DEIJ Report to the Community

We believe that community is strongest together.

Last year, we updated and published our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice statement. As part of our commitment to this work, we pledge to share our progress on an ongoing basis. The key areas of focus that we identified are:

• Representation: We aim to have a broad representation of people that reflects Seattle and our community partners within our staff, board, and advisory council.
  
  

  We collect and report on demographics across our organization. Current People of Color representation is:

  • Staff – 27%  
  • Board – 43%  
  • Advisory Council – 86% 
• Policies and Systems: Our intention is to identify policies and systems of bias and privilege that cause harm and transform them through hard conversations.
  
  

  In 2023, we started to identify systemic barriers that were making the work of our partners more difficult. Through our close engagement with government agencies we have been able to push for new permitting and booking processes, testing a community driven way to access the shared stages and spaces in our parks.

  We have also done the hard work to prepare to receive federal funding. Our goal is to ensure major generational investments get equitably and quickly distributed in community with the least amount of bureaucratic barriers.

• Education: We aim to educate ourselves and share our learnings with our partners, our community of donors, and our civic partners on ways to be more inclusive and lead from a place of belonging. We commit to investing in tools that advance environmental and social justice.
  
  

  Throughout the course of the last year our staff and board worked with a DEIJ consultant, inclusive of monthly workshops and weekly micro-learnings on topics ranging from microaggressions to empathy and fear.

  The Tree Equity Network, a new program for SPF, strives to educate and create a network of groups for collaborative advocacy and fundraising, specifically in support of those furthest from tree equity.

• Accountability: Through our strategic plan, our workplans, and our annual reporting, we are focused on holding ourselves accountable to our DEIJ commitments.
  
  

  We have structured our workplans to focus on incorporating DEIJ and Belonging into our work streams by:

  • Supporting staff and board in ongoing learning journeys with DEIJ consultant.
  • Maintaining and growing the cadence of diverse voices in our communications and the consultants that we hire.
  • Building new connections to ensure diverse candidates for open staff and board positions.
  • Striving to advocate for anti-racist and pro-equity approaches in all aspects of our work.

We will continue to hold ourselves accountable in the months and years ahead. Stay tuned for our Annual Report with more information.