Our business advisor advised Snake River Music Gardens that to apply for grants we must include a DEI statement with our by-laws, and post this DEI statement on our website.  This DEI statement, unchanged from what was recommended, appears below our Preamble to DEI Statement.

Preamble to DEI Statement.  Snake River Music Gardens sets a planetary standard for respectful accountable productive relations among the family of man.  Snake River Music Gardens co-administration with Youth in Act – Uganda to enact the Food Forest Program to Avert Famine is exemplary in documentation, Godly in action, and effective.  We are an all-volunteer team, equal in the sight of God and respectful in our counsels.

Our united and eternal ministry is to uplift Africa and Oregon into food self-reliance. Our program is universal and adapts to any culture.  The success of Youth in Act – Uganda and Youth in Act – Oregon is our legacy.  No famine, no poverty, no war.  A planet of food forest music gardens full with children learning, gardening, caring for animals, singing together, eating with family, praying in community.

In light of our co-administration with Youth in Act – Uganda, we at Snake River Music Gardens find the recommended trainings, orientations, goals,  benchmarks and agenda items set out below, to be irrelevant to our work, as our ministry sets a planetary standard for unity among all families.  Thanks to our correspondents who do speak English, we serve many more who do not.

Snake River Music Gardens: DEI Statement

Snake River Music Gardens is committed to working for a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive Oregon. At Snake River Music Gardens, the environment is one where all employees, clients, and volunteers, whatever their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education or disability, feel valued and respected.

We are committed to a nondiscriminatory approach and provide equal opportunity for employment and advancement in all of our departments, programs, and worksites. We recognize the history of oppression that has resulted in ongoing disparities for some communities, as well as the limitations of our abilities to address them without the inclusion of those communities’ voices.

We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and ensure that all perspectives are valued and heard, and remain dedicated in all efforts to maintain an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.

To provide informed, authentic leadership for cultural equity, Snake River Music Gardens strives to:

Acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within our policies, systems, programs, and services, and continually update and report organization progress;
Explore potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness;
Advocate for and support board-level thinking about how systemic inequities impact our organization’s work, and how best to address that in a way that is consistent with our mission;
Practice and encourage transparent communication in all interactions;
Commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership within our board, staff, committee, and advisory bodies;
Lead with respect and tolerance. We expect all team members to embrace this notion and to express it in workplace interactions and through everyday practices;
Own responsibility for any mistakes and take genuine and appropriate corrective action.
Following these principles, we embrace our ability and responsibility to dismantle barriers to equity and improve community conditions through all of Snake River Music Gardens’ work.  Snake River Music Gardens abides by the following action items to help promote diversity and inclusion in our workplace:

·      Set concrete goals and benchmarks for advancing Snake River Music Gardens’ diversity, equity, and inclusion work;

·      Provide orientation and ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings for all board and staff members;

·      Engage external consultants or partners to provide assistance and third-party review for Snake River Music Gardens’ diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and program work;

·      Make services to non-English speakers prominent and accessible;

·      Include diversity, equity, and inclusion as a standing agenda item for board and staff meetings.

 

Snake River Music Gardens is committed to continually improving its own ability to contribute to a wholly just, sustainable, and inclusive Oregon economy. Our organization stands in solidarity with those working on the frontlines of social justice movements and understand that economic disparity and racial/equity inequity are deeply interwoven; neither can be fully repaired without fixing the other.