About Us
A Worker Self Directed Non-Profit led by Queer and Latine/o/a/x individuals
Our Commitments
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To Our Staff
Staff hold key decision making power, keep each other accountable, and are empowered to pursue their own interests in the purview of the mission of Emerging Unidos. Weight is shared within our organization, so when one person is overburdened we will all pick up the extra weight. Staff are key in the functioning of Emerging Unidos. They deserve to be well compensated for their hard work and commitment to our communities. We promise to always empower our staff, ensure their success, and maintain a culture of direct and compassionate communication, personal growth, and acceptance.
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To Our Communities
Community input is at the heart of every program we create. We encourage and welcome loving feedback about the impacts of our behavior on the work and our community from our community and otherwise. In addition, every member of our organization is expected to actively build relationships with people outside our organization that are impacted by our work.
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To the People We Serve
We incorporate the voices of those that we serve into the development of our programming and seek to encourage self empowerment and autonomy by integrating young voices into the decision making of our organization. These voices have the opportunity to work with staff to create, improve, and run programming.
We will ensure that our programming is forever equitable, inclusive, relevant, flexible, and respectful. We hope to uplift and inspire self confidence in every person that we serve.
We feel deeply that Emerging Unidos needs to serve it’s staff just as it’s staff serves our community and participants. We seek to break the mindset of “business as usual” and replace it with that of equity and growth. Change is not something to be feared; it is something to be embraced.
Part of what makes us unique is how we treat and what we offer our staff. Staff are in charge of the paths that Emerging Unidos takes, have immense autonomy, and hold each other accountable. They are valued and respected. They are given equitable pay, benefits, and are encouraged to take care of their mental health first. We offer and require professional development workshops often to not only ensure that our staff are well equipped for any situation, but also to provide them opportunities for growth.
We do away with boards and leadership that are not from or representative of the communities being served. Instead, all of our board, leadership, staff, and mentors are from our communities and have identities that are relatable to the participants we serve.
Our Values
Accountable Solidarity
Our work and our liberation is deeply bound together with many communities. We foster relationships and understandings that will allow us to do our work in a way that uplifts all people. We recognize that this requires taking proactive steps to ensure our activities do not unintentionally reproduce the oppression of the dominant system by excluding the needs of LGBTQQIP2SAA+, women, Latine/o/a/x people, people of color, indigenous people, disabled people, or any other group that is often denied voice in the decisions that impact them. We engage in the ongoing practice of solidarity, and remain open to feedback from all communities we touch.
Radical inclusivity
We are creating a space where all people can belong, regardless of nationality, religion, race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability, or any other dimension of their experience. We acknowledge that we live within and have been conditioned by a system that centers some dimensions of humanity at the expense of others. In order to create a radically inclusive space we must take proactive steps to elevate the people, identities, cultures, energies, and characteristics that our dominant system marginalizes.
Participatory Governance
People involved in and touched by our organization deserve to be a part of the decisions that impact them. Power and decision making structures that involve people with direct experience of issues are not only more supportive of personal sovereignty, but also more effective in achieving goals.
Power With, Not Power Over
We are creating a space where all people can step fully into their power. We support each other to exercise our power in ways that support the power, visions, and development of one another. We interrogate and transform relationships where one person’s empowerment relies on the disempowerment, control, or coercion of another.
The People We Serve
We recognize that the youth and young adults in our community are underserved and underrepresented. We create environments and communities to surround them that are equitable, inclusive, culturally respectful, trauma-informed, and growth-based. Through these environments and communities, we empower each and every individual to create a better future for themselves that continues the legacy of open, compassionate, and powerful minds. We will bring open minds and compassionate ethics to every day spent with the people we serve so as to foster the growth of inclusive thinking, self-expression, and personal empowerment.
Our governance structure and values as a Worker Self Directed Non-Profit have been adapted from the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC). SELC has been an extremely helpful resource and inspiration.
