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San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
Statement of Commitment for Racial Justice

AUGUST 2021 UPDATE - It has been over a year since SFBBO first published our "Commitment  to Racial Justice” (please see original "Commitment" below) and our team has made progress on supporting equitable engagement in conservation and decision making. We formed an IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) committee, which is developing strategies for promoting equity and inclusion in all forms of diversity as well as monitoring our progress towards our goals, and it will be adding language to our original statement on racial justice to more broadly address our commitment to equity and inclusion.

Below is an update about the actions our team has taken to follow through on each of our original commitments:

• Re-examine our mission, vision, and strategic plan to look for additional places where we can make commitments to inclusivity and anti-racism
  • Our IDEA committee is reviewing our mission, vision and values. The strategic plan will be reviewed in the near future and guided by our incoming Executive Director.
• Listen to and get feedback from nature- and outdoor-oriented organizations that serve minority communities, especially Black birders, and partner with them to develop programs that can help make our activities feel safe and inclusive for these communities
  • We have been researching additional organizations that serve BIPOC communities to explore forming partnerships and welcome any suggestions.
  • We have partnered with the SF Bay Area chapter of Latino Outdoors for public programs and our staff have participated in panels and talks focusing on BIPOC experiences.
  • We have followed Black or BIPOC identifying nature or science focused social media accounts and shared their content from our social media accounts.
• Ask our Board to commit to increasing its diversity and representation
  • The Board has increased its diversity and representation and there is at least one active board member working with our IDEA committee to review changes at the board level.
• Reach out to our volunteers and gather their ideas and feedback about ways to create a more diverse and inclusive community
  • Our staff is developing a new volunteer survey which will include these questions.
• Work with our funders to ensure that full-time internships are offered at minimum wage to expand the pool of applicants to those who may be unable to take low wage or unpaid internships due to economic disadvantages
  • We have increased wages for our most junior staff. We also, with the support of a donor, were able to pay our Colonial Waterbird Volunteer. Due to the pandemic, we have scaled back on our full-time internship program for the moment.
• Offer free SFBBO memberships to students to reduce barriers to participation in our community science volunteer programs
  • We have removed the membership requirement for students who want to volunteer with us.
  • We have adopted a “donate what you can” approach to membership, in an effort to lower any barriers to join our organization.
• Engage in difficult conversations with partners in the conservation science community and explicitly ask them to commit to increasing access and representation at their events
  • We have spoken to the Peninsula Open Space Trust about ways to increase participation in outdoor stewardship
• Ensure that Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color have access to our staff, donor, volunteer, and environmental education opportunities by intentionally recruiting and advertising in spaces that are more visible to underrepresented groups and offering more activities at locations that are accessible by public transportation
  • We have awarded 40 scholarships to students from underrepresented minorities in ecology fields to attend SFBBO workshops thanks to the support of donors; their stories are available on our Wingbeat Blog.
  • We partnered with Marshmallow Minds to create bird-focused curriculum and hands-on science activities, and we have primarily worked with classes from Title I schools which are composed primarily of low-income BIPOC students.
  • Most of our activities were free and virtual in the past year, which increased our ability to serve marginalized groups.
  • We posted our Executive Director opening announcement to an LGBTQ jobs listserv and to the Sobrato Foundation job site (which is accessed by many organizations that serve underrepresented groups). We also sent the job posting to the Hispanic Foundation and the African American Community Services.
  • We adopted a blind review process to review internship and job applications by removing names and any other identifying information.
• Offer to partner with more groups that serve Black, Indigenous, or other People of Color, and share resources with and from Black birders and other birders from minority backgrounds
  • We reached out to organizations serving Black and Latinx communities to share resources such as our workshop scholarships and employment opportunities.
  • We also shared opportunities offered by these organizations on our social media, such as Black Birders Week and the Black & Latinx Birders Fund.
  • We partnered with the SF Bay Area chapter of Latino Outdoors for public programs and our staff have participated in panels and talks focusing on BIPOC experiences.
  • We shared our job postings with the Ecological Society of America’s Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability program.
• Seek out quotes from local Black-owned businesses for consideration for special events and gatherings (such as facilities, catering, etc.) as well as for other services sometimes required by the organization​
  • We are currently seeking out catering quotes from Black-owned businesses for our Annual Meeting.

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AUGUST 2020 COMMITMENT - The events of recent weeks have shone a spotlight on how racism in this country has limited the ability of People of Color, especially Black Americans, to be safe and free of violence and discrimination in our communities, including their ability to enjoy the right to safely access the outdoors and the benefits of being in nature.  
 
We at the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory believe that Black lives matter, and we unequivocally reject racist sentiments, behaviors, and systems that undermine the humanity, rights, and freedoms of marginalized groups. Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color have long been actively ignored or silenced by many people and institutions in the scientific and conservation communities. 
 
SFBBO commits to supporting more equitable engagement and decision-making in conservation. We believe that we can only achieve our mission of conserving birds and their habitats with the support, participation, and leadership of all communities.
 
While we have enacted many programs with the purpose of increasing diversity in conservation and the sciences, we know that we can be more purposeful in practicing anti-racism and do more to support and amplify the voices of marginalized communities.

With that goal in mind, we are making a commitment to take the following steps in the next 12 months: 

• Re-examine our mission, vision, and strategic plan to look for additional places where we can make commitments to inclusivity and anti-racism
• Listen to and get feedback from nature- and outdoor-oriented organizations that serve minority communities, especially Black birders, and partner with them to develop programs that can help make our activities feel safe and inclusive for these communities
• Ask our board to commit to increasing its diversity and representation 
• Reach out to our volunteers and gather their ideas and feedback about ways to create a more diverse and inclusive community
• Work with our funders to ensure that full-time internships are offered at minimum wage to expand the pool of applicants to those who may be unable to take low wage or unpaid internships due to economic disadvantages
• Offer free SFBBO memberships to students to reduce barriers to participation in our community science volunteer programs
• Engage in difficult conversations with partners in the conservation science community and explicitly ask them to commit to increasing access and representation at their events 
• Ensure that Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color have access to our staff, donor, volunteer, and environmental education opportunities by intentionally recruiting and advertising in spaces that are more visible to underrepresented groups and offering more activities at locations that are accessible by public transportation
• Offer to partner with more groups that serve Black, Indigenous, or other People of Color, and share resources with and from Black birders and other birders from minority backgrounds
• Seek out quotes from local Black-owned businesses for consideration for special events and gatherings (such as facilities, catering, etc.) as well as for other services sometimes required by the organization​

We ask that you, as our community, join us in these efforts and commit to
​opposing structural racism and to being agents of positive change. Please contact [email protected] with questions.

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