Dear SQSH Community Members, Volunteers, and Partners,

At the start of this year, SQSH was awarded new grant opportunities and was able to expand programs and community initiatives. Due to the overwhelming workload, original SQSH staff felt the need to grow the team and, as part of expanding staffing, expressed to the community an interest in prioritizing Black, Queer, Disabled, and Neurodivergent St. Louisans. Upon applying we were asked to divulge in depth information around our identities, demographics, financial background, disability status/type/and access needs. All incredibly sensitive information shared with the promise that our unique, intersectional identities would be supported and considered within our individual staff roles, and the overall structure of the organization.

However, when new staff joined SQSH’s team in April, we experienced misuse of power, disclosure of personal health information, and lack of accountability in various ableist processes and expectations. New staff were also asked to address the ways that SQSH as an organization was participating in ableism, white-supremacy culture, and the tokenization of marginalized groups. As new staff, we tried to address concerns in multiple aspects like individual conversations and staff meetings, but as time passed staff as a whole ultimately agreed that original staff team members were not following SQSH’s mission statement and values with respect to how they engage with marginalized groups internally and externally. 

In an effort to directly address the harm that has occurred before hiring new staff as well as the harm we have experienced since being hired, staff initiated an organization restructure to address these issues. Luka was asked by staff to step down as Executive Director and transition into a programmatic staff role. In an effort to create a realistic and distributed approach to hierarchy that openly names power dynamics in place, we as staff created and voted on the Admin Circle together to replace the Executive Director role.

This new hierarchical body consists of six staff members - both original and new - who share operational responsibilities and co-facilitate the SQSH’s organizational restructuring. A future hope is that the benefits of our restructuring and the acknowledgment of power dynamics and internal accountability will ripple out to our communities, partners, and spaces we are hosting and/or attending. We hope to share more updates on our restructuring in the coming months.

SQSH is working towards divesting from work styles and relationships that encourage tokenism, perfectionist thinking, weaponizing of identities, fear of conflict, and lack of accountability. This announcement serves as one of many steps in our plan to hold SQSH as an organization accountable to staff, volunteers, partners, and community members. We look forward to being an organization that stands firm in recognizing the intersectionality of the people we support and care for, while checking our actions and internal structures for alignment with our values – so that we can provide all-around affirming spaces to both the people working at and served by SQSH.

If you’d like to ask questions about our new structure, give feedback to SQSH’s staff, or request a conversation, we’re inviting you to fill out this Google Form to join the dialogue. We hope to inform our internal and public accountability processes with the feedback community members have shared with us over the years, as well as any additional feedback you submit through this form. Please note that all SQSH staff will be on Fall Break from Mon, Nov 25 to Fri, Nov 29, so we won’t be able to respond to submissions during that time.