Hope Board Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging Statement

First and foremost, Hope Chinese Charter School (HCCS) is committed to our mission: Educating for Global Fluency by developing Chinese & English dual-language skills, nurturing cultural adaptability and inspiring excellence for a positive impact in our world. To deliver on this mission and our commitment to academic excellence, Hope works to ensure all students, especially based on their identities and experiences, achieve equitable academic, social, and emotional outcomes and success. Additionally, it is Hope’s moral, ethical, and legal responsibility to ensure the physical and psychological safety of all students and staff.

Given Hope’s mission, the various education standards mandated by the state of Oregon, and the link between social connectedness and learning, Hope is unequivocally committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment in which all students feel a sense of belonging.

Within the Hope community, we define these ideas as:
* Diversity: welcoming all the ways we are different (both visible and invisible) and promoting a wide range of different people and perspectives.
* Inclusion: valuing people’s unique ideas and lived experiences and ensuring they feel involved, respected, connected, and have their voice heard.
* Equity: recognizing that each person has different circumstances and may need different resources and opportunities to reach an equal outcome.
* Belonging: creating a culture where people can be themselves, feel safe, appreciate each other, and feel part of something bigger.

This means that the Hope community not only works to constantly mitigate biases and prejudices but also actively creates an affirming environment that values and nurtures the multiple identities and experiences each student has, including: race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, immigration status, language, family economics, age, culture, geographic location, ability, mobility, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, initial proficiencies, or other identities.

This statement aligns with and builds on Hope’s All Students Belong Policy (ACB G1),  Nondiscrimination Policy (AC G1), and Strategic Plan and is inspired by language from Action for Happiness, Beaverton School District, and Yu Ming Charter School.

In order to deliver on this commitment, the Hope community commits to the following guiding principles:
* Create and nurture an inclusive, welcoming, and affirming environment for all students, families, and staff.
* Incorporate the voice and perspectives of students, families, and communities that reflect student demographics into decisions that impact student success.
* Use disaggregated data, when possible, to understand differences in experience and inform all decision-making.
* Provide students with equitable access to a high-quality curriculum, effective teachers and principals, support, facilities, and sufficient support services by allocating resources equitably, not equally, to maximize the academic achievement of every child.
* Embed grade-aligned texts that include diverse perspectives, identities, and experiences in all school spaces.
* Recognize and honor all cultures and heritages, especially those that have been historically marginalized.
* Recruit, hire, and retain high quality personnel that strongly supports Hope’s DEI beliefs at all organizational levels.
* Encourage conversations that explore differences, surface commonalities, and contribute to community learning and growth.
* Engage in ongoing learning and work to understand and mitigate all forms of historical, structural, and systematic oppression.

Through these actions and commitments, we believe that all students will not only achieve strong academic success but will also develop the cultural adaptability to have a positive impact as world citizens.