DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

Cultural awareness, humility, equity, access, and accountability begins with us. We have woven equity goals throughout our Strategic Plan, including creating promotional opportunities for staff of color, engaging in systems change at both the micro and macro level, and bringing more awareness and advocacy to racial disparities. Our equity efforts are works in progress and require constant attention and nurturing to move the needle forward as it informs our work with youth, families, and communities.

  • Equity Teams collaborate to hold the agency accountable for actualizing racial equity, fostering intersectional mindfulness, and prioritizing the needs of front line staff in organizational planning. Participation in EEC and MET is open to all direct service staff and managers, respectively.

  • The role of Equity Liaisons is essential to Lincoln Families’ journey towards equity, which requires reflection, dialogue, and time. By creating dedicated roles and spaces to listen and value the voices of all Lincoln staff, and by challenging existing organizational norms, the Liaisons uphold a courageous dedication to equity that perseveres even in the face of new and unexpected challenges.

  • The Equity Teams also work collaboratively to engage staff from all levels in equity focused leadership to promote reflective processes in decision making, lift the voices of their colleagues, and collaborate to address issues across the organization.

  • We strive at Lincoln Families to foster a welcoming, inclusive, and brave environment for everyone. Affinity Groups (AGs) can be a bridge to building that culture by creating spaces for employees with shared identities that support belonging, transparency, and authenticity. AGs are a place for healing, self-reflection, and liberation that parallel the agency’s ongoing work towards making all spaces more culturally responsive and inclusive. Current AGs include:

    • Asian American & Pacific Islander

    • Black Self-Care

    • La Comunidad

    • LGBTQ2SIA+

    • Parenting Beyond Kids

    • Spanish Consultation

    • White Anti-Racism

    Anyone who wishes to participate in an AG is encouraged to do so. For more information, please reach out to the Employee Equity Council: equityliaisons@lincolnfamilies.org.

  • We know that we cannot live our mission without first centering the voices and needs of our staff and those who directly serve our community into both short and long term decision making. Equity Teams examine Lincoln practices to ensure that the culturally-responsive supports provided to youth and families are balanced with supports given to meet the diverse and critical needs of our staff.

Commitment to Equity

It is our responsibility and priority to honor and celebrate the diverse identities of both our employees and the youth and families we serve to strengthen our work in schools and communities, remove barriers to care, and advance racial justice and equity. We began this journey by taking on our own internal structures and processes to assess them through the lens of equity. In order to disrupt harmful power structures and build a culture of transparency and shared decision making, the Employee Equity Council was developed in 2017, and soon followed in 2018 by the Manager Equity Team, to take on the critical role of interrogating Lincoln Families’ structures, and design policies and practices that move us towards an equitable working environment. In subsequent years, other equity teams were created to represent all roles throughout the organization:

  • Employee Equity Council/EEC made up of direct service and support staff;

  • Manager Equity Team/MET made up of management staff;

  • Senior Management Team/SMT made up of all senior leaders, because it is required that the lens of equity is held by the team with the most positional power; and

  • Board Equity Council/BEC made up of selected board members.