Our Values
As a partner, Advance Maryland believes we should be “on tap, not on top.” We serve as the backbone organization in a collective impact model, providing structural support, strategic planning, and acting as a messaging and communications hub. We believe in building power to enable wins on the issues communities most care about, and redistributing that power to the most impacted communities. That includes participating in and promoting community-informed policymaking, and leveraging access to decision-makers in a way that transfers power to communities. We are always looking for ways to embody cooperative models rather than competitive models of collaboration.
Advance Maryland’s commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion is essential to achieving our mission and vision. We strive to center this commitment in our work, our partnerships, our organizational management, and the policies we hope to enact in Maryland.
We believe in the consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all Marylanders, including individuals who belong to communities that have been too often denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.
Advance Maryland has created a robust policy for organization decision-making focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion. This policy applies an equity lens for decision-making in the most critical areas of our work, including policy analysis, partnerships and community engagement, and governance and team culture. Our equity policies, which intentionally center race, are adapted from the work of Associated Black Charities and Race Forward. This equity lens helps us ensure that our organization is actively dismantling systems of oppression, addressing root causes of inequality, and centers frontline community leadership in our work. This policy and our structures will be assessed and improved on an annual basis.
Our equity, diversity, and inclusion policy is available to anyone upon request by sending an email to info@advancemaryland.org.
