In 2017, through a review with the University of Washington’s Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity and feedback sessions with IslandWood graduate students, it became clear that our communications were full of tokenism, saviorism, and we were perpetuating negative stereotypes. While our intentions may have been positive, the actual impact was not. We were causing harm to the very people we were seeking to serve. With this clarity, our communications team set out to change the course of our marketing, accurately representing, both in words and visuals, who our work seeks to serve, and why.
Our communications team works to respectfully, authentically, and transparently communicate about IslandWood’s work, our impact, and with each of the various groups that we serve. Some of the changes we’ve made since 2017 include:
The communications team works with many outside partners, including graphic designers, video production companies, and photographers. We have not consciously sought out BIPOC partners and have worked almost exclusively with white partners. In the future, we will be actively reaching out to BIPOC professionals in bidding out external projects.
