United Way Monterey County is committed to sustaining a welcoming environment where diversity, equity, anti-racism, belonging, and inclusion are valued and demonstrated in our organizational practices, policies, services, and programs.
We, the Board of Directors, commit to supporting United Way Monterey County staff in recognizing, disrupting, and fixing injustice that perpetuate inequitable outcomes for our community. We recognize that addressing injustice requires our full effort, so we commit, individually and collectively as a board, to infuse diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging into all we do.
Together, with our dedicated staff, volunteers, and donors, we commit to building an equitable and just community where we can all thrive.
Do you want to know more how this impacts our work? Download our DIEB Statement.
United Way Monterey County
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING STATEMENT
Approved by Board of Directors: April 27, 2017, Revised December 3, 2020, March 21, 2024
As a champion and catalyst for building strong, healthy communities in Monterey County, United Way is committed to sustaining a welcoming environment where diversity, equity, anti-racism, belonging, and inclusion are valued and demonstrated in our organizational practices, policies, services and programs.
Definitions:
Diversity is the recognition that each individual is unique and groups of individuals reflect multiple dimensions of difference including race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, age, gender, gender identity and expression, disability, sexual orientation, veteran-status, familial status, residency status, socio-economic status, mental health status, or geographical representation.
Equity is being fair to all people, according to their needs. This could mean treating people differently to account for historical and social disadvantages. Equity leads to equality.
Inclusion is the value and practice of creating cultures of support and belonging in which everyone’s input is valued by the whole, particularly regarding meaningful decisions that affect their lives, and in which people do their best work and are respected and honored for who they are.
Belonging is the feeling of support and security when there is acceptance, inclusion, and a sense of identity for a member of a group. It occurs when an individual can bring, without reservation, their full sense of self to work.
We define Racism as racial prejudice supported by social, institutional, and economic power. Racism manifests itself on several levels, including internally through bigotry and implicit bias, institutionally through outcome disparities, and culturally through historically racist policies and practices.
United Way Monterey County stands against racism in all its forms and is committed to Anti-Racism and applying these values to our internal structures, policies, and practices as well as our external partnerships and programs.
We Live Our Values
These values influence our decision-making and program design, guide our interactions with each other and others, and determine the measure of our success by:
- Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace by building and maintaining an environment that embraces and values differences.
- Serving the needs of diverse communities by being a leader in funding promising community programs that target underserved populations and communities.
- Respecting and including volunteers, donors, and advocates of diverse backgrounds, and will strive to attract and build a diverse staff and board, volunteer, donor and advocate bases.
- Being accountable and making a difference by holding ourselves accountable to our fundamental principles to make a positive difference through our work.