The California Budget & Policy Center (Budget Center) believes that all people — no matter their race, gender, or zip code — deserve the dignity and support to lead thriving lives in our communities. We work to achieve this vision by advancing policy solutions that promote justice and equity across California, and we know that this work begins with our commitment to fostering a just and equitable organization for our staff and partners.
Justice is the broader result we seek: a California where communities that have long been denied equitable economic and social opportunities can fully participate and thrive. Equity is the tool we use to work toward this vision. By equity, we mean not only fairness in opportunities, access, and outcome, but also creating conditions where people feel included, respected, and able to belong. For us, equity isn’t just how we approach our external work; it’s embedded in our internal structure and systems because our ability to advance justice across California depends on how equitably we operate as an organization.
More specifically, this commitment is a guiding light both in our internal operations and external work, and is organized in the following ways:
To foster an equitable organization, we work to:
- Provide an inclusive, welcoming, supportive, and compassionate environment where everyone feels respected, that they are valued and belong, and that they are making meaningful contributions to the collective work.
- Create and sustain systems that promote equitable recruitment, hiring, and compensation and benefits practices; transparent and attainable career pathways; and meaningful opportunities for shared leadership and professional development.
- Attract, support, and retain staff and a Board of Directors with a diversity of experiences, lived perspectives, and backgrounds, grounded in a shared commitment to equity.
- Center continuous learning and reflection to strengthen our capacity to apply equity and anti-racist practices across our internal work.
To promote justice and equity across California, we work to:
- Expand the reach and depth of our collaboration and partnerships with a diverse array of people and groups, particularly community-based organizations that represent or are led by people directly impacted by the policies we address.
- Build our knowledge and capacity for the work required to be an anti-racist organization, dismantle systemic inequities, and understand the intersections of Californians’ identities.
- Strengthen our equity lens in all aspects of our work.
Understanding that our work toward equity is never finished, we commit to regularly reflecting on how we can better center equity at our organization and in our work.
