Why are we, AVANZAR, talking about RACISM?
In October of 2009, our CEO Claudia Ratzlaff and another staff member attended a training called, “Creating an Anti-Racism Organization”, hosted by the New Jersey Coalition for Ending Domestic Violence. After some months passed there was another part of the training in which Claudia, two other staff and myself attended. Being a part of this training forced you to look at yourself and your agency honestly. This affected our CEO and therefore she continued the conversation well after the training. She was very honest in recognizing her privilege, but now facing it, she felt an obligation to do something about it.
So with this new found awareness came the discussion of how we were going to continue to do the work around dismantling racism within the agency. Meetings turned into more meetings which then turned into the decision to make this new journey purposeful. We began to develop ad hocs that would work on different areas of the agency and we took a survey to see where we stood in regards to becoming an anti-racism organization. We looked at our policies & procedures as well as our staffing across the whole agency. It was a grim truth to see, but necessary in order to change and become an agency that not only cared about people safety, but an agency that cared about who you are as an individual. We no longer wanted to provide cookie cutter services so we began to work on us inwardly.
There were many mistakes made throughout the course of these 9 years, but that has never stopped us from doing what was right, which was to keep going. There were modest changes that included making sure that everyone had the proper lighting in their spaces to do their work, as well as placing a water fountain in their area where the majority of our workers were people of color. That might seem small to some, but it was significant to those affected. Larger changes consisted of being genuinely purposeful in our hiring practices, making sure that the people that worked for AVANZAR look like those that we served.
Throughout this process, we developed a production called, “Things I Remember… A Conversation around Racism in the US”. In this production, we talk about our experiences around race and how it has shaped us into the individuals that we are today. What we have found is that through performing this production it has provided the opportunity for open and honest dialogue around issues of racism.
We continue to initiate strides in changing who we are for the betterment of our community. Being inclusive means changing what you have held on to for so long and being comfortable enough to allow it to pass in order to be uncomfortable. In order to reach and expand our customer base, we took a huge leap in changing our name. For over 40 years we were The Women’s Center, which the name alone disregarded men from seeking help for the same services. So we are now known as AVANZAR which translates as moving forward. We want to now be known as the leading Social Justice Agency, striving to change the world one person at a time.