Commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Burns Memorial Fund is committed to advancing equity, diversity and inclusion in our organization and community. We know that deeply rooted systemic inequities and injustice impact the lives of many marginalized groups in our society and we are dedicated to addressing inequity and combatting oppression.
As an organization, we work to build a strong Calgary community where every child reaches their full potential. We recognize that to fully realize this vision, we must eliminate the systemic inequities, within and outside the organization, that have long disadvantaged the people and communities that we serve. This important task calls on us to reflect on our organizational practices and develop an equity lens through which we will evaluate our decisions and future directions.
We are at the beginning of this journey. We started this work by examining our current policies, systems and practices with the support of consultants who conducted an organizational anti-racism audit and training for our staff team. As we move forward, we commit to cultivating an organizational culture that values, supports, enables and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion.
To achieve this goal, we are working towards the following specific commitments:
- Strengthen our staff capacity to support diverse populations by providing opportunities for learning and development around equity, diversity and inclusivity initiatives that will inform an inclusive, culturally responsive, and reflective practice.
- Increase the accessibility of our grant programs through system and process improvements.
- Enhance efforts to reach out to equity-deserving groups in the community that may be underrepresented in our programs. This initiative will be supported by the systematic collection of data to identify these groups and monitoring of our progress.
- Align our organization with the highest sector standards and direction in equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism work. Work in allyship with other organizations to eliminate systemic injustice and inequities in Calgary.
