Proposal 11 – Create Committee to Identify Discrimination or Bias SubmittedbyWEB0150, WEB0384, WEB1061, and the Racial Trauma Service Group

Issue:In order to best serve and retain current ACA members, attract and reach marginalized Adult Children, and to sustain the common welfare and unity of ACA, we call upon the WSO to create a committee, and for ACA members to step forward in service by evaluating and examining the WSO’s internal structures and carrying of the ACA Message in order to best serve and reach the still suffering adult child.

Background:ACA’s Tradition Five states, “Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the adult child who still suffers.”

At this time in ACA, the internet has allowed unprecedented access to ACA recovery for underdeveloped and underserved groups. Yet ACA has not seen a relative increase of diversity in its membership.

The purpose of this committee would be to evaluate and examine current internal policies, outreach strategies, and accessibility to the fellowship/program resources to ensure ACA is effectively able to fulfill its primary purpose.

Implementation/Resources:Possible areas of implementation:

1. Work to ensure equity and fairness in the fellowship’s overall message, service structure, and recovery resources by examining current policies and practices that may perpetuate discrimination or bias.
2. Work to ensure that ACA literature and ACA meetings are available and accessible to adult children with disabilities or other challenges to access (such as location or financial).
3. Advocate for diverse representation in service roles, fellowship outreach, and content creation to attract and reach the still suffering adult child.

WSO Analysis:

Response:

At the direction of the 2023 delegates, WSO already has a group called “Racial Trauma Service Group” whose task is to ensure issues of racial equity and racial trauma are addressed in our literature. At the Quarterly Delegate meeting in August, delegates approved the following to be included in the scope of this group, “advising the ACA WSO Board on current and future projects and policies to ensure racial bias and/or systemic oppression are being considered.”

If this Proposal makes it to the ABC agenda and a Committee is created that has a different focus than the Racial Trauma Service Group, clear boundaries will need to be set to ensure the Fellowship and WSO understand the differences.

Factors to consider:

• The Board is currently in the process of conducting a review of the OPPM and the WSO internal service structure in 2024 with professionals to assess “best practices,” which would include this goal.
• If another committee is created, committee members will have to be recruited, and WSO is already stretched thin in terms of volunteers with the current 18 committees.
• Accessibility of ACA literature is covered under the mandate of the Publishing Committee.

Resources(for more background information) https://acawso.org/bpc/