Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Upstream USA is an organization operating at the intersection of reproductive health and social justice. Every day our staff and health center partners work to increase equitable access to all contraceptive methods to all patients – regardless of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender identification –  across the nation. We advocate for patient-centered, gender-affirming care without bias or coercion, to combat and undo poorer outcomes for patients who face racism and other injustices in the healthcare system.

To do our best work and to achieve better outcomes for all patients and their families nationwide, Upstream understands that our staff and the diversity of the experiences, genders, backgrounds, languages and skills they represent need to be recognized and are essential to drive innovation and achievement. If we are to truly become an anti-racist organization, then we must keep ourselves accountable towards greater equity, diversity and inclusion. This space represents our starting point and we hope you will join us on this journey. 

EDI Vision Statement

Internally, we envision promoting equity by reducing disparities in the Upstream talent lifecycle and engagement, cultivating a diverse workforce and inclusive culture, and fostering power sharing when we make decisions.

Guiding Principles

Through Equity, both in the workplace and in contraceptive care, we address root causes that enable disparities to occur, acknowledge that different resources and opportunities may be needed to reach fairer outcomes, and implement systems-level changes that are sustainable over time.

Through Diversity, we acknowledge, respect, and celebrate the collective mixture of differences and similarities of Upstreamers and our community partners. At Upstream, we value the diversity of identities at all intersections, while at the same time centering racial diversity.

Through Inclusion, we succeed at creating a culture of belonging that embraces differences in identities and experiences by building trust, joy, and psychological safety. We cherish and elevate these differences through power-sharing in how things get done internally and in service of our mission.

Demographics

In keeping with our commitment to increased transparency across the organization about our EDI journey, we are sharing aggregate, self-reported race, ethnicity, and gender information about Upstream. In the future, we plan to gather a more inclusive view of gender identity and expression and diversity categories, including able-bodiedness and accessibility needs, veteran or military service status, etc.

All Upstream Staff

Ethnicity and gender demographics for full- and part-time staff

Self-reported data from Upstream staff.

Data was collected in April 2022. We plan to gather a more inclusive view of gender identity and expression and diversity categories, including able-bodiedness and accessibility needs, veteran or military service status, etc.

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