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Multicultural Advisory Committee rolls up their sleeves

FERNDALE –
An eclectic group of people have come together to form the Multicultural Advisory Committee at Affirmations – and it has to be, to complete the work they've set out to accomplish. The goal is enormous – to create a set of best practices for multicultural service provision at area LGBT organizations that includes benchmarks for human resources, programs and services, marketing and outreach, collaboration, and resource development.
Walter Washington is committed to making it happen. Washington, the Capacity Building assistance manager at Community Health Outreach Workers in Detroit, is one of the many MAC members who has set aside two nights a month to determine just how it is going to happen.
"We're at the initial stages of the project. Before getting started, we felt it was important to know and trust each other and work hard at building that trust," he said. "Last month, we brought the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion in for a four-hour intensive training that helped us identify the biases we bring to the table and how to focus on the work of identifying how agency staff and management actions may be perceived as discriminatory. Now we're ready to roll up our sleeves and get down to business of building for the future."
Tysha Rodriguez is equally invested in moving the standards forward. In her role as office manager at Affirmations, she is in a unique position to see the reality of the day-to-day and know what needs to happen to make positive change.
"I think Affirmations is in a prime position to be the very best it can be when comes to meeting the needs and interests of a very culturally diverse LGBT community," said Rodriguez. "The work ahead of us is truly exciting and something I deeply believe in."
The Multicultural Advisory Committee meets twice monthly at Affirmations and includes Michelle Anderson, Tamara Halliburton, Torii Hamilton, Zip Johnson, Reynaldo Magdelano, Bashar Makhay, Juan Perez, Tysha Rodriguez, Steph Turner, Michelle Walters and Walter Washington. They are seeking additional input from community members – through participation on the MAC itself and/or in focus groups. Interested individuals should call Affirmations at 248-398-7105 and ask for Kathleen LaTosch.

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