On Jan. 17, 2022, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, all of us had the opportunity to have a day of rest and reflection from work and the opportunity to honor this civil rights leader. The DCBS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council honors the life and legacy of Dr. King and asks all DCBS employee to continue demonstrating their commitment to justice and equality. Martin Luther King, Jr. day is a federal holiday in the United States. The standardized date for celebrating the day is the third Monday of January each year, which usually falls close to King’s actual birthday of Jan. 15.
While we all look at the new year seeking for answers to the events of the past years and how we got there. These events have marked our country and intensively affected our communities of color. We cannot stand on the sidelines and continue to let the past be the norm and to increasingly recognize that diversity, inclusion, and anti-oppression lead to belonging for individuals and equity for all is not enough.
We need to come to action and understand that an all inclusive DEI initiative must come from a place where everyone is really given a fair opportunity to succeed, moving from compliance DEI to one that effectively disrupts the existing systems of limited opportunities for those underserved and underrepresented in our process of hiring, development, and promotion among all levels, including leadership.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has become one of the most popular workplace topics. We see this in the latest request from the Governor’s Office to all agencies to establish new DEI-related leadership roles, such as diversity officers, managers, or coordinators of DEI to plan and lead organizationwide initiatives. With all these new initiatives moving forward and taking a look at DCBS to be the at head of this changes. I believe the best place to start is for “Workforce Diversity and Inclusive Workplace: Promote public service through the recruitment, hiring, and retention of diverse staff to fully represent Oregon, and provide an inclusive working environment in which all can thrive professionally.” – State of Oregon Equity Framework.
State agencies need people with the ability to adapt to different situations and circumstances. And, perhaps due to various circumstances and life experience, people of underserved and underrepresented communities surely have these attributes.
For this new year, it is very important that DCBS DEI initiatives continue to be on everyone’s forefront.
As part of the enterprise, with your involvement in collaboration with the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, we held facilitated sessions for inclusive conversations, developed multiple levels of diversity training through the years, engaged in hybrid events before this became part of the norm, and engaged in conversations with community partners.
Now and in the future, we must continue DCBS DEI initiatives beyond our walls toward applicants and our underserved and underrepresented communities. Regardless of whether you are early on your DEI learning journey, or you consider yourself culturally competent, we all have something to learn from one another. In our approach “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin.