Fostering a Safer Community
Dear Techtonica Community,
We are honored to help aspiring local women and non-binary folks overcome barriers into tech. However, it’s important to acknowledge we have sometimes made mistakes and we’ve played a part in upholding systems that work against the very people we aim to serve. We’re sorry.
We are extremely serious about doing better for our community. We are working hard so you can feel truly supported — we’re listening, examining our impact, and taking action to foster a safer, more supportive environment, especially for our Black community members. Here’s what we’re doing internally to serve our community better:
- Requiring Techtonica’s white staff members to complete Layla Saad’s Me and White Supremacy workbook to confront how we uphold systemic racism
- Scheduling all-hands meetings with the advisory board, participants, and staff every other month to improve communication and transparency
- Strengthening participant feedback forms (including anonymous forms) and the response discussion process
- Developing a staff feedback and review process that will include inclusion goals, deadlines, check-ins, and consequences
- Reviewing our policies, performance evaluation and communication, partnership accountability, and complaint escalation processes to build community safety
- Updating our website to clarify fiscal sponsorship, our business model and budget, the role of our advisory board, and Techtonica’s program impacts
We are already working on making these improvements and will be sharing updates in our newsletter.
To learn about Techtonica, please see techtonica.org, and if you have any questions, please contact us via our contact form.
Sincerely,
