Committee Update 2021

On September 4, 2020 the previously named RECAMFT Diversity Committee met via Zoom and discussed group goals. Together we crafted a mission statement:

We stand for racial and social justice in RECAMFT and seek to discover and remedy injustices that arise within our events, programs, and practices. We are committed to doing this through engaging in ongoing education and self-inquiry, and integration of member feedback. We hold ourselves accountable to RECAMFT and our community.

Accordingly, we changed our name to the RECAMFT Racial & Social Justice Committee. We discussed how some committee members experienced the words ‘diversity’ and ‘multicultural’ as finite, inactive, or potentially complicit approaches to addressing traumatic ongoing historical injustices affecting our members, clients, local community and greater world.

We’ve held a number of meetings in which we’ve practiced accountability, kindness and self-regulation while directly engaging in uncomfortable re-examinations of our own and each other’s social lenses, language and behavior. Through open dialogue we created a survey that was open through November 15, 2020 to receive member input on their experiences of our organization and their work with clients regarding racial and social justice topics. 

So far, committee demographics don’t reflect surrounding communities. We have LGBTQ and Jewish members, all of European/Caucasian descent. We have no BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) members, though most RECAMFT members live on unceded Pomo, Miwok, or Wappo indigenous land (https://settlercolonialcityproject.org/Unceded-Land). Per census.gov, Sonoma County is 27% Hispanic/Latinx.

Our committee demographics reflect the ongoing impact of systemic racism. We’ve discussed the complexity of understanding that anti-racism work must be undertaken by those who benefit from systemic racism whether they know it or not. We’re committed to keeping ourselves accountable for our own education and not burdening BIPOC RECAMFT members with having to ‘represent’ or educate others.

With the above understandings, we welcome BIPOC members who want to join our committee and create change in RECAMFT toward racial and social justice for historically and systemically oppressed people.

You can reach the committee by emailing therapy@recamft.org. 

Update Feb. 19, 2022. Our committee voted to change the first sentence of our Racial and Social Justice Pledge to use the word "equity" rather than "equality". We are totally excited about the upcoming roll-out of The Justice Project to all our members! 

Update May 1, 2021. Our committee chairs and the Board of Directors were excited to meet with Mariama Boney, LMSW, CAE, an expert on molding diversity, equity and inclusion into organizations. We've got a road map for our work!