A Journey Starts Below One’s Feet

by Bala Cadambi, Equity Team Chair and Board Director

On the path of equity and anti-racism, I am happy to report that SVP Portland is deeply engaged in advancing self-work.  Building on commitment at the Board and staff levels, our Partnership formed an Equity Team (E-Team) and under facilitation by the Center for Equity and Inclusion (CEI) embarked on four afternoons of intact training.  The extended team gained an understanding of racism’s cultural and institutional frameworks, critically reflected on assumptions of white privilege, and enthusiastically dove into media coverage of the socio-political landscape.  We have committed our feet to move on the journey.

The E-Team’s roadmap ahead is to establish an internal partnership culture of shared understanding and to build the muscle for inquiry and application.  Clearly a task of substantial challenge and demanding of much practice.  The aspirational goal is to evolve from doing to becoming, to more deeply integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of our identity, our community engagement models, and venture philanthropy itself.