategies to make our meetings as inclusive as possible. 
  • We will look within our organization on an ongoing basis to identify the ways in which our practices are contributing to inequity and injustice and work to intentionally dismantle them.
  • We will prioritize working with clients who are committed to advancing equitable outcomes.
  • We will integrate an equity lens into our strategy development process. 

 

Goal B: Support our clients in considering equity within their strategy process and elements of their own work

  • We will ask our clients to reflect on their own equity practices, considering how they are incorporating equity into the composition of their working group, the strategic planning process and in their organization as a whole. Specifically, we will push our clients to critically reflect on how they engage equity-seeking groups they aim to serve.
  • We will point out blind spots of our clients and ask them to do the same for us.
  • When timely (or requested), we will provide our clients with various equity resources to consider during their working group meetings and refer them to relevant support from equity consultants. 

3. Communicate

Goal A: Be vocal about inequities and injustices that occur in society

 

Goal B: Use our communications platforms to promote greater equity

  • We will use our social media platforms to uplift Black and Indigenous voices. We will use our email signatures to communicate our stances on issues of injustice and striving towards greater equity.  Our Colbeck email signatures will include gender pronouns, a land acknowledgement and a link to this equity statement.

4. Hire

Goal A: Put in place equitable hiring practices

  • We will expand our outreach methods to ensure greater transparency of and awareness about open positions. 
  • We seek to ensure that for every open position that we will have a diverse slate of candidates that includes both Black and Indigenous individuals.
  • We will design our hiring practices in a way that accommodates those facing accessibility barriers.

5. Partner

Goal A: Refer clients to Black and Indigenous facilitators and consultants, whenever possible 

  • When we cannot take on additional work, we will refer organizations to Black and Indigenous consultants whenever possible or other strategy consultants who use equity-informed approaches.
  • We will expand our network of colleagues who provide excellent equity consulting and intentionally refer our clients to them (as appropriate).

 

Goal B: Partner with individuals and community groups to better understand and serve our communities

  • We will learn from Black and Indigenous community groups working towards greater equity, anti-racism and anti-oppression. We will learn more about and contribute to the communities we serve by attending community events, offering employee time to volunteer and potentially offering financial support.

Our Accountability

We have put mechanisms in place to keep ourselves accountable to the goals outlined above.  As a team, we are deeply committed to putting our best foot forward with this strategy and we will seek to continually refine and improve our equity-informed practices as we continue to learn more.

If you have any questions or feedback on our strategy, please feel free to email us at robin@colbeckadvisors.com.