WHO WE ARE

Social equity is central to our work at The Cupcake Girls, not only for the safety and well-being of our program participants but also for our staff, volunteers, and anyone else who comes into contact with us. We are committed to learning more and working towards a society where The Cupcake Girls no longer needs to exist because sex trafficking is eradicated and sex workers are safe and empowered.

To that end, The Cupcake Girls (TCG) is eighteen months into a robust Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) plan, has several desired outcomes through this work:

• Trauma-informed, equitable training for our volunteer advocates

• Equitable recruitment and retention practices for staff, board members, and volunteers

• Non-violent space and structure for processing hurt and harm

• Evaluating what program participants desire in outreach, and following their lead on reevaluating and implementing our outreach practices

• Development of an equity matrix to be used for ongoing evaluation of processes, procedures, and programs.

In March 2021, TCG began conducting open evaluations and surveys (assessments of lived experience, implicit bias tests, and knowledge of DEI concepts) of our staff and volunteers to create a JEDI Committee. The committee was formed in June 2021 and was first tasked with the responsibility of interviewing and hiring a trained JEDI facilitator. Understanding the complexities and intersections of oppression our program participants face was central to the facilitator search, and on November 1, 2021, The Cupcake Girls entered into a 12 month contract with Allanté Johnson-Taylor as our equity facilitator. 

In December 2021, Allanté completed the initial evaluation and data collection phase by facilitating 1:1 meetings with each of our staff members. She presented her findings and recommendations and began leading us through the following:

• Restorative justice practices with our staff and our program participants

• Training sessions on concepts such as microaggressions and nonviolent/trauma-informed communication

• Taking responsibility for the ways The Cupcake Girls has perpetuated harm (whether intentional or not) and how to repair that harm while working within a harm reduction model moving forward.

Knowing these points of growth, the JEDI Committee accomplished and implemented organization-wide the following work so far:

• Review of internal and external processes, policies, and documents (ongoing);

• Collaboration between Marketing & PR teams and our JEDI committee for consistent messaging that honors and respects program participants;

• Revision of recruitment and onboarding processes for our Board of Directors and increased accountability for board members;

• Addition of a People Operations & Equity role on our staff;

• Increased focus and work toward paying all staff members an equitable wage;

• A 3.5-hour JEDI workshop for our staff and board members (volunteers optional). Topics covered during our workshop included:

  • Saviorism & Microaggressions

  • Cultural Humility

  • Performative vs. Active Allyship

This work remains a priority for our organization, and we look forward to updating this page as our team works toward these goals and sets new goals accordingly.

(Updated: September 2022)