Our Commitment

IDHA takes the work of collective liberation very seriously. We recognize the connections between oppressions along the lines of race, gender, class, sexuality, ability and nationality, and how they affect individual and collective experiences of mental health. These connections must be unraveled and understood in order for full healing to occur.

We are dedicated to growing into a vibrant, explicitly anti-racist organization that fosters liberation for everyone. It's extremely important to us that these ideas exist not only within our values, but also within our actions.

In 2019, IDHA initiated an ongoing, internal anti-oppression process with the support of consultant Angelica Otero. During our first meeting, IDHA organizers drafted a 1-year strategy and work plan to implement our values of equity and undoing racism across programs, leadership and operations, and culture and membership. The strategy is updated on an annual basis to reflect our renewed commitments and priorities.

This is an ongoing process, and we are fiercely committed to all of the learning and un-learning that it entails.

Programs

• Offer public programs with a focus on combating various forms of oppression, with an increasingly intersectional analysis

• Offer at least 25 scholarships (full and partial options) to each live training series, and develop an updated tiered pricing structure for all programs with solidarity assessments

• Ensure more than half of all faculty and event facilitators are people of color and representative of other historically marginalized communities, including the forthcoming Transformative Mental Health Core Curriculum

• Partner with QTBIPOC organizations on at least one co-hosted training, event, or panel, and continue to amplify relevant offerings within our wider ecosystem

Leadership

• Develop and uplift diverse leadership in all parts of IDHA, including staff, Board, committees, and membership at large

• Train staff in advanced conflict analysis and facilitation skills that support the creation of safe(r) spaces throughout IDHA

• Host a two-part anti-racism training open to members, staff, and Board

Operations and
Access

• Equip all IDHA events with ASL interpretation and captioning, responsive to access needs submitted by registrants

• Integrate a harm response process into all programs, whereby folks can report harm that is directly tied to IDHA that they would like our team to address

• Continue to fundraise specifically for scholarships and access support

• Conduct an audit of IDHA’s website and social media presence for overall accessibility

Culture and
Membership

• Operationalize affinity groups as spaces where members from similar racial backgrounds can share their experiences, feelings, and struggles in grappling with systemic, interpersonal, and internalized racism as it relates to mental health

• Create a conflict toolkit and resource for IDHA members to further develop a culture of seeing conflict as generative

Programs

• All of our trainings, events, and movement-building panel conversations integrated a cross-cutting, intersectional, anti-oppression lens

• We offered 48 scholarships to our Cultivating Community series (spring 2022), and 31 scholarships to our Crossroads of Crisis series (fall 2022-spring 2023)

• More than half of the faculty who taught with us in 2022 identify as people of color, bringing a wealth of knowledge informed by their identities and experiences

• We deepened partnerships with existing QTBIPOC-led organizations, and nurtured relationships with new groups, including through boosting relevant offerings via IDHA’s movement calendar

Leadership

• We developed more diverse leadership on IDHA’s staff team (hiring a Program Coordinator and Membership & Community Engagement Associate), as well as within organizing committees

• Our Director and Board Chair participated in a Harm Systems Design Retreat facilitated by TJ collective Spring Up

• We continued to develop, on an ongoing basis, an organizational accountability policy that bridges transformative justice values with the realities of being a non-profit organization

• During our staff and Board retreat, we mapped IDHA’s progress on the continuum of becoming a multicultural, anti-racist organization, which informed 2023 commitments

• We developed a plan for a two-part anti-racism training for IDHA’s membership community

Operations and
Access

• We made the use of image descriptions across social media channels more consistent

• We streamlined the inclusion access needs upon RSVP/registration for all IDHA spaces, including membership gatherings

• We hired consultants and contractors (e.g. for graphic design, video editing) who hold historically marginalized identities

• We launched the Equalizing Access Giving Circle, a fundraising vehicle that calls in members of our community to help fund scholarships and subsidize memberships

Culture and
Membership

• We engaged in “power mapping” exercises within IDHA committees, and created intentional opportunities to reflect on how identity and power shape group organizing, and build intimacy among members

• We developed a plan to operationalize affinity groups within IDHA membership in 2023

• We hosted a live training, Holding Difference, that introduced TJ basics, and adapted it into a self-paced format

Programs

• Integrate a lens of mental health and systems of oppression across all programmatic offerings

• Offer at least 25 scholarship positions each training semester

• Ensure a majority of our faculty are POC each semester, uplifting a diversity of knowledge and wisdom from communities most impacted by the mental health system

• Nurture and deepen partnerships with select queer and POC-led organizations through participation in partner networks, boosting their offerings, and co-hosting events

Leadership

• Further develop POC leadership on IDHA’s staff

• Leadership to participate in organizational accountability/harms system design training

• Finalize a transformative justice/organizational accountability policy

• Host annual anti-racism training for our wider community, building on a foundation laid in previous years

• Map IDHA’s progress on the continuum of becoming a multicultural, anti-racist organization, identifying 2023 commitments

Operations and
Access

• Further streamline the use of image descriptions on social media posts, and access needs in meetings

• Prioritize partnering with consultants and contractors with historically marginalized identities

• Launch a community fundraising campaign with a focus on wealth redistribution to fund scholarships and access support

Culture and
Membership

• Facilitate “power mapping” exercises within IDHA membership and working groups to build intimacy, reflect on group dynamics, and help build “safer” spaces

• Host affinity groups as spaces for members to reflect on identity and privilege

• Provide training or resources for IDHA members on TJ basics

Programs

• We deepened relationships with queer and POC-led organizations, organizations working in the decarceral and anti-oppression space, and organizations based outside the Global North

• We gave away 47 scholarships to our spring and fall training series

• All program offerings had an explicit or cross-cutting focus on the intersections of mental health and systems of oppression

• We continued the Decarcerating Care series with 2 more installments, foregrounding the voices of individuals with lived experience at the intersections of anti-racism and de-institutionalization

• More than 70% of our faculty were POC

Leadership and
Operations

• We developed POC leadership within IDHA membership and working groups

• IDHA staff, board, and core organizers underwent a 2-part anti-racist training

• We hosted Sins Invalid for a 2-part Disability Justice training with our staff, board, and core organizers

• We offered ASL + CART for all live training series, and systematized using visual descriptions for all facilitators

• We foregrounded accessibility in fundraising efforts, receiving a grant that helped support access costs

Culture and
Membership

• We began to build out a plan for IDHA member affinity groups

• We hosted a “tech pop-up skill share” for members to help bridge tech divides in our community

• We sent out surveys to the membership to surface challenges and learnings with our membership platforms and processes, adjusting to increase accessibility

Programs

• Ensure at least 50% of our trainings and events have a discrete focus on anti-oppression and anti-racism

• Ensure 50% or more of faculty are POC each semester

• Continue to forge partnerships with queer and POC organizations

Leadership and
operations

• Develop and support POC leadership within IDHA

• Double down on our commitment to accessibility, expanding ASL + CART in trainings and events, and updating our website's accessibility

• Staff and core organizers will participate in Disability Justice training

• Center anti-oppression and accessibility as key fundraising priorities

Culture and
membership

• Create spaces for IDHA members to reflect on identity and privilege

• Address technology divides within our community through pop-up training and resources

• Strengthen and iterate upon membership processes to ensure they are working for everyone

Programs

• We began to forge relationships with queer and POC-led organizations

• We broadened our scholarship process to enable more accessible applications methods

• 4 out of 6 of our trainings explicitly addressed the intersections of mental health, systems of oppression, and anti-racism

• We organized 2 panel events that foregrounded the voices of individuals with lived experience at the intersections of anti-racism, the criminal justice system, and de-institutionalization

• More than 50% of our faculty were POC

Leadership and
operations

• We committed to annual anti-racist training for IDHA staff and Board

• IDHA staff and core organizers underwent a 3-part anti-racist training in the summer

• IDHA leadership are receiving ongoing anti-racist supervision from an expert trainer

• We began offering ASL interpretation and closed captions for our public programs

Culture and
membership

• We built out an inclusive membership process to provide spaces for new voices