CommonBond Equity Working Group

Our roots in social justice guide our work to create equitable outcomes. The CommonBond founding members believed there were barriers to affordable housing created by the inequities that unfairly favor some individuals over others.

Opportunities, resources, and access for members of our communities vary depending on a number of factors such as race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, and so on. Our employee Inclusion Council, now renamed the Equity Working Group, strives to build internal capacity in which we are able to combat the increasingly complex systems that threaten our community’s ability to create equitable outcomes for all.

The CommonBond Inclusion Council engages staff across all levels of the organization and provides leadership around issues of inclusion, diversity, and equity at CommonBond.

We believe furthering diversity, inclusion, and equity is everyone’s job. Our Equity Working Group is a collective effort that complements and supports — and does not replace — individual action and personal responsibility. Our work is focused on the following goals:

• Increase diversity among our staff and governance boards, because CommonBond knows that diverse perspectives and more intimate knowledge of needs make the organization better able to serve our communities.
• Foster a welcoming and positive work environment for staff, because fully engaging the diverse talent pool we attract is important for retention, satisfaction, and effectiveness.
• Nurture self-awareness, cultural competency, and generosity in individuals, because all of us come to work with biases and room for growth.
• Challenge systems with which CommonBond engages that perpetuate racism, classism, and other forms of discrimination, because our mission to create vibrant communities calls for us to influence the environments in which we work.

We place priority on efforts that increase our own effectiveness at establishing and maintaining a welcoming and equitable work environment for all. This is foundational to CommonBond’s ability to be an agent for change in the larger society. To learn more, please email EVP of Talent, Equity, and Culture Karen Law.