Racial Equity Statement
Photo: LT’s 2019-2020 Curriculum Committee
LT recognizes that racial inequity and systemic racism impede our ability to create a healthy community for all. Racial inequity is a key predictor of outcomes in each of the seven elements of a healthy community and therefore a key leadership issue to address. We know that antiracism requires active participation in combatting racism in all forms. We commit to working with others to support dismantling the foundations of racism.
Each sector engages with these issues differently and brings different strengths and perspectives; working toward lasting and effective solutions requires collaboration. LT brings people together across differences to build bonds, trust, dialogue. These networks matter.
We challenge ourselves to continue to grow as an antiracist organization operationally and programmatically. We understand that growing this capacity requires ongoing individual and organizational work. We commit to allocate the appropriate and necessary resources to carry out these beliefs and values focused on racial equity.
Beliefs - convictions we hold to be true, assumptions we make about the world
We believe that:
Racism is a problem that impacts all of us negatively and differently.
Systemic inequity takes many forms—racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, heterosexism, and more, and that focusing on racial equity provides us with tools we can use to identify and address all oppressions.
All leaders need knowledge, skills, and capacities that allow them to effectively work with others to promote racial equity and justice.
Positive change comes from trusted relationships, networks, and partnerships that leverage the power that comes from our different strengths, perspectives, experiences, and positions.
Collaborations are stronger when we pay attention to variations in identity.
Communities of leaders who work together for change are more effective at creating significant change than individuals.
Values statements - things we deem important that guide how we behave and interact with others
We value:
Examining diverse perspectives across complex, overlapping, and interconnected identities.
Taking personal responsibility for the health of the community as a whole (community trusteeship).
Listening and responding with accountability to community needs, especially those from historically oppressed communities.
Building on the existing capacities of communities to further strengthen community action.
Taking risks and challenging assumptions and ourselves.
Facing the challenges of racial injustice courageously and identifying and practicing solutions and interventions.
Convening leaders who are new to racial equity and who bring experience and expertise together to advance equity and justice that meets them at their own learning edges.
Engaging the knowledge, expertise, and experiences that people of color bring in ways that recognize their strengths and minimize harm.
Operationalizing LT’s racial equity commitments
We recognize that our statements and values are only effective when we put our words to action. LT is working to embed antiracism and racial equity as principles shaping our organization and, by extension, our region and world.