BOARD of directors STATEMENT ON RACIAL EQUITY
On Monday, June 29, 2020, the Families Together Board of Directors gathered virtually for our monthly meeting. While the meeting was intended to handle the regular business of the organization, the Board also spent significant time discussing the issue of racial justice and equity, nationally and at Families Together. We acknowledged that, while the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis was the immediate catalyst for the awakening of the national conscience, racial injustice is broader and deeper than one event caught on video.
Racial equity for families in North Carolina will be achieved when race and ethnicity no longer predict the outcome of a family’s housing future. As a provider of housing support in Wake County, NC, Families Together commits to identifying and dismantling racial inequities, and to providing equity-based support, so that our most vulnerable families can achieve their full potential.
We affirm that racial equity – an understanding and acknowledgement of the injustices resulting from ongoing white supremacy and racial inequities and a commitment to actions challenging those inequities – is an important component of our organization’s work and will be embedded in our structure, analysis, policy development and advocacy process. We will challenge policies that perpetuate systems of inequities in attaining safe, affordable housing, as we do with all other factors that cause our clients to experience homelessness.
We also know that we are part of a larger network of like-minded organizations and coalitions striving to achieve racial equity for families and individuals experiencing homelessness. It is our intent that other organizations and allies hold us – and us them – accountable to these goals and that we work together to collaboratively address the racial equity issues that most affect families in our community.
We share this statement with the community so that Families Together’s principles and values are clear and unambiguous:
To unequivocally state that racism is evil and an affront to true Christian witness and practice and that racism, as well as the injustice that flows from it, remains a real, present and pernicious problem in our world;
To recognize that the impacts of racism and injustice in our society are disproportionately borne by persons of color, and especially by Black Americans;
To further affirm Families Together’s commitment to justice, diversity and the flourishing of all peoples as persons created equally in the image of God;
To clearly reaffirm that the founding vision for Families Together is to value every member of the community and, when it is clear that particular groups such as Black families are uniquely at risk, to proclaim without equivocation that their lives, their dignity and their intrinsic worth matter to us all.
We recognize the need for ongoing reflection, action, and adaptation as we encounter new perspectives and additional information, always letting our principles guide our actions.
Tim Hiteshew
Board Chair, on behalf of the Board of Directors