July 3, 2020
As part of our commitment to being an organization that is leaning-in to implementing industry best practices and in a follow-up to our June 12 communication about the harmful and inappropriate behavior of a past executive director that occurred 2012 and before, we want to share information about next steps WMF will take to continue promoting healing and well-being.
These steps, which build upon policies and practices already instituted in the last several years, include:
- A statement from the current Board of Directors will be posted online to repudiate the inaccuracies of a December 2012 letter written by a former board member at the time.
- WMF will provide a group listening session for past staff and partners who have felt harmed during their time at WMF, so they can provide input on how best to help prevent such events from happening in the future. An independent third-party moderator with expertise in facilitating group feedback will guide this session.
- WMF will retain an independent third-party expert to perform an organizational audit on our existing policies, procedures, and systems for preventing harm, keeping employees safe, and facilitating a healthy work environment. The auditor, who also will be informed by input from the listening session and current employees, will recommend industry best practices.
WMF will provide the public with steps we will take to implement new policies, procedures, and/or practices that the audit shows will be beneficial for increasing organizational health.
- Since the posting of our June 12 communication, WMF has already offered an online time of group listening and conversation for any staff present during the time of past directors and WMF is currently in the process of offering another online group conversation session for all current staff related to past harmful and inappropriate behavior and updating those staff members on all the policies that have been put in place for their protection and well-being since that time.
WMF is committed to listening, learning, and taking action to continue making organizational progress of putting safeguards in place to move forward in a healthy manner for all staff and to being an organization of best practices that provides a system within which all staff can flourish.
Sincerely,
On behalf of Word Made Flesh International and the Word Made Flesh International Board of Directors,
Clint Baldwin
International Executive Director