Reaffirming CAPs Connection with the Black Community | 18 Month Progress Update
On May 25, 2020 Minneapolis police officers arrested George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, after a convenience store employee called 911 and told the police that Mr. Floyd had bought cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Seventeen minutes after the first squad car arrived at the scene, Mr. Floyd was unconscious and pinned beneath three police officers, showing no signs of life. This was not a new moment or scenario in our nation’s history. Countless Black and Brown bodies have been inappropriately profiled, wrongly accused and lost to police brutality before and after this moment. However, it was those 8 minutes and 46 seconds that sparked a racial awakening and literally took the breath from our nation.
From peaceful protest, to marching in the streets and a demand for justice, we are living in an unprecedented time of racial reckoning that was only made possible by the perfect storm produced by a global pandemic, economic downturn, and 8 minutes and 46 seconds of racial injustice that, for the first time, opened the eyes of much of white America.
As a Black man and community leader, the last year has been one of the most challenging years of my life. It has changed me at my core. It has tested my resilience and taught me lessons about vulnerability, humility, and the importance of showing up as my true authentic self. The last year has transformed who I am and how I want to show up as a leader in the communities I care about so deeply.
I’d love to share a little bit about that journey with you today. In doing so, it’s also important that I acknowledge that throughout my tenure as the Chief Executive Officer of Cascade AIDS Project and Prism Health, I have placed a large emphasis on the necessary internal facing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) efforts to ensure that CAP is prepared to proceed in this work in a thoughtful and intentional way. I know that the external facing work is equally important, and I wanted to ensure we were prepared to show up for community in the ways that they needed and deserved.
Today, I’d like to share with you the progress in CAP’s DEIJ work. In doing so, it’s important that I start by sharing our commitments to being an anti-racist organization.
CAP’s Commitments to our Board, Community, Staff and Volunteers:
We acknowledge that CAP as an agency needs to address the historical injustice, harm and trauma perpetuated by our country’s racist legacy and we need to take an unapologetic anti-racist stand and fight white supremacy in all its forms.
We acknowledge the pain of racism across our society, our institutions and organizations. We commit to addressing racism as an agency. We will work to reduce and remove this pain where we find it within CAP.
We need to come together in a positive way to confront racism and transform the culture of CAP. We will work to be role models of humility, constructivist listening and radical resilience to each other and to our community.
We acknowledge that this work will be hard, however we will be open and accountable to each other in doing this work. We acknowledge that there will be missteps along the way, but we will learn from our mistakes and we will continue working on this journey together.
We acknowledge that this work will require difficult but crucial conversations, as well as training, consistency, and commitment to stay engaged. This will all take time.
We acknowledge that this work must proceed with urgency AND deliberation. We recognize the need to identify and allocate supportive resources for this work while many of us continue to work from home or are in different locations.
We validate the lived experience of our BIPOC staff and people that we serve. We can and will do better in understanding the role we play in systemic oppression and work to dismantle it. We will stand together in solidarity to fight for racial justice and equity.
Reaffirming CAP’s Connection with the Black Community: Eighteen Month Progress Update
In August of 2019, I released an open letter in The Skanner to acknowledge that CAP’s work with the Black community in Portland has been lacking. At that moment in our organization’s history, our time for showing up at the table was far overdue. Similar to many organizations and institutions, CAP has a long and storied history with the Black community in Portland. A critical step to healing is acknowledging the past and making apologies. In order to rebuild, we knew that we must truthfully confront our history of racial injustice before we could begin to repair our painful legacy. To effectively lead with race at CAP, meant finding every opportunity to bring Black and Brown folx from the margins to the center of our story.
Ultimately, there can be no progress in the HIV movement absent an explicit commitment to racial justice.
In the spirit of transparency and accountability, CAP has been engaged in the start of difficult but critical DEIJ work over the last eighteen months. Here are the highlights of the progress of our work in that time.
Partnerships and Presence in the Community
In addition to our organizational equity audit, CAP staff have placed focus on enhancing and increasing our community partnerships, building a presence in the community and improving our internal policies, systems, and training through an equity lens. CAP continues to partner with the Urban League of Portland, where Robb Lawrence is providing medical navigation services to Black folx living with HIV through our MAI funding. We believe this continued partnership is not only creating more accessible HIV services for the Black community but will also allow for both organizations to continue to learn from one another’s expertise in serving communities who have traditionally been furthest from opportunity.
Throughout the dueling pandemics of COVID-19 and addressing white supremacy culture in the region, I have worked to reposition CAP so we can leverage our 35-year history, size and influence to play a much more public role in the DEIJ space. During this time, I personally have worked to increase our presence and commitment in the following ways:
Appointment to be the LGBTQ+ Liaison in the Multnomah County response to COVID-19
Being asked to join the OHSU Key to Oregon Leadership Team to help advise on the state funded COVID-19 Research Study after being among a group of BIPOC Researchers that accused the institution of racial bias in their intended research design
Being among a group of Black leaders and Black led organizations throughout Oregon that successfully launched the Oregon Cares Fund for Black Relief and Resiliency and now sits on the Council of Trust that has helped determine how that $62 million will impact the lives of Black people, Black Businesses, and Black-led nonprofits
Appointment to the Oregon Governor’s Racial Justice Council Health Equity Committee to advocate on behalf of people living with HIV, the LGBTQ+ community, and BIPOC folx.
Joined a group of BIPOC executive directors and CEO’s of nonprofits in Washington State demanding that funders double their support of BIPOC-led organizations
Appointment to the Oregon Governors Healthy Early Learners Council to advise on the impact of COVID-19 on LGBTQ+ and BIPOC young persons, the implications of school closures, and recommendations for reopening safely
As an of the national co-chairs of the AIDS United Public Policy Council (PPC), I am so incredibly proud of the PPC for deepening our commitment to racial justice through the important and urgent work to create the racial justice index. This new initiative will help us examine the HIV sector's commitment to racial equity and empower us all with the resources needed to end the HIV epidemic, starting with our own organization.
Internal Infrastructure, Policies, Systems and Training
In 2020, CAP sought to advance immediate action in deepening individual and organizational action for racial equity and justice through the services and community engagement it provides as well as in its internal organizational relationships and systems. CAP was in the process of hiring a senior Equity staff position that would provide leadership for ongoing Equity work within the organization. While that was in the works, CAP sought support for immediate equity capacity development and application until it was able to bring on out new Equity Staff member.
Capacity Building Partnerships (CBP), in collaboration with a CAP planning team, proposed a group of direct-service staff members, supervisors, managers, and program directors to participate in a series of workshops focused on more deeply understanding issues related to racial justice and application of that understanding in their everyday work as well as in advancing equity in organizational systems.
Cohort Description: The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) Cohort for CAP involved ~40 organizational managers, directors, and direct-service level staff in advancing their DEIJ awareness, understanding, and capacity for action. The intention for this work was to create a self-sustaining ‘Learning Community’ at CAP. Participation was mandatory for directors, managers and team leads, and voluntary for frontline/direct-service providers. However, all members of the Cohort were expected to participate fully in the work of the Cohort and to contribute to the ongoing Learning Community.
This Learning Community will continue to work to support participants DEIJ capacity development and robust application. Cohort elements (see below) were intended to equip participants to advance DEIJ outcomes and contribute to culture change. Participants supported one another to build cohesion and capacity to continue the work long-term. Participants were expected to share what they are learning within their teams to begin to lay the foundation for future DEIJ work in partnership with CAP’s new Equity and Inclusion Advocate. The Cohort Workshops were highly participatory, and dialogue based. Topics were guided by organizational and individual needs and related to advancing racial equity and DEIJ in general.
The goals were to build individual and group-level capacity to:
Apply an antiracist, privilege, power, and eliminating oppression analysis to individual leadership, working relationships, and other organizational dynamics
Understand, identify, and engage across racial and other cultural differences
Engage in and lead difficult conversations
Advance individual racial equity and DEIJ goals and skill/awareness gaps
And step into the unknown with confidence and curiosity
Within the walls of CAP, our DEIJ accomplishments over the last eighteen months have also included:
Diversification of our Board of Directors and Executive Team
A doubling down of our public commitment to being an Anti-racist organization
Creation of a Diversity and Inclusion Advocate at CAP
Creation of a new CAP Equity Fund to support staff driven DEIJ projects or critical DEIJ efforts happening in the communities in which we live and work
Updates to our organizational Racial Equity Statement and Development of a new CAP Equity Plan
Increased transparency and communication around CAP’s work in Black and Brown communities
Review and revision of current policies through an equity lens
Development and rollout of new organizational equity-based policies including plans for a new bias reporting system and response team
Creation of affinity spaces including a space for our non-Black POC staff and the launch of a new DEI subcommittee – discussion and reading group
CAP is only at the beginning of this journey. We are growing as we go, and we know we cannot do this work alone. It is with humility and respect that I continue to take responsibility for our organization’s missteps of the past. As the CEO, I want to validate the experiences that Black folx have had with our organization over time and humbly ask for the community’s help in rebuilding a relationship of mutual trust and respect. So, I’m inviting you to reach out to me with your questions and concerns about CAP’s work in the Black community. In return, I am committed to continuing to show up and lean into these conversations even when they may be uncomfortable.
I look forward to keeping you updated on our progress and hearing from you along the way. Most of all, I look forward to working together to build a stronger organization and community dedicated to enacting racial justice in all of our work.
Tyler TerMeer, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
About Cascade AIDS Project
Founded in 1985 as a grassroots response to the AIDS crisis, Cascade AIDS Project (CAP) is now the oldest and largest HIV-services and LGBTQ+ health provider in Oregon and southwest Washington, with more than 100 employees working across four locations. Our organization seeks to prevents new HIV infections; support low-income people living with HIV; and provide safe, welcoming, and knowledgeable healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community. Through our vital health, housing, and other social services, we help ensure the well-being of more than 15,000 people each year. More information can be found at www.capnw.org.
