As week three comes to an end, an important theme that has come up in the work I am doing at Zora’s House is the importance of meeting people where they are, and finding ways to actually act on this principle. As I was sitting through the Operations, Infrastructure, and Culture Board’s second meeting on revising the organization’s employee handbook, I saw how thinking through the language that an organization uses and understanding what it means is crucial in being able to serve individuals. Something that the co-founder of the organization, LC Johnson, mentioned during the board’s meeting was that Zora’s House acknowledges that people are in different parts of their journeys, and not everyone might have the same understanding or knowledge on certain topics (one example being the importance of pronouns, or what pronouns even are). However, that does not mean they are excluded from the organization. Part of the organization’s responsibility is to meet individuals at whatever place they are in their journey, whether that be their personal or professional journeys. 

This reminded me of our speaker on Wednesday, who talked about being able to cater to multiple audiences, and looking at an organization’s goals and issues through multiple lenses in order to get current and potential donors, community members, etc. to also align with your goals and mission. Natalie Parscher discussed how rhetoric is vital in her work as the VP of Marketing and Communications for the Columbus Foundation. However, I think the work I have done this week with Zora’s House (and the work I will continue doing with their employee handbook) shows how important rhetoric and the use of language is at any organization. We need to remember to be intentional with the language we are using to better serve the people we are working with and for. 

Although, the importance of language should also be paired with the need to be transparent about what the language you’re using actually means. At the Board’s meeting, one of the board members mentioned that, in defining the values early on in the employee handbook in a comprehensive way, we are able to bridge the gap for employees who might come in to the organization without an understanding of the language used at Zora’s House and what it means in this particular context. I think this is a reminder that, in order for an organization to more effectively achieve its goals and serve communities, it is important to create a baseline understanding of their goals, values, and culture and make that clear to its employees, members, and the community at large.