After publishing the Partnership’s statement on Black Lives, our team gathered virtually to check in. Many of us shared feeling proud of the statement and the way it came together. Every person on staff, regardless of positional authority, had provided input and feedback into the statement. As a result, we all felt deeply connected to the words on that page.
“How will we hold ourselves accountable?” was the immediate next question. We continue to see horrifying violence committed against Black people, including the recent police shootings of Dijon Kizzee and Jacob Blake. As we look to what we must do in the domestic violence field, we must first recognize that BIPOC advocates, preventionists and survivors have carried the load of racial justice work for decades—often to great professional and personal risk. As a mainstream organization striving to undo white supremacy culture, the Partnership has been grappling with how we have been complicit in the harm BIPOC advocates, survivors, families and communities experienced. So, after a beautiful statement to that end, how do we walk the talk? How do we go from performance to action—particularly when we mess up?
We must account for the ways we’re working to bake racial justice and equity into every facet of our work. With this strategy, Michell Franklin, past Capacity Building Program Manager at the Partnership, came up with the idea for our infographic. It is a way to hold ourselves accountable to sustaining these efforts, particularly during times of crises and uncertainty when the pressure to keep status quo is the easier road.
Our infographic will be a living document on this page.
