Towards an Anti-Racist Social Service Organization

This paper outlines key concerns for social sendee agencies working toward the establishment of an anti-racist organization. The spectrum of barriers at the individual, client-professional, organizational and community levels will be presented. These issues will be surfaced for the purpose of alerting professionals and administrators to both the discrete and concomitant sets of multicultural issues that can affect an organization's functioning. Moving towards an anti-racist stance requires: (1) awareness of those issues impacting the agency's capacity for serviceability, psychological safety and a value added environment for the worker, the consumer and the neighboring community; and (2) a willingness to seek out expert consultation and information about a needed process of sustained diversity intervention.