Diversity & Equity

Anti-Oppressive Care

In Minnesota and around the country, we are confronted today with the effects of systemic oppression and racial injustice on individuals and communities. Hamm Clinic’s commitment to culturally responsive, anti-oppressive care and training is unwavering.

Land Acknowledgement Statement

Hamm Clinic occupies the ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe first peoples. Our clinic resides on their dispossessed territories. We are at the start of our work, acknowledging this legacy, and we commit ourselves to actions that address the injustices of this dispossession from which our clinic continually benefits.

Examples of our commitment:

• 10% BiPoc scholarship for attending our conferences
• Hamm Horizons Clinical Social Work Internship
• Monthly clinical team consultation with Indigenous therapist focused on uncolonized mental health practices

A History of Cultural Responsiveness

Hamm Clinic’s cultural responsiveness/anti-oppressive practice journey began early. In 1987, we hired a Multi-Cultural Liaison to deepen our responsiveness to communities of color. Over time, we began offering Spanish-language services, established a Cultural Responsiveness Committee, diversified hiring of consultants, and incorporated conversations about diversity, ethnicity, and oppression in our clinical work.

In addition, we helped establish a multi-agency group of clinicians of color who consulted with each other and educated others.

Diversity and Equity Vision

Our diversity and equity goals include: 

• Providing equitable care to all. 
• Cultivating regard by recognizing and eliminating prejudice and discrimination.  
• Actively engaging in reflection and conversation about how we live our organizational mission and values. 
• Recognizing and confronting our biases (conscious and implicit). 
• Increasing staff diversity. 
• Recruiting and retaining staff members and trainees who reflect these values. 
• Using our training program to deconstruct and challenge elements of the dominant mental health model that may reinforce stigma and oppression. 
• Integrating an anti-oppressive framework throughout the organization. 

Continuing to Lead the Way

Use of a culturally responsive and anti-oppressive lens in our work continues every day. We actively evaluate client care, staff intersecting identities and accountability, and organizational processes and training.

To increase the diversity of the mental health workforce, we have established Hamm Horizons Internships for students of color. We offer culturally responsive in-services and trainings, and we connect with culturally specific organizations for referrals.