Racial Justice & Equity

The Racial Justice & Equity Committee was formed in the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Its stated goals are to:

• Ensure racial justice and equity in all phases of the disaster cycle (ie. mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery)

• Build racial justice and equity in the NYCVOAD network structure including necessary bylaw amendments, changes to the systems in place, and assessing who is chosen by organizations to represent them in network meetings.

• Advocate for racial justice and equity in NYCVOAD members organizations’ own structures, systems, hiring, and mentoring.

Since forming, among other work, the committee has developed an NYCVOAD Anti-Discrimination Pledge which is a requirement for all NYCVOAD members. It has also collated Racial Equity Resources for NYCVOAD with suggested trainings, events, assessment tools, books, recordings, podcasts and more.

This committee meets monthly on the last Thursday of the month from 9:30-10:30am. To join, please email the committee chair, Reverend Jimmy Terry of TRUST Ministries, to be added to the email distribution list.