Our Piece of the Truth

“Everyone has a piece of the truth from where they stand. The more people there are standing in different places, the more of the truth is present.”

These words of Women’s Center founder, Karen Perkins, serve as the perfect foundation for the agency’s Diversity and Inclusion (D & I) Team. “We are better able to improve our capacity to serve well all the people who need our services if we build ways to hear, understand and incorporate people’s different experiences and truths into our culture and ways of working” says CEO, Laura Hilgart. “The creation of the D & I Team was the next step in our effort to be better.”

Created in 2018 and made up of front-line staff, the D & I Team is helping the agency stay at the forefront of cultural awareness by making recommendations on how to effectively implement diversity goals connected to The Center’s 2018 strategic plan. Some of those goals include:

• Hiring and retaining more bilingual program staff and volunteers;
• Ensuring our programs meet the needs of an increasingly diverse community;
• Improving internal and external communications to reflect diverse cultures and be relevant for a diverse audience; and,
• Creating opportunities for The Center to engage in conversations and activities centered on diversity and inclusion.

Race and equity took center stage in our world in 2020, and these tragic incidents of racism brought us face-to-face with the stark reality that deep disparities still exist for many. It reinforced the urgency in which the work of the D & I Team needed to proceed. Racism, violence and hate are detrimental to the physical and mental health of the vulnerable populations we serve, and it is more important than ever to continue to implement new strategies that help us evolve as a more culturally competent agency at all levels.

In the past two years, we’ve realized that work towards diversity, equity and inclusion is a marathon – not a sprint. However, we‘ve made great strides in our efforts, including:

• Adding four bilingual therapists at the agency, three in our Rape Crisis & Victim Services Program and one in our General Counseling Program;
• Adding a Bilingual education specialist targeting Latinx populations in our Violence Prevention & Education Program;
• Targeting rapid employment services to single female heads of household and women of color in the Employment Solutions Program;
• Making a specific, concerted effort to recruit more people of color to the board of directors; and
• Creating internal and external materials that are inclusive and reflect the diversity of the Tarrant County community.

Each piece of the truth brought by each D & I Team member is helping shape a more inclusive agency, one better able to serve an ever changing community. We will continue to be a place of hope for people of all colors, all ethnicities, all genders, all orientations, all ages and all socioeconomic backgrounds.