3 Ways to Move Towards Justice + Equity in Your Organization

When working with equity teams at organizations and public libraries, we often find that leaders struggle to figure out how to set and shape goals.

I recommend that organizations who want to center justice in their work examine three domains when planning strategically, reviewing organizational structure, or considering a new initiative:

PEOPLE - relationships, wellness, and leadership development
CULTURE - norms, informal ways of being, perceptions, affirmation practices
POLICY - ending, changing, or creating new formal and written practices

When designing equity goals, our organizations and libraries must be able to have conversations about power at every level.

Below is an infographic of just a few of the prompts you can ask about your internal and external work that speaks to each of these domains. In the image, we refer to the people domain as “interpersonal” and the policy domain as “institutional.”

The prompts in the infographic read as follows:

3 Ways to Move Towards Justice + Equity in Your Organization

INTERPERSONAL - Prompts for addressing relationships

With Community: How can you position community members as leaders in the work? What can you do to build more trust between your organization and the people you serve?

Within Organization: How can you create more opportunities for people with oppressed identities to lead? What can you do to build more trust and deepen relationships among staff and board?

CULTURAL - Prompts for making cultural shifts

With Community: How does the community you serve see you? How do you communicate and model your justice and equity values to the people you serve?

Within Organization: How do you normalize and reward collaboration? How do you ensure staff with oppressed identities are seen and recognized for their work and contributions?

INSTITUTIONAL - Prompts for creating or changing policies

With Community: What policies should be created, changed, or eliminated to bring more power (resources, voice, visibility, choice, and safety) to the people you serve?

Within Organization: What policies should be created, changed, or eliminated to attract, support, include, and retain a diverse staff and board?

Remember these are just starting prompts. And they may need to be adapted to fit your organization. The most important thing to remember is that we must address all three.