Journey to an Inclusive Community

God's love is open to all - Luther Place Memorial Church, Washington, DC — *Luther Place Memorial Church, Washington, DC*

JIC Introduction

Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC) is on a Journey to an Inclusive Community (JIC), an ongoing process of forming and strengthening alliances among people of many cultures and communities. Simply put, this means we seek the participation of a broad representation of perspectives and identities.

We realize it’s easy to get stuck in the intellectual pursuit of JIC, so we’re not content with just thinking about it… we’re building a culture around it.

Because institutional racism profoundly impacts the social landscapes in which we live and work, we are dedicated to becoming an inclusive community in our program and work. For this reason, learning around anti-racism/oppression towards a new framework of liberation and communicating around differences — is integral to our service-year curriculum, as well as our organizational onboarding and experience.

JIC Acknowledgment

Institutional racism and other oppressions including heterosexism, classism, ableism and sexism profoundly impact the social landscape in which we live and work.
We have the tendency to discuss other forms of oppression including heterosexism, classism, ableism and sexism before racism and evade difficult conversations about race.
Our explanations and analyses of other forms of oppression including heterosexism, classism, ableism and sexism are impoverished when we do not fully understand intersections with racism.
White dominance and oppression undermines our efforts among multiple constituencies to be an organization committed to social justice.
We cannot do a sufficient job of anti-racism work on our own.
The education and support we offer volunteers are egregiously lacking when we fail to account for racial dynamics within LVC, at our placement organizations and within volunteer communities as well as the process of racial identity formation for individuals.

Therefore, we commit to organization-wide reflection, change, and action around JIC in partnership with others doing similar work.