CATSKILL CENTER STATEMENT ON DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND JUSTICE

The Catskill Center values a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and just Catskills community. Our mission is to foster the environmental, cultural, and economic well-being of the Catskills, and that well-being depends on the richness of ideas that arise from a variety of perspectives and experiences. Our mission compels us to help ensure a diverse, inclusive, equitable, and just community in the Catskills where all people feel they belong, starting with our own organizational culture, operations, and programming. To achieve this, the Catskill Center commits to:

• Proactively recruiting individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds for its staff, board of directors, and volunteers, including varied representation with respect to race, ethnicity, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, creed, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, veteran status, marital status, medical condition, pregnancy, education, socio-economic status, political affiliation, parental status, and other qualities;

• Vigorously and proactively rejecting prejudice and stereotyping wherever it is encountered in the Catskills community, and within our own organization;

• Actively promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in the Catskills community;

• Ensuring that our marketing, messaging, images, programming, advocacy, and other content features and promote the values of DEIJ;

• Examining ourselves and our organizational culture to root out biases and blind spots, to grow our understanding, and to increase inclusion and equity within our own organization; and

• Frequently reassessing how our commitment to DEIJ is progressing, being transparent about that progress, and always striving to do better.

Adopted by the board of directors on September 23, 2023