I wanted to take a moment to pause from business as usual and thank you as a community of people who care deeply about one another and our world. I am sure that many of your hearts are heavy like ours. We have been taking the time to reflect and listen during this time as we take a deeper look at how well we are caring for this community and what we can do better.
BACC acknowledges the longstanding systemic racism that exists in our local communities. We are committed to putting our values into action. Community organizations like ours must take meaningful stock of how well we support and reflect our diverse populations. We are about connections – we bring people together to create community – we are a trusted resource for vital conversations, information, and support.
BACC is pledging to take concrete measures to improve our programming and services in an effort to ensure we have the appropriate diversity, inclusion, and equity practices in place.
To start, we have identified three key areas where meaningful gains can be made:
- We will work with African American leaders at partner organizations to identify an independent agency to assist in reviewing our full programming schedule and organizational cultural competency. Based on these results, as well as qualitative feedback gathered directly from African American clients, we will utilize this information to further shape and develop current and future programming.
- We will create a new outreach initiative under the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Emergency Fund (BOCEF) to increase annual support for African American breast and ovarian cancer survivors by 25%.
- We will re-launch the Bay Area Disparities Coalition (BAD-Co) with full administrative and funding support from BACC, in collaboration with the founding members. The purpose of the coalition is to engage regional nonprofits and local organizations to reduce breast cancer disparities and barriers to care for African American women.
This is important work, and there is much more to come. I welcome your continued partnership and input. As we move forward, please know that we are here for all of you with open hearts. We are committed to doing our part to help build an equal society.
Sincerely,
Rina Bello
Executive Director