Equity Statement
Metrocare is committed to integrating equity, diversity, and inclusion throughout our organization, and our leadership considers it a responsibility to foster and promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in the community we serve.
Our hiring practices over the last ten years have resulted in a diverse workforce that reflects the clients we serve. Our staff and clients consistently average 50% African American and 26% Hispanic. In 2022 and 2023, we reevaluated every position in the agency to confirm equitable and market rate pay. We have a schedule to review on a rotating three-year basis and have adopted banding and salary formulas to ensure consistency within and across departments. We also brought every employee’s pay to a minimum of $20 an hour so all staff would earn a living wage, even for positions whose state reimbursement rates are still 40-60% less.
Beyond diverse hiring practices, Metrocare champions representation and inclusion. Our managers and directors are equally diverse, and in 2023 Metrocare expanded the senior leadership team which now includes: Black 36%; White 43%; Asian 7%; and LatinX 21%. (Some claim more than one race, so the numbers do not total 100%.)
Demographics also include: LGBTQ+ 14%; Female 71%; and Male 29%.
In 2020, Metrocare launched its first agency-wide initiative called Culture Champions to broaden our diversity efforts. Individuals nominated by peers were selected to the inaugural team and adopted the creed:
“Inclusion is how we unleash the power of diversity. We strive to foster belonging and empowerment at work. Specifically, we stand for anti-racism, we are a voice for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC (Black / Indigenous / People of Color), we are culturally competent for our military family, and we are a Trauma-Informed Company (TIC).”
This statement was adopted by the leadership team and confirmed by the board. Efforts arising from the Culture Champions Team include improved training, providing diversity perspectives on communications and activities, developing and implementing a diversity survey that will be completed every other year to monitor progress, among other initiatives. More than half of the agency responded to the inaugural survey. Staff expressed strong affirmation (agree or highly agree) on all five key markers: Metrocare is collaborative, staff feel they have emotional safety and are respected, management is sensitive, and they confirmed that Metrocare embodies the Culture Champions creed. While a majority felt they had a voice with their leadership, this was the lowest affirmation percentage (68%), so this is where improvement efforts are focused. The results were shared at a Town Hall meeting for the entire agency where solutions were offered by staff and open-ended questions were addressed; many were implemented or are planned.
Most notably, the Culture Champions pressed for a significant programming change to our Electronic Health Record to allow individuals served to use a preferred name and indicate preferred pronouns. Our public website and all our public collateral have been translated to Spanish, the second highest representation – spoken by 4,579 in FY23. A translation service is available for any client, and key information has been translated into Pashtu, Dhari, and Vietnamese for our partners. A Chief Diversity Officer role has been added to the leadership team, and formal Administrative Procedures and a new three-year strategy create benchmarks for each fiscal year.
Culture Champions has been deeply involved in improving and expanding our diversity training. Metrocare has added extensive programming and required training modules on trauma-informed care, LGBTQ+, and equity and inclusion. Additionally, we have built two new, dedicated leadership tracks as part of the culture initiative to open career pathways to young professionals and expand representation throughout the organization.
For decades, Metrocare has followed corporate guidelines for hiring and contracting with Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUB) and includes performance measures in contracts, which includes the contracts for the new Mental Health and Intellectual Disability Innovation Center at Metrocare’s Hillside campus. Vendor fairs encourage new participation from HUB vendors who are encouraged to apply for posted proposals (RFPs).
Our nine-member Board of Trustees, appointed by Dallas County Commissioners Court, is equally diverse and is comprised of 60% male and 40% female; and approximate 25% representation each for Caucasian, Black, Hispanic, and Asian board members.
The greatest equity challenge Metrocare has historically faced is ensuring that facilities reflect equitable care when compared to affluent and less racially diverse parts of Dallas. Our facilities should be trauma-informed places of healing, and it has been difficult to maintain 75-year-old buildings to those standards. The Hillside Project is a fiscal and ethical necessity to bring equitable care and worthy facilities to Southern Dallas.
The new state-of-the-art facilities at Metrocare's Hillside campus will play an essential role in further dismantling the stigma and shame historically associated with public mental health care and the injustice of passing off marginal facilities as adequate. Sadly, this all too often has been the case in the history of behavioral and intellectual disability care for disadvantaged populations, who have been told to “make do with what you get.” Ultimately, the new campus will deliberately offer our community a dignified place that fosters healing, a place that reflects Dallas as a national leader, and a place anyone would be proud to send a family member struggling with mental illness or a disability.