Advisory Team Update
Dear equity arcata,
Thank you. Thank you for believing in the promise of equity arcata and for the energy you give to breathing life into the work. We are indebted to you for keeping equity arcata moving forward during the uncertainties and barriers of the pandemic and beyond.
As we emerged from the pandemic, it became clear that we needed to put some energy as an Advisory Team into understanding where we are as a network and what we have learned from our years as a collective to help shape a sustainable future for equity arcata. As partner and founding organizational representatives, we did so in the context of a few years of change in our organizations and a call for systems transformation, impact, and accountability in our larger community.
We engaged with Melissa Meiris of Stepping Stone Consulting to help design and implement a process of examination, envisioning, and planning over the last few months. We invited members of the Backbone Support Team and the Design Team to help inform our exploration and planning. Through this process a renewed focus emerged on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)-centeredness and collective impact, placing additional responsibility on partner organizations for systems transformation. This is intended to provide resources and grow partnership to BIPOC community members and affinity organizations working for equity.
We are hopeful that with renewal of commitments and some organizational restructuring, we will build on the best of equity arcata, including ongoing learning, collective impact, and BIPOC-centeredness, toward a sustainable and strong network. Your thoughts about the future of your Working Groups and vision for your own contributions are central to the implementation of a renewed equity arcata. We are open to hearing from you directly and are also asking Lisa and Joseph to meet with you individually to share more about the restructuring and to discuss the role of your Working Group moving forward. We will move slowly and deliberately in implementation so that your insights and vision may be included, with the hope of our new structure in place in early Fall.
Thank you again for representing and manifesting the promise of equity arcata. We look forward to moving together to strengthen and sustain the collective work and wish you the best in this new year.
Sincerely,
Karen
Rosamel
Ron
Roger
Sarah