Priorities

As we drift through summer and towards the halfway mark of the year, the team is focusing on prioritizing, setting realistic expectations, and of course, finishing the year (and our 3-year Anti-Racism Plan) strong. Let’s jump in.

Our new Change Committee’s original plan was to focus on two of our at-risk goals for the first six months of 2023:

• Goal 5: Expanding our contractor network (formerly named “Develop a protege program”)
• Goal 9: Develop an industry-directed initiative focused on advancing anti-racism within the digital design industry

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The committee has made steady progress towards both of these initiatives. But after analyzing the work that still needs to be done, along with our ongoing initiatives, we have collectively decided to reprioritize and restructure a few goals. To push these goals towards the finish line, the committee has decided to continue prioritizing Goal 5 and Goal 9 through December—with more time, resources, and energy, we believe these can produce tangible, meaningful outcomes.

Our main restructuring lies in Goal 11: Launch virtual coffee listening tour with community leaders to assess needs an opportunities. We are excited to report that we have a lot in the works for this goal—more details to come in our next update! After analyzing our progress on these objectives, we no longer consider these three goals at-risk.

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In addition to our priority initiatives, the committee will be working on our other ongoing goals:

• Goal 2: Offer and require staff participation in at least one anti-racist education or training opportunity per year.
• Goals 3 & 4: Providing pro bono support to Black or Latinx-led organizations.
• Goal 7: Hold regular Whiteboard-wide team hangouts.
• Goal 8: Hold quarterly lunch and learns.
  

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Alongside this reprioritization, we have wrapped up our Q2 book club with a fiction work by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Goal 2), are developing a new pro bono website (Goal 3&4), and have begun sitemapping and outlining our 3-Year Anti-Racism Plan Repository (Goal 9). (Check out last quarter’s blog post to learn more about how this goal has been pivoted to be successful here!)

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The goals that we’ve identified as at risk are:

• Goal 1: Achieve Racial Parity by EOY 2023
• Goal 7: Hold regular Whiteboard-wide team hangouts.
• Goal 8: Hold quarterly lunch and learns.
  

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With natural staffing changes and more limited resources, the committee is continuing to examine our ongoing goals to determine what is in good standing and what is at risk. As we look ahead, we’ve decided to prioritize the initiatives that feel (1) like they could produce the most significant impact and (2) the most feasible for us to finish well. We’re excited to see how this increased focus helps us push these initiatives across the finish line as we continue the work and realign for Quarter 3. Stay tuned!