In 2017 The Nord Center embarked on a Strategic Planning process. The resulting plan had three main goals:

• Expand access to services by addressing physical and cultural barriers to care and expanding human and physical capacity
• Develop and implement a marketing, communications and development plan that maximizes community perception and philanthropic support
• Evaluate and optimize our service portfolio to maximize community impact and financial performance.

To meet the goal of expanding access to The Nord Center’s services, The Nord Center recognized the need to address cultural barriers that limit access.

In 2020 our agency began partnering with Sage & Maven to help guide us through a process of forming a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee.

Role of the DEI Committee

The role of the Nord Center DEI committee is to positively impact the environment within the organization to be more mindful of the intersecting identities held by clients, staff, and volunteers. The priority for the committee is to ensure that services provided by The Nord Center are affirming of all identities and cultures. The committee is an opportunity to ensure that all stakeholders have a voice that can be heard by leadership, regardless of positional power.

Vision of the DEI Committee

The DEI Committee envisions an organization in which clients are able to receive the highest quality of services that affirms their various interpersonal identities. We see the Committee as an opportunity to consistently self-reflect on our own identities and the impact that they have on the work that we do. We strive to create an organizational culture that focuses on collectively raising our consciousness related to social injustice and the impact it has on the well-being of our staff and clients.

Agency Offerings around Language Diversity

The Nord Center has a number of bilingual counselors and is able to offer services in English and Spanish with ready access to translators for other languages.