United Way is committed to leading the fight for the health, education and financial stability of every person in every community - that means we must fight for equity.
United Ways across michigan are committed to advancing equity in our communities.
In the summer of 2020, United Ways across the country voted to change membership requirements to make our commitment to equity clear. Since then every United Way must:
Develop, maintain, and publicly post an organization position opposing all forms of racism;
Annually, provide racial equity training for all board members and staff; and
Develop and use racial equity as one of the criteria in making community investments.
But that is just the beginning of our work.
Below, we’re spotlighting three local United Way’s in Michigan that are deeply engaged in diversity, equity, and inclusion work, both internally and externally.
In Southeastern Michigan, United Way is advocating to make sure everyone’s voice is heard.
United We Vote
To build a strong, equitable community, we know that everyone must have a voice in their government. Unfortunately, our country and our region have a long and well documented history of disenfranchising people of color politically, first by denying them the right to vote entirely and then later through a system of discriminatory public policies and voter intimidation. That is why the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, advocates to:
Protect universal access to absentee voting
Make registering to vote easier so every person in our community can make their voice heard
Provide polling and election information so all voters can make an informed decision
Ensure voting is safe during COVID-19
Increase voter registration and voter turnout
In Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, United Way is centering racial equity in their work.
Clarifying Our Focus.
United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region has clarified its racial equity focus in the realms of
Funding
Internal practices
Sponsorships
Trainings
Disaster relief
Funding: In 2019, UWBCKR requested funded partner’s provide demographic data of their Executive Directors and program staff, in order to understand inequities in funding decisions, recognizing that Black, Indigenous, and people-of-color (BIPOC)-led organizations tend to be underfunded, if funded at all. Collecting, analyzing and sharing this data annually will begin to support more equitable grantmaking.
Internal Training: UWBCKR partnered with a local organization to conduct an equity climate survey to capture a baseline assessment of how existing culture of the organization supports and/or hinders an equitable and inclusive workplace. From these results, a series of workshops were designed to address key themes including implicit bias and microaggressions, communication, representation, and leadership development. All staff were required to attend these workshops over the course of the following year.
Sponsorship: Financially supporting community events and organizations that center equity.
Disaster Relief: In response to COVID-19, United Way placed an increased emphasis on moving resources to BIPOC-led nonprofits, BIPOC owned businesses and supporting the needs of underdocumented or undocumented populations excluded from CARES Act resources.
In Washtenaw County, United Way is bringing the commitment to their community.
United for Equity.
Over the past five years United Way of Washtenaw County (UWWC) has been on a journey to more fully express our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Below is a “highlights reel” of key actions we’ve taken towards this goal:
Establishment of an Equity Vision and Statement to guide our work
Overhaul of our Vision and Values
Curation of a catalog of publications and resources to build one’s “equity muscle”
Prioritization of racial equity in all grant investments we make.
First United Way in the Country to launch a 21 Day Equity Challenge in 2020
Hosted an Equity Challenge Summit to convene Challenge participants where we collectively shared, reflected and generated action steps to a more equitable Washtenaw
Launched a COVID-19 Edition of the Equity Challenge to make the explicit connection between the disproportionate impact of the virus on Black and Brown communities and systemic racism
Established a Justice Fund (planned launch in winter 2020) through we seek to disrupt the systems that perpetuate racism, poverty and trauma in Washtenaw County.
In our COVID-19 Relief Funding, prioritized people of color-led and smaller organizations in our grant making. Funding awards were inverse to annual organization budget size.
Published a case study sharing our DEI learning journey and progress to date