Tag: martin luther king day

As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this month, the Center would like to reiterate our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion with the announcement of our diversity statement, adopted by our Board of Directors:

“The Mind and Spirit Counseling Center is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive community for our clients and employees. We recognize that diversity and inclusion of age, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion and disabilities will enhance our ability to honor our core values of equity, respect, compassion, and creating accessibility to high-quality services for all.”

Beyond a formal statement, the Center also has an active Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee that was formed in the summer of 2020. Soon after the formation, trainings and other goals were set up to help staff, the Center and the community grow, learn and be more inclusive. The committee quickly broadened their goal to include other types of diversity in addition to race.

Doug Detrick, a Licensed Independent Social Worker at the Center, currently heads our DEI Committee. In his own words, he explains why DEI work is important and the action steps the committee has taken so far:

Since the DEI Committee was formed, the Committee and the Center have accomplished a lot, but the work is not finished. As a social worker, I feel naturally drawn to issues involving diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as social and economic justice. I have participated in various ways to promote them. I got into social work due to things I went through in my early life and how they profoundly affected my view on helping others. I just finished putting together a class on Moral Injury and it allowed me to, again, reflect on what I felt growing up as a mixed-race individual in a predominantly white, south side of Des Moines in the 1960s.

I cannot comment on what it was like to grow up in that environment as a person of color, as someone with a physical or mental disability, or as an LGBTQ+ individual as my features are Caucasian, Non-Hispanic. However, looking back, I remember feeling shame and fear about what if someone finds out about me or my family. I remember feeling fear of speaking out if I saw a person being mistreated because of color, disability, sexual orientation, or hearing a racial slur or joke and feeling angry at myself that I did not have the strength to stand up to them or it.

Looking back now, I can see that I suffered moral injury. I have worked hard on myself to heal this wound, but so many others have been grievously injured in this way or more severely with PTSD from everything they have endured throughout their lives.

Part of the work the DEI Committee has done is promoting the staff to read “My Grandmother’s Hands” by Resmaa Menakem, a book about healing racial trauma and healing our society. The book’s self-help exercises and group discussion were extremely therapeutic to me, and I am thankful that it was brought into my life.

I joined the Center at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020. When the group was being formed, I was just getting to know my co-workers through Zoom meetings. I felt a calling to participate in the group to do my part to promote diversity and equity as part of the Center’s mission and felt the caring and commitment from others to make it happen. As the group formed and solidified, we were able to come up with initiatives that we felt were impactful and continue to work in this direction.

Around this time Billie Wade, MS, a volunteer of the Center, started a book club to read and discuss significant books on equity and diversity that some of us participated in and benefited from the readings and discussions.

 During our early meetings we came up with the following initiatives on 9/21/2020:

• Establish a book club and review the books and magazines offered within the Center’s waiting rooms.
• Recognize Juneteenth
• Evaluate our space to explore how we might be more hospitable to diverse cultures
• Increase diversity at all levels: clients, board and staff
• Improve how we obtain demographic data so that we can better understand the diversity of our clients.
• Review handbooks and bylaws. Edit forms, policies and practices that impact DENI
• Offer regular training for board and staff. Continue consultation with Nate Harris to inform our future curriculum for trainings
• Establish a joint committee of board and staff to align objectives with strategy and time-specific improvements in order to embed positive ongoing change in our culture
• Standing agenda items to reflect on how DENI was part of our conversation during meetings
• Diminish geographic limitations of the Center’s Urbandale location
• Make DENI part of current branding study
• Participate in United Way 21-day challenge
• Use the equity tool
• Obtain further trainings from our accrediting agency, the Solihten Institute
• Reserve time for staff to watch the “American Son” together and discuss their reactions
• Promote staff to watch Therapy Wisdom: https://therapywisdom.ontralink.com/c/s/CxU/6Aun/v/vv/6nc/6onSHd/vMHOyedHJs/P/P/6W
• Informational interview within our own networks and bring back the o group for discussion and growth
• Invite Innovative Counseling to discuss each Center’s work
• Include diversity discussion at June staff meeting

Many of the items listed above have been completed or are still a work in progress. I believe the DEI Committee has made positive strides to promote diversity and equity at the Center, but we still have a lot of work to do. The Center’s staff and Board of Directors continue to strive to achieve significant goals through the work of all the caring people involved. Our goal is to find funding to bring in speakers for the Center and the community, such as Resmaa Menakem, author of “My Grandmother’s Hands,” or other noted diversity and equity speakers. We promote and encourage staff, board members and members of the community to bring us ideas on how the Center can improve in areas surrounding diversity and equity.