Equity and inclusion are at the heart of Youth Job Center’s work. Youth Job Center is committed to building a more just and equitable organization, both internally and externally, by increasing our participant's’ and staffs’ employment and career opportunities while decreasing the predictability of poverty based on race, by taking an intersectional approach.
Youth Job Center’s Key Values
Youth Job Center promotes and supports a healthy and inclusive culture where all current and future team members and participants thrive. We will do this in the following ways:
Develop and maintain a strong internal culture balancing support and high expectations, defined and measured in our policies and practices.
Provide exceptional and individualized support for clients.
Use our voice and presence in the community to influence positive change.
Youth Job Center staff and board embrace our individual and collective responsibility to support every person who enrolls in our programs, regardless of barriers.
We believe work as the power to shape futures and change lives/
Young adults are able to achieve employment success when the playing field is made equitable in access, skill-building, network building, and advancement opportunities.
Youth Job Center’s Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
YJC is dedicated to being a diverse and equitable organization that is inclusive for all. In November 2019 the agency stated this as a priority, with YJC hosting an all-staff retreat to decide upon the priorities the agency would pursue in the coming years. While staff identified many different priorities, that one that was clearest was that we as an agency needs to do a better job of improving equity, both internally, and in our work with young people. Following that retreat, YJC developed a staff Equity Team dedicated to identifying and implementing ways for YJC to improve equity for our participants, our staff, and in partnership in our communities. To guide our efforts YJC is engaging its diverse staff in discussions about the lasting negative impact of these inequities on people of color, inviting staff to share their unique perspectives and experiences.
The agency’s staff Equity Team is meeting regularly, making race the priority while also planning for future work in gender, age, ability, and more. Staff are working to better understand what it means to be a Person of Color in our society, how racism has become subtly ingrained in the institutions that shape our society, and what we can do as an agency to be a part of the solution. This is a long, challenging, and sometimes painful journey, but YJC would not make any other choice. Discussions have been open, honest, raw, and sometimes difficult to have. But they have also been wonderfully informative. As a team we are finding the balance between experiencing our feelings of sadness and anger over the current situation and working to develop productive solutions and strategies for driving this work forward.
Additionally, the agency has formed an Equity Committee of the Board of Directors, which is working closely with the staff Equity Team and the broader group of the Board of Directors. We have modified and approved our adaptive strategic plan to integrate an equity lens. We are considering how roles need to shift, and what YJC staff and board members can do as individuals and as an agency to push toward greater equity both inside and outside of our agency.
