This section focuses on institutional transformation by which racist policies, practices and procedures are replaced with those that are Mission based by:

• Identifying internal YWCA systems through which we work to accomplish the Mission
• Identifying external campus systems or community institutions through which we work to accomplish the Mission
• Identifying the current Public Policy Priorities of the YWCA of the U.S.A. that give focus to our advocacy work.

Implementing the One Imperative is an organization development (OD) process that focuses on the association's infrastructure, systems, and resources. While there are many definitions of organizing development, most agree that OD is:

• a planned process
• supported by leadership
• managed collaboratively at all levels
• oriented to change an organization's culture positively and lead to the achievement of goals
• for the long-term
• focused on changing behavior, processes or structures

Racial Justice principles should be incorporated into the strategic planning process of the association. Tangible progress on the association's recommended actions are required corporate responsibilities that are measured according to the YWCA standards. Following approval, staff and/or volunteers can appropriately proceed with implementation steps to bring about change within the YWCA.

The process requires that we assess the key infrastructures that need to be in place to make this effort succeed. It is not enough for people to be nicer to each other; the association needs to "audit" for discriminatory barriers which hinder its ability to proactively move toward the elimination of racism. The following process enables us to begin the organization assessment process.

Analysis & Review The data not only identifies where elements of institutional racism exist but also reveals the areas of opportunity for development of more equitable and just systems. This provides a framework for action.

Plan of Action Based on the analysis and review, it outlines Mission based policies, practices and procedures; determines cost; and establishes Board and staff accountability and timelines for implementation of the policies and an evaluation process.

Board Action Board adoption of action plan; oversight of implementation, support, monitoring and evaluation of the action plan.

In the assessment process, we examine:

At all levels, the YWCA staff should reflect the demographics of the community.

Questions: Does your YWCA have:

• an affirmative action statement, a plan, an assigned staff member with authority and accountability for this work?
• recruitment, retention and promotion strategies?

Association leaders reflect the demographics of the community and are firmly committed to the Mission.

Questions: Does your YWCA have:

• diverse leadership?
• strategies for recruiting under-represented groups?
• a process of systematic orientation about the Mission before nomination and after election to the Board?
• diverse leaders who communicate the Mission as they attend conferences, community meetings and work in coalition with other groups and organizations?
• a Board that tests its strategic planning against Mission principles?

YWCA programs are established and evaluated in accordance with the Mission.

Questions: Does your YWCA:

• test all programs against the Mission?
• link program with public policy issues and advocacy?

The association attracts members who reflect the demographics of its service area and are committed to the Mission.

Questions: Does your YWCA:

• interpret the Mission to the membership?
• recruit members from all sectors of the campus or community?
• utilize a variety of membership payment plans to encourage broader participation?

Campus or community groups supportive of the YWCA's Mission are attracted to and encouraged to use YWCA facilities.

Questions: Does your YWCA have:

• policies limiting rental of YWCA facilities to groups that support the Mission?
• have facilities located where they are reasonably accessible to all members from all sectors of the community?

Financial planning and management of funds support the racial Justice agenda of the association.

Questions: Does your YWCA:

• allocate resources for the planning and implementation of work that supports the association's work in eliminating racism?
• have a policy to contract with diverse and qualified suppliers and vendors who operate with affirmative action policies?
• use its economic power and affirmative action plan to support antiracist and anti-sexist practices with business firms seeking YWCA business?
• notify companies with discriminatory practices and policies and offer to network them with Project Equality? (see Resource Appendix)
• route its buying power to businesses, firms, bankers, suppliers, etc., that are owned by a diverse population?
• have a policy statement on ethical values?
• have a system for monitoring its banking practices?

The YWCA provides translation of the Mission both internally within the association and externally to the larger community.

Questions: Does your YWCA:

• use the Mission throughout the association's communication system
• offering clarification of its meaning?
• have the capability to translate written communications into the language(s) of the community it serves?
• provide appropriate materials to interpret the Mission to members and the entire campus or community?

The YWCA is committed to creating an organizational environment which truly values racial justice, and it is prepared to "walk the talk," not only through workshops, but through vehicles that enable its growth and development. Our diversity challenges us to move in different and unique ways. Each association will have to consider its own particular environment and apply strategies suited to its unique situations.

In some communities, YWCAs have significant racial diversity. In others, the association is predominately European American or white. We urge you to prepare yourselves for examining your infrastructure as the first order of business.

The assessment process will help you to identify the issue of concern and to select volunteers and staff who will develop policy recommendations for the Board's review, consideration and approval.

The YWCA is committed to moving the association and the nation from paternal tokenism toward bold action to eliminate racism. This is done believing firmly that it is more crucial than ever that we forge new ways to support self-determined social change.

In searching out the places where racism exists in this society, we cannot escape facing the reality of the systematic way in which racism in one institution re-enforces racism in another. No one institution can be singled out in our society as the root cause of the problem. All equally share the burden and the responsibility. Indeed, it has been said that racism has been so built into our social structure that such institutions do the discriminating for us. This means even if people of goodwill themselves do nothing that is racist, the racist elements within the system are perpetuated.

The web of racism is a graphic depiction of the phenomenon. The YWCA seeks to mobilize all our resources from across a broad spectrum of community concerns and constituencies to create leverage in local campuses and communities to interrupt the racist linkages in that system. We seek to help and join resources of organizations with a similar sense of urgency to break the web of racism.

The external environment is understood by analyzing social, political and economic forces that have an impact on people and institutions in the community, the nation and the global community. As a member national association of the World YWCA, the YWCA of the U.S.A. upholds racial justice principles for women and their families throughout the world.

Racism occurs in all systems of our society in a mutually reinforcing network or web of racism. In order to understand racism and its impact on organizations, one must study the patterns, practices, policies and structures of major community institutions such as the court system, housing, the school system, health care and employment. The occurrence of inadequate, segregated housing and inferior educational resources in one area will decrease opportunities to secure employment, for example, and underemployment in turn affects access to adequate health care, etc. In this and other ways, racism is a significant external environmental factor of concern to social change and human services organization.

• White women and women of color are caught in the web of racism in particular and various ways - employment, education, welfare, child care, divorce laws and patterns of relating to men
• Groups of women are used against each other to reinforce the web of racism
• Women of diverse backgrounds need opportunities for thoughtful dialogue about their problems and how best to use their collective power for problem solving

• Financial, legal and political resources are meager for women, poor people and people of color involved with the courts
• Women, people of color and people who are poor receive harsher sentences than those received by white people and people who are rich convicted of the same or similar offences
• Women, people of color, poor people and immigrants need referral services to aid them in understanding their rights, yet experience very limited availability of services.
• People need information about and help in dealing with criminal courts, family courts, small claims courts and alternative systems such as mediation centers

• Urban gentrification benefits commercial interests and upper income residents more than the lower income residents it displaces
• White flight to suburbia reduces taxable income which leaves disproportionately fewer municipal services for poorer residents and people of color who remain in the inner city
• Zoning laws originally designed to protect homeowners are used as a discriminatory tool against poor people, people of color, and same gender couples
• Housing segregation along lines of race and class affects the resources available to public schools

• Students of color and poor students are often tracked and discouraged from aspiring for higher education
• Schools in neighborhoods of color and poorer areas receive disproportionately fewer resources than do schools in affluent predominantly white areas

• Life expectancy in some communities of color is comparable to that in some countries in the Southern Hemisphere
• Serious inequities exist in both the production and the distribution of health services
• Critical problems in prenatal and infant care in poor communities and among people of color have long term negative consequences on the health and productivity of the population

• Redistricting can lock people in or out of the political system or power base
• Blatant appeals to racist fears and sentiments are acceptable political campaign tactics

• Media images of poor people and people of color are overwhelmingly associated with accounts of social problems such as crime, educational under achievement, and persistent welfare dependency
• Few people of color are represented among owners of electronic media
• People of color and poor people have disproportionately less access to the information superhighway
• Media images of women convey sexual stereotypes

• U.S. multinational corporations earn profits from workers (most often women) in Southern hemisphere countries whose wages and working conditions are enormously exploitative
• Women in Southern Hemisphere countries as well as women within our own boundaries, are used to test products intended for the U.S. and global markets.

YWCA Public Policy Priorities provide the framework for the National Board of Directors and member associations to respond to the needs of women and girls and to respond to racial as well as gender injustice in their communities. It is this unique framework of answering both through service and advocacy to effect change that will enable us as a national women's movement to thrust our collective power toward the elimination of racism wherever it exists and by any means necessary.

Today, women continue to struggle for the basic necessities of survival, freedom and equity for themselves and their families. They face injustice, marginalization, socio-economic and political oppression heightened by sexual and racial discrimination. The feminization of poverty is perpetuated by a lack of basic education, quality and affordable health care, employment and adequate housing. This is exacerbated by racism in the experiences of women of color.

These realities compel the YWCA to adopt public policy priorities that affirm the fundamental right of women and girls everywhere to live in a healthy global environment, one that is free of oppression and discrimination based on race, sex, color, national origin, age, religion, physical challenge and sexual orientation.

YWCA Public Policy Priorities for 1998 - 2001 are:

1. Comprehensive childcare and dependent care policies that support affordable, accessible, high quality care and include anti-bias and anti-racism standards.
2. Anti-violence policies that eliminate violence in our society that include hate crimes directed at individuals and institutions based on race, gender, national origin, religion, disability and sexual orientation. These policies will identify and support alternatives to violence.
3. Health care policies that promote wellness and provide for access to quality, affordable heath care. Such policies will support ongoing research for women's health concerns, reproductive choice for women and the emotional and physical well being of women and girls.

• A governing principle
• A framework for carrying out work
• A way for a Board to delegate authority and maintain control
• A guide for the staff to solve problems and attain objectives
• A way to insure uniformity and consistency of action throughout the organization
• A way to specify service priorities
• A way to speed up decisions
• A definition of what is to be done and where the effects are to go
• Not a planning or program decision
• A principle plan or course of action
• A principle communicated through a written > policy < statement
• "Policies are broad precepts or principles designed to influence and control future decisions, directions and actions."

• Are broad statements of principles that reflect an organization's philosophical position on a matter and that guide action.
• Policies seldom change.
• Policies may leave room for interpretation and judgment.
• Policies should be written in prescriptive terms (rather than descriptive) in order to communicate the desired behavior.
• (Prescriptive: prescribes as in a rule, direction, or dictate.)
• (Descriptive: describes as in telling or picturing in words.)

• A policy standard is a statement of a rule or constraint that addresses the tolerance or measure of deviation from the standard (i.e. the limit beyond which something is not acceptable).
• Policy standards are specific and are not subject to interpretation.

• A statement that communicates how something is done.
• Procedures are step-by-step instructions for the actions necessary to comply with a policy or standard.
• Procedures may change as long as the change does not violate policy or prevent a standard from being met.
• Procedures are comprehensive.

• Guidelines are suggested rules or statements of how something may be done.
• Guidelines are recommendations, but they may not violate a policy, standard, or procedure.
• Guidelines may enhance the ability to carry out policy, meet standards, or follow procedures.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM - What is problematic about this scenario?

CONFLICT - Cite the passage in the Mission or Compensatory Purpose Doctrine that challenges the problem.

PROPOSED POLICY - Backed by the Mission and/or Compensatory Purpose Doctrine, what kind of policy statement addresses this problem?

ACTION PLAN - This is a commitment to action presented for the Board's review, consideration and approval. (see Action Plan Worksheet)

OBJECTIVE - (must be specific, timely and quantifiable)