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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 9, No. 1
Publication Date: January 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/assrj.91.11552. Curry-Stevens, A. (2022). What Matters: Achieving Racial Equity in a Human Service Non-Profit Organization. Advances in Social
Sciences Research Journal, 9(1). 307-338.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
What Matters: Achieving Racial Equity in a Human Service Non- Profit Organization
Dr. Ann Curry-Stevens
Professor, Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University
120 Duke Street West, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, N2H 3W8
ABSTRACT
Few research studies exist on the efforts and outcomes undertaken by non-profits
aiming to integrate racial equity into their organization. This article, through case
study research, identifies how Metropolitan Family Service (in Portland, Oregon)
has make seven key gains over the last decade: staff diversification, cultural shift in
the organization, board development, data systems that support disaggregation,
meaningful community partnerships, high client satisfaction, and most important,
more equitable service outcomes. In additional to sharing details on these gains,
this article identifies the features of how this organization believes that it has
actualized these outcomes: through a range of cultural features that support racial
equity, and through a counselling model that centers cultural respect and support.
Both are shared in this article. The article concludes with a synthesis of advice for
the non-profit field.
Keywords: Racial equity, cultural responsiveness, case study, Delphi, anti-racism,
organizational change, client satisfaction
INTRODUCTION
The need for racial equity is pronounced. Racial inequities are rampant in the USA, as will be
profiled below, with the consequences including statistically based shorter lifespans,
compromised health, lower education levels, and reduced levels of wealth and income. People
of color are over-involved with punitive systems such as criminal and juvenile justice, school
discipline and child welfare, and under-involved with affirming systems such as higher
education, executive-level jobs and political office. The tools to advance equity are either
ineffective or under-reported, with relatively few instances of positive outcomes being
demonstrated across the nation. This article reviews these literatures, identifying what is
known about comprehensive organizational change where racial equity and cultural
responsiveness are improved, and the core ingredients becoming recognized as beneficial for
the outcomes of racialized clients. With this context established, the research study that forms
the base for this article and its results are shared. The study engages deeply with the change
efforts undertaken in one large human service organization, Metropolitan Family Service
(MFS), located in Portland, Oregon. Most importantly, three innovations surfaced by this
organization may prove valuable more broadly: MFS has developed what it believes are core
indicators of a culturally responsive organization, and the details of a cross-cultural counseling
model that it believes are relevant and responsive to serving clients of diverse racial
backgrounds. Third, the importance of the CEO’s embrace of cultural affirmation as a central
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 9, Issue 1, January-2022
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feature of inclusion of marginalized communities is highlighted by this research. At the close of
the article, the relevance of these actions for other human service organizations is considered.
The field that is becoming known as that of “racial equity” or “anti-racist organizational change”
holds an interesting configuration of knowledges about how organizations can address racial
disparities in outcomes for both staff and clients of color. The prevalence of racial disparities is
significant: major sectors such as child welfare, juvenile and adult justice, education, and
employment have been detailing inequities for more than a generation. As these problems have
become known, the field of racial disparities has emerged with some key challengers: Bell &
Ridolfi (2008) critique the disparity field’s “adoration of the question” (and their chastising of
excessive focus on the problem), and Shaw-Ridley & Ridley (2010) identify the ethical violation
for creating the field as a billion-dollar industry with few benefits received by clients and
communities (Shaw-Ridley & Ridley, 2010). Practitioners, policy makers and researchers are
beginning to see evidence consolidate and promising practices to emerge. This research base is
most fully articulated within public sector (such as education, higher education, child welfare,
justice and hospital-based care) and much less understood in the non-profit arena where
resources are tight. The literature also outlines the broad strokes of change efforts (such as the
importance of a data system that identifies disparities) and deeper dives into specific change
efforts such as making a diabetes program more culturally responsive. The literature remains
thin with organizational-level change efforts, and particularly among non-profits.
This work is important: much research identifies the damages of racial disparities in terms of
longevity, health, chronic disease, homelessness, experiences of violence, and diminished
quality of life. In a positive system (such as education), students of color face barriers from
penetrating the system adequately enough to receive its full benefits. In a negative system (such
as child welfare), children and families of color are overinvolved and their lives more damaged
by this involvement. Even harms from the less intensive experiences of microaggressions have
consequences that include “stress, anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, insomnia,
substance abuse, eating disorders, social withdrawal, suicidal ideation, and post-traumatic
stress disorder” (p.8, Friedlaender, 2018). Whether influencing the wellbeing of staff of color in
the organization or clients of color served by the organization, the consequences of racial
inequities influence a broad set of life experiences: employment and quality of work life, ability
to access services in an organization, the results of those services, and the ripple effects of
services to families and to the wider community. In short, racial inequity narrows life
opportunities and results, and services that remain culturally unresponsive to the needs of
service users are going to narrow the benefits of organizational services.
Definitions are likely helpful moving forward. Racial disparities refer to the differences yielded
by a system that generates uneven outcomes depending on one’s race. Racial inequities exist
when those differences are “systemic, avoidable, unfair and unjust” (p. 14, Hofrichter, 2010,
cited by Balajee, 2012). Racial equity, therefore, is a goal that aims to end the connection (in a
statistical sense) between racial identity and one’s life chances, or “when one’s identity cannot
predict the outcome” (p.1, Office of Equity and Human Rights, City of Portland, n.d.). When we
discuss race, and racialized communities, we focus on the four communities of color recognized
by the Census Bureau (Latino, African American, Indigenous, and Asian and Pacific Islander).
Added in the local context of Portland (Oregon) is the Slavic community who are from the
former Soviet Union and who arrived in large numbers as religious refugees following its
collapse. Their status in Oregon is largely that of a newcomer group that faces considerable
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Curry-Stevens, A. (2022). What Matters: Achieving Racial Equity in a Human Service Non-Profit Organization. Advances in Social Sciences Research
Journal, 9(1). 307-338.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.91.11552
marginalization on the basis of dominant ideologies as socialist and criminal, labor exploitation
and language marginalization. They face considerable challenges gaining economic standing
and stability (Curry-Stevens & Coalition of Communities of Color, 2014).
When these terms are applied in organizations, two dimensions are important: that of racial
equity and that of cultural responsiveness. The processes of developing racial equity in
organizations are those that identify disparities and inequities, and reconstructs organizational
policies, practices and discourses in ways that are equitable. It is fundamentally about
rebalancing power towards racial equity, and the concept is typically aligned with anti-racism.
Cultural responsiveness (or the now-outdated term, cultural competence) centers the ability of
both staff and the services themselves to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. Elements
of this capacity include “valuing diversity, having the capacity for cultural self-assessment,
being conscious of the dynamics inherent when cultures interact, having institutionalized
cultural knowledge, and having developed adaptations to service delivery reflecting an
understanding of cultural diversity” (adapted from Cross, Bazron, Dennis & Isaacs, 1989, by
Curry-Stevens et al, p.139, 2010). In essence, cultural responsiveness centers culture, and in
comparison, racial equity centers power. Although the two are linked, the processes of change
in each are quite distinct.
Locally, racial equity is a dynamic issue. Oregon is in the middle of a major movement towards
racial equity, led by Portland and surrounding areas, which have been activated by the Coalition
of Community of Color’s research (Curry-Stevens et al, 2010) and advocacy work identifying
racial disparities and identifying pathways and partnerships with promising options for
advancing equity. The region has been self-defined as “progressive” and these research reports
have unsettled this perception. Significant awareness-building has occurred over the last eight
years, along with the development of resources to assist with the task and heightened
accountability expectations from funders. In response, there is a large spectrum of human
service, education, health, and environmental organizations engaged in racial equity
assessments and action planning.
While this is the “good news” dimension of this movement, remember it is founded on racial
inequities and disparities. These research reports (among them, Curry-Stevens et al, 2010;
Urban League of Portland, 2009; Coalition of Communities of Color, 2018) detail profound
inequities in the region. These reports detail racial inequities in 28 different systems and
institutions, and numerous measures within each. They range from incomes and education to
police stops, child welfare apprehensions, and mortality rates. Roughly, communities of color
typically have incomes half of those of whites, poverty rates range to triply worse, and outcomes
across systems that widely range, with none being negligible. In an effort to focus the work on
one measure, the Coalition of Communities of Color established a “whiteness premium” that
averaged disparities across eleven systems, and found the benefit of being white was to have a
64.5% advantage over communities of color (p.117-118, Curry-Stevens et al, 2010).
The consequence of this research and its associated advocacy efforts has been to place racial
equity firmly into the consciousness and practices in the region. Uptake is significant among
elected leaders, institutions and foundations, with surging efforts to include racial equity in
public policy, institutional policy and practice, and grant accountability practices. It is in this
wider context that the organization at the center of this research, Metropolitan Family Service