DEI Committee

Purpose

The purpose of the DEI Committee is to: create a brave space and a culture of accountability within Passion Impact, to help identify opportunities for structural/internal change, & to provide a space for continual learning which will allow each committee member to carry these lessons to their sphere of our shared community.

Current Projects

DEI Foundational Training

Currently the DEI committee is in the process of creating/finalizing an onboarding presentation that will be provided to all new Passion Impact board members, staff, students, and volunteers as they begin their time within the organization.  The purpose of this onboarding is to make sure all new members are given the foundation needed to understand PI’s stance on social justice and to help guide their decisions, projects, and actions within their role at Passion Impact. This project is being created by a sub-cohort from the DEI committee, and will be reviewed/finalized by the entirety of the DEI committee in the coming months.

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Previous Projects

Cultural Audit 2021-2022

Our Cultural Audit team is ramping back up as they decide what is needed for annual Cultural Audit. If you are interested in joining the team, please reach out at the bottom of this webpage.

Anti-Racism Statement

Between May and September, the Development Committee created our first Anti-Racism Statement. In a collaborative spirit, there was much individual work outside of meetings that led to detailed group discussion. Take a look at our first version.

Cultural Audit 2020-2021

Starting in October 2020, the DEI Committee formed a Cultural Audit project team which included four members. The team designed their audit devised of two separate pieces: A Demographic Survey and an Indicator Assessment. Two members took on each section and over the next 2 months built out the framework within which the Passion Impact community could participate. 34 students, parents, teachers, partners, board, and staff took the demographic survey and it now represents a baseline to which comparison of future years can instruct strategic direction. The Indicator Assessment was divided into 5 categories with each indicator falling into the best fit: personnel, communications, environment, decision-making, and DEI processes. Each participant of the following three groups completed the indicator assessment personally before attending a focus group: high school students; parents, partners, & teachers; and board, staff, college students, volunteers, and a high school student representative. The final group came to a consensus on most of the indicators and worked together to determine the highest ranking indicators that the cultural audit team then took to the board of directors.

In March of 2021, the cultural audit team led a discussion with the entire DEI Committee and performed a deep dive into the entire cultural audit. Board members participated in 1 on 1 discussions with PI’s Executive Director regarding the cultural audit over the following three weeks, and in April the top findings were brought to the board during their monthly board meeting. The DEI Committee is moving forward with finalizing initiatives using the cultural audit and will be using it to instruct the Strategic Planning Guide.

DEI Book Club

As a project that stemmed from Davida’s ACE Work-Study position, the DEI Book club convenes to discuss DEI themed books on a monthly basis. The group is on their first book and is currently reading “The Vanishing Half” By Brit Bennet. Support Portland’s local Black-owned book store Third Eye Bag by clicking on the button below to purchase your copy.

DEI Statement and Definitions

The last weekend of June 2020, the Passion Impact Board underwent our first DEI Training. As an initial effort to take action to becoming a more equitable organization, our second day consisted of brainstorming the basis of our first DEI Statement. Over the next three months, Adrianna led the DEI committee to complete DEI Statement Version 1.0, Group Definitions, and bring both to a vote at our October Board meeting.