Equity

As we have embarked on work to reflect on MOST’s organizational culture, we have identified that our organization has been blind to our white privilege and has institutionalized whiteness practices that have created a disconnect between our stated and lived values. As we move forward, in collaboration with our sister organization Maryland MENTOR, we are taking the following concrete steps as we continue to question ourselves, learn, and change:

• Commit to an ongoing, facilitated process of organizational examination of our whiteness practices and how we as an organization can redirect our privilege to dismantling rather than reinforcing white supremacy.
• Work with our entire team to craft and review our public messages and design our programs to align with our stated values.
• Examine, revise, and augment our policy handbook to be explicit about our commitment to anti-racism and the consequences of violating our community agreements.
• Redesign our efforts to recruit, hire, and provide training and orientation for both our staff and AmeriCorps VISTA members.
• VISTA Program Redesign Initiative

MOST has collected several resources around race and equity to make available to the field.