"Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy"

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At the CABA a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment is one where all members, whatever their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education or disability, feels valued and respected. The CABA is committed to a nondiscriminatory approach and provide equal opportunity for participation and advancement in all our areas of activities, programs, events as well as work facilities. The organization respects and values diverse life experiences and heritages and ensure that all voices are valued and heard.

The CABA is committed to modeling diversity and inclusion for the entire community, and to maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.

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To provide informed, authentic leadership for cultural equity, the CABA strives to:

See diversity, inclusion, and equity as connected to the CABA’s mission and critical to ensure the well-being of all members and the community it serves.

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• Acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within its policies, systems, programs, and services, and continually update and report organization progress.

• Explore potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness.

• Advocate for and support board-level thinking about how systemic inequities impact the organization’s work, and how best to address that in a way that is consistent with its mission.

• Help to challenge assumptions about what it takes to be a strong leader at the organization, and who is well-positioned to provide leadership.

• Practice and encourage transparent communication in all interactions.

• Commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership within the CABA’s board, staff, committee, and advisory bodies.

• Lead with respect and tolerance. The CABA expects all members to embrace this notion and to express it in all interactions and through everyday practices.

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The CABA abides by the following action items to help promote diversity and inclusion internally as well as in the community: 

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• Pursue cultural competency throughout the organization by creating substantive learning opportunities and formal, transparent policies.

• Generate and aggregate quantitative and qualitative research related to equity
  to make incremental, measurable progress toward the visibility of the CABA’s diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts. Once the content is curated it will be added to all public access venues so others can access it.

• Improve the CABA’s cultural leadership pipeline by creating and supporting programs and policies that foster leadership that reflects the diversity of the community.

• Pool resources and expand offerings for underrepresented members and the community in general by connecting with other organizations committed to diversity and inclusion efforts.

• Develop and present programs based on diversity, inclusion, and equity.

• Develop a system for being more intentional and conscious of bias during the hiring, promoting, or evaluating process. Train the CABA’s hiring team on equitable practices.

• Include a salary range with all public job descriptions.

• Advocate for public and private-sector policy that promotes diversity, inclusion, and equity. Challenge systems and policies that create inequity, oppression and disparity."

 

 

 

1.      EQUITY & CULTURAL COMPETENCE

PHILOSOPHY, PURPOSE OR STATEMENT ON INTENT: It is the intent of the Central Area Betterment Association (CABA) that its employees and stake holders behave in a manner representative of its ethical and/or moral commitment to ensure that services are equitable to underserved, socially disadvantaged, and ethnically diverse members of the community which include services that are culturally and linguistically appropriate. In addition, agency staff shall participate in annual cultural competency/diversity training. This entails mandatory attendance that is recorded via sign-in / sing-out attendance log and which can be retrieved upon request.

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POLICY: It is the policy of the CABA to maintain a written Cultural Competency and Diversity Plan that describes how the linguistic and cultural needs of our recipients are met. It is our policy to effectively provide services to recipients of all cultures, age, races, gender, sexual orientation, socio economic status, languages, ethnic backgrounds, spiritual beliefs, and religions in a manner that recognizes, values, affirms, and respects the worth of the individuals and protects and preserves the dignity of each person.

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The CABA adheres to the equal employment opportunity policy and nondiscrimination practices.

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PROCEDURE: The CABA policy is implemented by the following plan and practices.

 

I. Cultural Competency and Diversity Plan

Introduction: Cultural competence is an integral part of the CABA. Those employed by the CABA who are in direct contact with recipients and families will demonstrate the following:

-           Recognize, value, affirm and respect the worth of each individual recipient and family and protect and preserve the dignity of each.

-           Utilize appropriate resources to ensure linguistic needs of the community are met.

-           Assess recipient and group acculturation to aid in matching individuals with appropriate community-based resources and provide appropriate service education.

-           Utilize culture-specific information provided in training and/or employee orientation to assist in identifying and determining the cause of culture-based issues and miscommunication and to resolve them.

 

The CABA ensures non-discriminatory and respectful services to recipients and community by employing both internal and external cultural competency practices. Ongoing improvement and widespread dissemination of these efforts evidence the CABA’s commitment to the provision of culturally appropriate services.

 

All employees, recipients, and community have access to the CABA Cultural Competency and Diversity Plan, as the essential plan elements are included in employee materials and on our website at www.CABAKCK.org. It is also available separately upon request.

 

II. Internal Cultural Competency and Diversity Practices

(1) The CABA seeks staff members that are committed to their community, represent a variety of cultural backgrounds, and are capable of communicating in cross-cultural situations. Discrimination is not tolerated, and employees will conduct services in a manner that recognizes values, affirms, and respects the worth of the individual and protects and preserves the dignity of each person.

(2) When necessary and requested, translation services to community members will be sought after. If a member of our community is in need of interpretive services, the CABA will call the Kansas State School for the Blind or other community partners and makes arrangements for these services.

(3) The CABA provides training. Comprehensive, behaviorally, and theoretically based cultural competency training and education is identified and at times offered. Characteristics of the training include:

-           Acceptance and respect for differences

-           Careful attention to dynamics of difference

-           Continuous expansion of cultural knowledge and resources

 

Training is based upon the following learning techniques:

-           Assessment and awareness of personal biases, values, and expectations

-           Content on general culture-specific attributes (family structures, language use for various groups, and recipients with a wide variety of physical and linguistic disabilities).

 

Specific trainings identified include:

-           The CABA Cultural Diversity Training

-           The National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) maintains a database of a wide range of resources on cultural and linguistic competence (e.g. demographic information, policies, practices, articles, books, research initiatives and findings, curricula, multimedia materials and websites, etc.) The NCCC uses specific review criteria for the inclusion of these resources. As part of the NCCC’s web-based technical assistance, a selection searchable bibliography of these resources is made available online. NCCC | home (georgetown.edu)

 

III. External Cultural Competency Practices

Employees are notified of their responsibilities pertaining to delivering culturally competent care and may obtain a copy of the Cultural Competency and Diversity Plan on the website: www.CABAKCK.org