Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, accessibility & belonging
why this matters
LoveYourBrain envisions a world where everyone affected by TBI can fully access their resilience, connect with a compassionate community, and reach their full potential. Our vision was inspired by our co-Founders’ lived experience with TBI and with caregiving, which revealed that people in the TBI community are often isolated, disempowered, and lack appropriate care and support. Historically, our work has always focused on cultivating belonging and resilience among the TBI community at large. However, we didn’t sufficiently take into account intersectionality -- how aspects of our identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. As an organization and individuals, we continue to learn, and believe our efforts to make meaningful and lasting change are inextricably linked to racial equity and social justice.
The murder of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020, compelled our white-led organization to take greater accountability for the racial inequity embedded in our society, systems, organization, and within ourselves. In the United States, which comprise the majority of our programs and community members, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) face a higher risk of experiencing TBI, greater barriers to accessing and receiving quality healthcare, and worse health outcomes. Race further compounds the TBI experience.
Our organization has and continues to benefit from white supremacy culture, in part due to our majority white founders, staff, and board whose social location gives us greater access to institutional power, safety, and opportunities. And as we recognize this culture, we believe our mission to improve the quality of life of people affected by TBI will be better realized by disrupting racism in all areas of our work, including our programs, fundraising, human resources, and partnerships, and by uplifting BIPOC. We commit to doing this for collective liberation - the liberation of all, including ourselves.
Our commitments
We believe it’s essential to commit to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging (DEIAB) in our work and in our own bodies, minds, and hearts. In doing so, we strive to be in the practice of listening to understand, learning and unlearning, examining the role our power and privilege plays in our work and lives, trust and relationship building, calling each other in when harm is caused, and growing from the mistakes we have already and will continue to make.
Every year, we now establish commitments to galvanize and hold us accountable. Currently, we are working to advance DEIAB primarily through a racial justice lens given the disproportionate impacts of TBI on BIPOC communities. We are also aware of the intersectionality of oppression and commit to simultaneously increasing DEIAB based on aspects of identity including but not limited to disability, gender identity, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and other historically excluded identities.
This statement is a living and ever-evolving document that reflects our ongoing learnings and desire to do better. We welcome feedback as we grow in this work and are deeply appreciative of those who guide us and see us. Any questions or comments, feel free to email info@loveyourbrain.com. A special thanks to those we have been learning from, including Michelle Cassandra Johnson (www.michellecjohnson.com), Tristan Katz (www.katz-creative.com), Jess (JP) Frank, and The Nature Conservancy Washington Nature, whose equity statement inspired ours.
Diversity, defined as human difference.
We will increase representation of BIPOC among our Advisory Team by prioritizing BIPOC candidates with meaningful relationships with LoveYourBrain, as well as among our Program Leaders (paid, contracted positions) by resourcing BIPOC scholarships for our trainings and actively recruiting BIPOC to join our Yoga Teacher Training and Retreat Facilitation teams. We will also elevate and amplify BIPOC stories and experiences within our community on our social media, website, and communications.
Equity, defined as access to power, opportunities, and resources that enable all people to achieve their potential and thrive.
We will resource all full-time staff to be able to participate in our Equity Team, and in relationship with our community, continue to move LoveYourBrain toward a more equitable, anti-racist organization.
Inclusion, defined as an environment that engages multiple perspectives, differing ideas, and individuals from different backgrounds with shared power to collectively define organizational policy and practice and co-create organizational culture (Center for Equity and Inclusion).
We will proactively seek and action feedback from BIPOC communities when making decisions about our programs, including the co-creation of BIPOC affinity spaces, to shape LoveYourBrain culture.
Accessibility, defined as the practice of providing everyone access to opportunities and resources, through systems designed to maximize participation.
We will offer scholarships for BIPOC as needed to LoveYourBrain Trainings and Retreats with tuition costs. We will expand our data collection and research practices to identify and address access barriers to how effectively we are reaching and serving BIPOC communities. Learn more here about our research & data collection practices and our research.
Belonging, defined as the ongoing culture necessary for all people to feel affirmed and welcomed across differences.
We will offer ongoing learning and educational opportunities for staff, contractors, board, partners, and collaborators on how to better create affirming spaces for BIPOC within our community.
Citations and Learnings
Intersectionality: Intersectionality was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw and appeared in a 1989 paper for the University of Chicago Legal Forum, to address the intersection of race and gender, writing: “Because the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism, any analysis that does not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the particular manner in which Black women are subordinated.” The term has been used and expanded more broadly to address how intersecting identities can both be empowering and oppressing.
BIPOC and TBI: While much of the available data and research related to TBI excludes the intersection of race, we reference the CDC’s 2020 report on health disparities and TBI, which identifies Indigenous children and adults have higher rates of TBI-related hospitalizations and deaths than any other racial or ethnic group. BIPOC are also more likely to have poor psychosocial, functional, and employment-related outcomes after sustaining a TBI than non-Hispanic white individuals.
White Supremacy: We have adopted Dismantling Racism Works’ (dRworks) definition of white supremacy which states: “The idea (ideology) that white people and the ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions of white people are superior to BIPOC communities and people and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions. While most people associate white supremacy with extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazis, white supremacy is ever present in our institutional and cultural assumptions that assign value, morality, goodness, and humanity to the white group while casting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color as worthless (worth less), immoral, bad, and inhuman and ‘undeserving.’ Drawing from critical race theory, the term "white supremacy" also refers to a political or socio-economic system where white people enjoy structural advantage and rights that other racial and ethnic groups do not, both at a collective and an individual level.” You can learn more about this and other definitions on dRworks’ website: https://www.dismantlingracism.org/
Social Location: Social location identifies the groups that an individual belongs to because of their place or position in society. This can be defined by factors including gender, race, social class, age, ability, religion, geographic location, sexual orientation, and more.
Institutional Power: Institutional power is defined as the power to exercise control over others and the ability or official authority to decide what is best for others and who will have access to resources. When institutions that govern life and society - education, employment, government, etc. - are controlled by dominant groups, exercised control and authority are more likely to result in institutional racism.
Collective Liberation: Our inspiration for collective liberation comes from the visual artist, activist and academic Lilla Watson and an Aboriginal Rights group in Queensland, Australia, who together developed this quote: “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”