What to Expect During an Equity Committee Meeting 

(Can be read aloud by the meeting facilitator or distributed and give attendees a few minutes to read quietly. Feel free to adlib, particularly if all attendees have heard it before, or there are special circumstances for the committee meeting today.)

Preamble

Equity Committee meetings are convened when there is an occurrence involving racism or other form of discrimination - overt, unintentional, microaggressions, etc.

It is not the purpose of the meeting to assign blame or fault. The primary purposes are learning and support.

More specifically, the purposes of the meetings include:

• To review what happened 

• To identify whether improvements in programming and policies might prevent future occurrences

• To review whether there were any errors or direct causes to the incident

• To provide support for staff who may be experiencing harm or stress due to the event

• To identify others (staff, clients, residents) who may need support

This format for the Equity Committee is modeled on our sentinel event meeting procedure. Some examples of actions resulting from sentinel event meetings include the transitional housing relapse protocol, keeping naloxone at all Dawn Farm sites, and lobbying for 911 Good Samaritan legislation.

This is not just another meeting

In this meeting, we encourage you to talk about your professional reactions and judgements as well as your personal reactions. We encourage you to feel free to participate in this meeting as an addiction professional and as a human being. 

As professional helpers, there’s an expectation that we are immune from perpetuating discrimination (either knowingly or unknowingly) and other harms. These harms can include broken trust and a loss of emotional, social, physical, or moral safety. 

In our lives both inside and outside of work, the expectation that we can encounter suffering and discrimination on a daily basis and not be touched by it is as unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk through water without getting wet. This sort of denial is no small matter. 

Items for discussion

Discussion may include:

• What happened?

• How did we learn what happened?

• What were people’s thoughts and feelings when we learned of the incident?

• Have people’s thoughts and feelings changed since we addressed the incident?

• What can we learn from this event?

• Are there any practices/procedures/policies that should be changed or initiated based on these lessons?

• Who was affected? 

• Is there anyone else who may need support?

• Is there anything that we can/should do for the affected?

• Do affected employees need anything from Dawn Farm?

Closing

• Identify any action items.

• Have a moment of silence.

• Ask if anyone has anything else to say or ask.

• Thank everyone for their time and encourage them to reach out if anything else comes up.