What inclusion means to us
Hello fellow choicers,
We wanted to share with you what inclusion means to our team. At CIHC, we are committed to providing high-quality care and advocacy to all clients that is equitable, accessible, and outspoken. We acknowledge that there are inherent oppressions placed onto and embodied within the day-to-day living of folks in marginalized communities. As an organization in the healthcare system, we play a historical and ongoing role in these oppressions. As we strive to identify our powers and privileges, we at CIHC are working with our clinic team, our clients, and partners to transform privileges into opportunities for sexual and reproductive justice.
We recognize the difference between equality and equity as we endeavour to advance health equity in abortion services. We are committed to deepening our understanding of how racism, ableism, classism, colonialism, homophobia and transphobia, and other oppressions continually impact our world, especially for First Nations, Metis, Inuit and racialized peoples. As a team we are working towards providing culturally competent, and trauma-informed care. In workshops throughout the year, and our monthly staff meetings, we create accountability by centering discussions on power, privilege and trauma as they apply to our space. Our team members are reflective, and our effort in recognizing privilege and creating allyship continues daily. We further this work by building relationships with other organizations, and fostering community-wide goals.
We honour our legacy as a clinic that emerged from the women’s right movement, and we are proudly sex-positive, pro-choice, youth-positive, and LGBT2SQIA+ positive. We know that identities are self-defined, fluid, and intersectional. To achieve health equity, we believe it is important to have our employment practices reflect these values and we are striving to create a diverse team and work space that honours the communities we serve. We actively encourage applicants historically excluded from abortion spaces to apply for paid and volunteer positions with CIHC.
We understand that equity and inclusion are not a destination, but a process of continual reflection, learning, changing, and reflecting once again. We will make mistakes; however, we will continue to return to this commitment to guide our growth, and our development of our clinic’s policies and procedures. We invite all our clients, and fellow choicers, to stand up and speak up against discrimination, and to share their experiences (both positive and negative) within our spaces so that we can improve quality of care for all clients.
In solidarity, CIHC