The United Way of the Brown County Area Board of Directors recognizes diversity, equity, and inclusion as core values that are critical success factors in achieving United Way’s mission and oppose any discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, skin color, nationality, gender, gender identity, language differences, sexual orientation, physical and/or mental disabilities, age, socioeconomic status, work and behavioral styles, parental status, veteran status, and the perspectives of each individual shaped by their nation, culture, and/or experiences. We recognize structural racism/ethnic discrimination and other forms of oppression have contributed to persistent disparities which United Way seeks to dismantle. We understand that these disparities have existed in the past and persist into the present. We acknowledge that these inequities are the result of policies and practices that work to marginalize entire populations of people. We commit to leveraging all our assets (convening, strategic investments, awareness building, advocacy) to create more equitable communities. This is a business imperative required for United Way to grow, thrive, and advance the common good in our communities.
United Way of the Brown County Area Board of Directors, staff and volunteers must reflect all cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups that make up our communities and reject any policies, systems, and institutional practices that allow for discrimination. To value diversity is to respect and appreciate ethnicity, religion, skin color, gender, nationality, language differences, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical, mental, and developmental abilities, age, socioeconomic status, work and behavioral styles, parental status, veteran status, and the perspectives of everyone shaped by their nation, culture, and experiences. To be inclusive is to leverage diversity by bringing together unique individual backgrounds to address the issues facing our communities collectively and more effectively. Equity is achieved when systemic, institutional, and historical barriers based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and other identities are dismantled and no longer predict socioeconomic, education and health outcomes.
It is the United Way of the Brown County Area’s goal to consider these specific areas of diversity equity and inclusion in all our strategies, investments, collaborations, partnerships, and funding requests. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the heart of what is means to live united and advance the common good; to be a diverse, equitable and inclusive system is fundamental to achieving our mission and goals in education, income, health, and community basics.