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ISSUE NUMBER 2 / OCTOBER 2021
How does the GCAPP team “get comfortable with being uncomfortable” in regards to conversations and enhancing policies of diversity, equity, and inclusion?
GCAPP recognizes the importance of having a diverse and inclusive staff and governing board that reflects the populations which we serve. We have included a diversity objective in our Impact 2025 Strategic Plan to ensure we are equitable in our hiring process in terms of gender and race.
Further, we have implemented a robust data infrastructure to promote real time strategic learning and continuous quality improvement. To that end, in addition to specifying and measuring our outcomes of interest, we have also begun to design and implement internal reporting systems that will enable us to assess our fidelity to program models and assess the breadth and quality of our services and reach across the diverse communities we serve.
Along those same lines, how are you all navigating the ongoing COVID-19 situation with the Delta variant? What are your methods
social injustice in 2020, and like many organizations, we acted. Because providing critical knowledge and information is the very foundation of our work as a leading youth-serving organization, GCAPP believes an important first step is to facilitate meaningful conversation with the goal to achieve understanding and find common ground. GCAPP is doing its part to elevate the issues and implement strategies that address pertinent issues of inequality:
· We launched a summer series of virtual events for open and honest dialogue on social injustice featuring young people, community leaders, parents, trusted adults, and youth advocates seeking change.
· More than ever, we are amplifying the voices of some of Georgia’s most informed young leaders — our Youth Advisory Council. We are giving them support to lead town halls from their perspective with peers across the state, thus creating opportunities for them to validate their feelings and realities,
· In partnership with U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and Community Health Solutions, we are creating a new narrative for African- American young men in a multi-dimensional project in Clayton County. The Eban Initiative connects trained, male mentors who are adept at building culturally responsive developmental relationships with boys and young men of color in a structured, supportive environment.