The Racial Equity Committee (REC) is a staff-led committee that was created to educate, learn, and advocate for racial equity within our matches, our staff, and the world around us. We recognize and are proud that our mentoring relationships span across various cultures, ethnicities and races. It is our responsibility to ensure that these differences are embraced and accepted through a culture of openness and willingness to learn from each other. The REC’s goal is to facilitate opportunities for mentors, mentees, guardians, our Board, and staff to create a space for dialogue to in order to not only understand, but also to promote racial equity. Through working together, as a Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts community, we are furthering racial equity to help our kids thrive.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Creating space for conversations, feedback and ongoing learning to ensure that our practices and outcomes reflect our strong belief in diversity and inclusion.
- Facilitating discussions to educate staff and help them engage in healthy discussions around race.
- Designed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training for all staff and integrating these trainings into onboarding for new staff.
- Regularly sharing resources to all staff around topics related to racial equity.
- Identifying outside resources and sharing knowledge internally and externally through media, books, articles, and our own experiences.
CURRENT INITIATIVES
- Partnering with Bigs, Littles, and Guardians to encourage continued awareness of equity in order to recognize and celebrate our differences.
- Raising awareness about race-related issues such as micro-aggressions, implicit bias, and privilege.
- Examining current practices/processes in Program Services to ensure equity.
- Working with HR to ensure equity in our hiring processes.
- Providing opportunities for matches to explore the communities and cultural activities around them.
Thank you for your partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts! We believe that together, we can build more equity across our communities, and we would love your input! Please feel free to reach out to REC@emassbigs.org with questions, or ideas.