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TEAK’s Commitment to Equity

Dear TEAK Community,

 

We are pleased to share our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging statement with you. Our process involved surveying current Fellows and Alumni, holding listening sessions with parents/guardians, and receiving input from staff. We thank everyone who participated in sharing their experiences and feedback.

 

Thank you,
TEAK’s Professional Development Committee

 

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at TEAK

 

We define equity as the promotion of opportunities that acknowledge, celebrate, and value our community members’ visible and invisible identities. We seek to encourage access for students to fulfill their academic potential and personal goals and cultivate a sense of belonging for all. We do not tolerate discrimination based on ability, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, or religion.

Acknowledgment

 

Since our founding, TEAK has committed to serving diverse students but has not always taken an antiracist approach to our programming and operations. We acknowledge the past harms and commit to doing better by our students.

 

We understand that the work required to become an equitable and antiracist organization extends across all departments from program staff, communications and development, the executive leadership team, and our Board.

 

TEAK operates within an inequitable educational system and cannot solve every problem. Still, we commit to holding ourselves accountable to advocate for positive change for the students and families we serve.

Action

 

As an organization, we commit to the following actions:

 

  • Listening and responding to our students, families, alumni, and staff’s needs by incorporating diversity, equity, and belonging initiatives into TEAK’s strategic plans.
  • Recruiting staff members, board members, and volunteers that reflect the rich diversity of the families in our Fellowship.
  • Assessing how our current organizational practices and policies perpetuate systemic inequities against marginalized groups.
  • Implementing a culturally responsive, inclusive, and anti-racist curriculum to inspire our students to become changemakers.
  • Fostering partnerships with organizations that share our values of providing access to communities that have been under-resourced and disenfranchised by systemic inequities.
  • Speaking out on the issues that affect all of our constituents. We specifically commit to holding our partner schools and organizations accountable by outlining our expectations and offering our resources and expertise relative to race, equity, and justice issues.

Accountability

 

To hold ourselves accountable and maintain our progress toward our goal of being an anti-racist and inclusive organization, we will:

 

  • Establish an annual assessment that evaluates our goals related to diversity, equity, and belonging, led by a team of staff, including the executive director, the professional development committee, and other relevant personnel.
  • Create a system for feedback, dialogue, and action related to reported bias incidents
  • Share the annual assessment findings with TEAK constituencies, including but not limited to staff, alumni, parents, and students.
  • Establish annual goals related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging and report progress to the TEAK Board Of Trustees Committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging on progress.

 

 

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email us at [email protected].