Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Mission

Cascadia delivers whole health care – integrated mental health and addiction services, primary care, and housing – to promote hope and support the well-being of the communities we serve.

Vision

We envision a community where everyone benefits from whole health care, experiences well-being, and has a self-directed, connected life.

Values

Accountability: We are responsible to those we serve, our community, and our workforce. We measure results to evaluate effectiveness and improve quality by having clear goals and objectives.

Determination: To achieve our vision, we approach our work with passion and enthusiasm.

Equity: We examine and address the root causes of inequities and continually work to correct and address imbalances.

Innovation: We deliver bold and imaginative solutions to individual, family, and community concerns.

Knowledge: We rely on effective and efficient best practices to achieve positive outcomes and to spark innovation.

Organizational Health: We intentionally create a diverse workplace; a culture of caring about each other allowing us to accomplish our mission in a secure and stable environment where all people thrive.

Respect: We treat others and ourselves with care, and we work to understand the cultural perspectives that we all bring.

Well Being: Our programs build on clients’ and staffs’ unique personal and environmental strengths, and we see ourselves as partners in achieving self-determination and self-fulfilling lives.

Racial Equity Team

We realize that understanding how race and oppression play into the work that we do is very important to Cascadia’s mission and our ability to improve the services we provide. We acknowledge Cascadia is a microcosm of our community and that we experience similar challenges with race and equity.  We are aware that ongoing racism causes chronic and generational trauma that impacts the overall health of the community. We continue to engage in building an informed, diverse organizational staff and culture that enables us to be more effective at serving and supporting our consumers on their journey to wellness; and create a welcoming workplace that is a place where our employees and consumers feel supported and valued.

To assist us in meeting this goal we have implemented a Racial Equity Team (RET) whose mandate is to impact Cascadia culture through The Protocol for Culturally Responsive Organizations.  The work through RET has led to a three-year Racial Equity Plan and leadership involvement throughout our organization.

While we honor a number of identities including gender, geography, religion, race, language, ethnicity, sexual orientation, transgendered identity, family history, beliefs, we also know that there is more silence and discomfort about race, and it has a powerful impact on our worldview, decision-making, and interactions with others.

We believe that by centering on race and why race matters to our work, we encourage Cascadia to move beyond the silence and unconscious effects that it has on how we view ourselves and our clients, assumptions or misinformation we may have, and how it influences our work; and build new, stronger conversations and relationships within the workplace.

We are committed to building a more aware, diverse, and culturally responsive workforce in order to give excellent service to all clients and to build an organizational culture that is supportive and affirming for all staff.

Our Commitment

Cascadia is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of racial equity.  We recognize that Black, African American, Indigenous, People of Color, and other marginalized communities face additional barriers around systematic, individual, and interpersonal racism and social determinants of health.   These factors impact individuals’ ability to access care, receive affordable healthcare, and equitable health outcomes leading to a public health crisis.

We are invested in creating meaningful opportunities to engage employees at all levels of the organization in the work toward racial equity.  Cascadia recognizes that racism, particularly anti-black racism, is a public health crisis.  By focusing on racial equity and anti-racism efforts, we influence both the culture and performance of the organization to meet the needs of our clients and employees.  We commit to being culturally affirming and responsive; to implement recruitment, hiring, and promotional practices that move Cascadia to more closely reflect and represent the communities we serve; to challenge ourselves to address health disparities and remove barriers to whole health care, and to hold ourselves accountable at all levels of leadership in implementing policy and practices put forth in this regard.

We stand against racial injustice with Black, African American, Indigenous, People of Color, and marginalized communities we serve, our staff, and one another. Cascadia acknowledges that incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion into our practices is an ongoing learning process. We also know we do not have all of the answers; and, we are committed to learning and using our voice to make positive change. We recognize that making an impact on racism throughout our community will take a lot more than this statement.

Signed,

Derald Walker, PhD
President & CEO, Cascadia Health