NEKCA's Mission & Vision

Community Action was established nationally in 1965 as part of the Economic Opportunity Act and War on Poverty. Northeast Kingdom Community Action (NEKCA) is in alignment with the National Community Action Partnership. We share the belief that addressing the fundamental issues of economic and social inequalities includes identifying and creating ways to build the core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion into our policies and practices. We are committed to serving the underserved, all socio-economic statuses, people with all abilities and gender-identities, all sexual orientations, all languages, and religions.

Additionally, NEKCA considers racism a public health emergency. As an anti-racist organization, NEKCA aims to better the social determinants of health for BIPOC*, while promoting inclusiveness as a fundamental operating principle for building a more just and equitable society.

NEKCA will:

• Create, grow, and sustain a workplace that encourages the diversity of the community served.
• ·Ensure that outreach and hiring practices foster inclusiveness and do not act as barriers to employment.
• Provide individuals with training that will increase retention rates of members of the BIPOC* community, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+** individuals, people of all ages, ancestry, color, crime victim status, gender identity, health insurance coverage status, HIV+ status, national origin, place of birth, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and any other marginalized group.
• Provide regular cultural and linguistic competency training, implicit bias training and learning opportunities for staff as well as the board of directors.
• Support the NEKCA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee to serve as an advisory committee on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Promote the use of outside resources to better understand diversity, equity, and inclusion for continuous improvement.

*BIPOC: Black, Indigenous and People of Color **LGBTQIA+: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Pansexual, Polysexual and the additional ways people identify. Sometimes abbreviated to LGBTQ+