INTRODUCTION
Dear Fellow Rainbow Health Minnesota Community Members and Stakeholders,
We would like to share what has happened at Rainbow Health over the last eleven months with respect to poor leadership practices and unfair treatment of BIPOC staff. We have witnessed practices that we believe include:
Tokenization and exploitation of Black staff by Rainbow Health leadership
Potentially/perceived retaliatory employment termination for people who object to Rainbow Health leadership's treatment of staff
Unilateral decision-making by Rainbow Health's CEO without consultation of his BIPOC colleagues or other impacted staff, several of whom have advanced training, certification, licenses, and degrees in critically relevant areas of expertise
Hostile shut-down tactics creating a culture of non-transparency and fear amongst staff
Programmatic negligence, particularly towards BIPOC- and HIV-centric programming
Please read on for the specific actions taken by agency leadership, their impact on staff and clients, and how you can support substantive, structural change at Rainbow Health.
WHAT IS WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE?
The definition of white supremacy as referenced throughout this letter is as follows:
"White supremacy is defined as a system designed to set whiteness as the default for societal norms. This means in white-led and white-dominant organizations, whiteness is the standard for office behavior, workplace values, and the criteria used to discern merit. Because all desirable qualities and skillsets are expected of whiteness, and all pejorative qualities and skillsets are expected of "non-whiteness," people of color entering into this space inherently exist in tension with the culture. The tone and manner of speech is in tension…
In addition, employees of color who attempt to assimilate to, appease, or perform whiteness automatically lose those conditional privileges once their attempts become inconsistent or futile. White supremacy labels them 'insubordinate' and expendable." Caroline Taiwo, "Confronting White Supremacy in the Workplace" published by Pollen Midwest.
In the workplace specifically, white supremacy culture shows up in the following ways:
"Organizations which unconsciously use these characteristics as their norms and standards make it difficult, if not impossible, to open the door to other cultural norms and standards. As a result, many of our organizations, while saying we want to be multicultural, really only allow other people and cultures to come in if they adapt or conform to already existing cultural norms."
"Those with power think they are capable of making decisions for and in the interests of those without power and often don't think it is important or necessary to understand the viewpoint or experience of those for whom they are making decisions"
"Because of either/or thinking, criticism of those with power is viewed as threatening and inappropriate (or rude)"
"Things that can be measured are more highly valued than things that cannot,
for example numbers of people attending a meeting, newsletter circulation, money spent are valued more than quality of relationships, democratic decision-making, ability to constructively deal with conflict"
Source: Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups, by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun
Part of disrupting cycles of white supremacist leadership structures and practices and replacing them with equitable, antiracist models of leadership and organizational structure is to hold ourselves and others accountable to inequitable, discriminatory, and harmful practices as they occur. We, a group of White and White-perceived former Rainbow Health employees, are writing this open letter to disrupt this cycle that has significantly mired and threatens to destroy Rainbow Health. We aim to shed light on these injustices in a way that others cannot without fear of retaliation, and to activate a broader base of support from the community for current staff's organizing efforts. This is not a personal grievance. The discrepancies between the agency's mission and its institutional practices cannot and should not be kept secret any longer. To do so would not only be complicit in perpetuating an unacceptable, toxic work environment for our former colleagues, but also more importantly the racial inequities that allow for staff of color to suffer repeatedly at the hands of the agency. Please note that we are not accusing Rainbow Health leadership of acting illegally. In fact, the very problem is that the deeply unjust events detailed below are legal and, in many cases, standard practices in the nonprofit sector.
We joined Rainbow Health to advance its mission. The agency's leadership has jeopardized that work. As White and White-perceived individuals, we recognize the privilege we have to call out racism, discrimination, inequity, oppression, and harm with lessened risk of retaliation or consequence by future employers. It is our duty to support clients and colleagues of color by demanding a safe, protective, and respectful working environment for them and the agency as a whole. It is our duty to hold other White people and systems accountable for the harm they cause due to privileged and supremacist practices and actions. Beyond that, we know that justice for our BIPOC colleagues is justice for us all. Many of us have been negatively impacted by the white supremacist cultural and corporate ethics by which the agency is run. With this in our minds and hearts, we would like to share the following facts with you. A detailed timeline of events encompassing a fuller scope and further examples of the agency's unwillingness to change its patterns of white supremacy is included at the end of the letter.
Our hope, goal, and heartfelt ask is that after reading this, you use your voice, time, and resources to join us in supporting current staff's fight for better conditions at Rainbow Health.
EVENTS OF CONCERN
In August 2021, Rainbow Health's Client Services Leadership Team brought forth a letter of concerns to the CEO, CFO, and Department Directors, outlining concerns related to transparency, decision-making, accountability for past issues, hierarchy, silos, and imbalance of power, follow through related to staff requests, and the lack of HIV client-centeredness of Rainbow Health leadership. This was prompted by a series of decisions made by the CEO, including the inadequate and nontransparent preparation for the potential 2021 state government shutdown (announcing potential furlough of state government contracted staff with only a week's notice), untimely use of funds earmarked to support BIPOC-identified clients with housing needs, and minimal efforts to celebrate or highlight the HIV/AIDS crisis during Black History Month (as compared to PRIDE). These events were particularly concerning for an agency where 60% of the clients identify as BIPOC and over 27% of clients identify as Black or African American. In the months following, despite repeated formal and informal pleas by management level staff to collaborate on resolving these concerns, the situation at Rainbow Health devolved significantly and deleteriously. This devolution is outlined in greater detail in the timeline at the end of this letter.
On January 14, 2022 Rainbow Health's CEO Jeremy Hanson Willis shared an update with Rainbow Health staff regarding the agency's 2022 budget that had been approved by its Board of Directors the evening prior. After approving a planned structural deficit for several years, the Rainbow Health Board of Directors chose to balance the agency's budget via an option the CEO had put forth to them. This budget included the immediate elimination of seven positions at Rainbow Health, including three Department Director positions (Advocacy & Research, Client Services, and Education & Prevention) and nearly the entire Education team. In its place, the CEO announced a restructure to "flatten" the agency and have all supervisors and managers report to him, citing an opportunity for him to learn more about the various programs at the agency and reduce existing silos. "This was my plan," the CEO shared with all staff during the restructure announcement. He confirmed that he did not consult openly with senior leadership, management, or direct line staff regarding the restructure. This decision was met with overwhelming dismay, disillusionment, anger, confusion and frustration from staff. (The 2022 budget was not shared with Rainbow Health staff until over three months later, despite multiple asks/prompts from staff.)
Of the seven positions eliminated, two individuals were not offered an option to remain at the agency in another role and one individual was offered an option to remain only if another laid off individual turned down the role first. One of the individuals not offered a different position was the Director of Client Services, a Black woman hired eight months prior to lead the department comprising over half of all Rainbow Health staff. She had completed and submitted a comprehensive proposal for funding from the Minnesota Department of Human Services for six of the ten HIV Services programs at Rainbow Health six days prior to being laid off. In 2021, the funding for these six programs represented nearly a fourth of the agency's total revenue. She received no advance warning or notice of any plan to eliminate her position over the course of the proposal development.
The Director of Client Services position was the only one of the seven eliminated positions that was entirely funded through grants and contracts and had no impact on the agency's general operating funds. In his restructure, the CEO announced his intention to bill some of his salary to this role's line item to reflect his expanded supervisory role. He also announced that this line item would cover a new Contracts Manager role, which effectively repackaged many of the duties of the former Director of Client Services role (and added contract and budget management responsibilities from other former departments) into a non-managerial position with an over $20,000 salary cut. This position was not offered to the former Director of Client Services. Based on these actions, we believe that this vital staff member was explicitly exploited for her work on the agency's proposal for HIV services.
The individual offered a different position contingent on another laid off (White) staff member not accepting the role was a queer Black staff member living with HIV. They had recently returned to the agency only four months prior to advance the Education & Prevention Department's racial equity plan, among other responsibilities. They first joined Rainbow Health (then Minnesota AIDS Project) in June 2017, shortly before the agency's controversial name change to JustUs Health. As a Black employee, they had to deal with community fallout related to this decision. They left the agency in June 2018 following the mishandling of the BlaQue Alive program during which agency leadership (under the previous CEO) chose to return the program's funding to its grantor without informing any impacted direct staff of the decision. At the time of being laid off in January 2022, this individual was not offered any other open position at the agency, such as the Positive Link Peer Support Coordinator position (vacant as of the writing of this letter; unfilled since September 2021) or an HIV Medical Case Manager position that was open at the time of the restructure. These actions reflect a pattern of the agency hiring Black employees, either failing to support their work or exploiting their expertise, and then pushing them aside with no warning.
All of the staff offered a new role outright identify as White or White-perceived. Of the six staff affected by the layoffs (one position was vacant), four, including two of the letter authors, no longer work for Rainbow Health.
THE IMPACT
These events are the latest in a long line of mishandlings and injustices enacted by Rainbow Health's leadership, namely its CEO and Board of Directors. We encourage you to read the full timeline (included at the end of this letter) of key events and decisions that we believe have impeded the agency's ability to carry out its mission and mired the institution in white supremacist cultural norms.
Beyond the real, material, and significant impact of eliminating laid off staff's access to income and potentially jeopardizing their livelihood, the micro- and macro-aggressions perpetuated by the agency's leadership, particularly the exploitation and disposability of employees, lack of support for BIPOC-centric programming, and failure to respond to repeated staff requests for collaboration to resolve the agency's challenges, have created an unacceptably difficult work environment and led to significant turnover and disruption over the last several months. Between October 2021 and February 2022, five director/management-level staff resigned from Rainbow Health. In January 2021, there were six senior leadership positions (not including the CEO) supporting the work of the agency. Within a year, only one position (pre-restructure) had not experienced staff turnover.
The January 2022 layoffs eliminated two of the most impactful leaders at the agency, both of whom represent specific communities the agency claims to center in its work. These Black leaders were notably responsive to the concerns raised by the Client Services Leadership and Rainbow Health Management teams and openly and transparently raised concerns about how they were being handled by the CEO. Many staff have raised concerns about their layoffs being retaliatory in nature, particularly that of the grant-funded Director of Client Services. Furthermore, the elimination of the Education Department has severely diminished Rainbow Health's educational capacity, despite education/prevention being an essential pillar in the fight to end HIV.
Those still working at Rainbow Health continue to feel and live the consequences of their leadership's actions, including:
Program managers/supervisors left with limited to no support from leaders with experience and qualifications related to their program areas.
Staff working under stressful and overwhelming conditions due to hostile shut-down tactics and ongoing conflict between staff and leadership.
Continued lack of transparency related to decision, decision-making processes, and agency operations despite repeated requests otherwise.
Staff working in fear of retaliation for raising issues related to agency operations.
Staff struggling to find balance between focus on client work and agency turmoil.
Critical program knowledge, community connections, and basic operations have been disrupted and/or lost due to abrupt changes with no preparation.
Staff being tasked with the additional responsibility of ensuring clients do not experience impact of operations disruption due to turnover.
Most troublingly, these events and their impacts are part of a much larger cycle in this agency, as they have occurred only four years after the controversy related to the BlaQue Alive program, detailed further in the timeline. The issues at Rainbow Health are both about its current leadership (CEO Jeremy Hanson Willis and the Board of Directors) as well as the agency's structure and institutional practices that have allowed these harms to occur time and time again. This happens all too often in the nonprofit sector. It is up to former and current Rainbow Health staff and its stakeholder community at large to step in and force the cycle to break.
OUR ASK OF YOU
Rainbow Health's mission is to "work for equitable health care access and outcomes for people who experience injustice at the intersection of health status and identity." The agency centers "individuals and communities at risk of and living with HIV or facing barriers to equitable health care access and outcomes because of their identity as gender, sexual, and/or racial minorities." All individuals who choose to work at Rainbow Health commit to this mission. This extends beyond what the agency does for its clients; it is an ethos that defines how leadership should treat its staff, and how staff should treat each other.
This letter is a call to action and a call for the deep structural and institutional change needed to finally set Rainbow Health on the right path. It is a call for fellow colleagues, HIV/AIDS Services Organizations and related service providers, funders, community members, and others to join us and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We want Rainbow Health - its clients and staff - to thrive within a truly equitable, antiracist agency culture and structure. For this to happen, we and others need to hold the agency's past, current, and future leadership accountable to Rainbow Health's mission. Direct staff have voted to unionize (with 95% support in election ballots counted), which we applaud them for and fully support. That said, all staff need protection from harm. Unionization will not solve or fix past wrongs and hurts, nor will it alone solve equity issues within Rainbow Health. Over the last several months, staff have attempted to create the work environment they deserve through internal means to limited avail. Frontline and management need external community support to continue the fight to create accountability for past wrongdoings and progress towards becoming an equitable agency.
We are asking for your support as a stakeholder of Rainbow Health Minnesota in demanding that, by May 15th, Rainbow Health CEO Jeremy Hanson Willis and Board of Directors:
Release a public statement acknowledging and apologizing for the harm they have done to its staff and clients, especially BIPOC-identified staff and clients.
Release a public plan for working with Rainbow Health staff and clients to repair harm done, increase protections for all staff, and co-create an equitable and antiracist organizational structure related to decision-making, communication/transparency, collaboration, and power balancing.
Commit to providing monthly public updates to agency stakeholders on progress towards plan and actions taken to rectify harms.
Contact BIPOC-identified staff harmed by the agency (former and current) to initiate a process of accountability and reparations for their wrongdoing in the form of financial compensation and/or other compensation as defined by the injured staff.
We expect Rainbow Health leadership to respond to these demands by May 15th, 2022.
It is not our intention to sabotage or shut down Rainbow Health. We believe that the staff at the agency perform vital services in our community. However, it is clear that if drastic changes are not made, it will be impossible for Rainbow Health to carry out its mission and the agency will continue to perpetuate white supremacy culture internally and externally.
We reiterate that staff need community support to change leadership's actions. Rainbow Health's stakeholders - its clients, funders, supporters, partners, staff, and other vested community members - must hold its executive leadership and Board accountable to its actions over the last several months and years.
As such, we are asking all concerned community members and stakeholders of Rainbow Health Minnesota to do the following:
CONTACT Rainbow Health CEO Jeremy Hanson Willis and Board of Directors' Executive Committee to express your concerns, iterate the list of demands, and ask for a direct response to your email. Contact information and a sample email template can be found here.
ADD YOUR NAME to this letter as a SUPPORTER by signing on at the top of this page.
SHARE THIS LETTER publicly on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Be sure to TAG Rainbow Health's accounts, add your own experiences of racial inequity, and also ask your network to share!
CONTACT exRHcollective@gmail.com with any other offers of support, which will be shared with current staff at Rainbow Health.
RECONSIDER and ADJUST your financial and in-kind support to Rainbow Health until Rainbow Health's leadership's response occurs in a timely or sufficient manner.
To Rainbow Health funders specifically: We believe in the work our former colleagues are providing at Rainbow Health. We want every person living with HIV to have the comprehensive support and services they need and deserve to lead healthy, successful lives. We want all Minnesotans to have access to educational resources related to HIV/AIDS. We want our former colleagues to have the ability to continue serving their clients while being valued, treated with respect, listened to at their place of employment, and working within an inclusive and equitable environment. As funders, we call on you to care about the holistic well being of the staff carrying out work with clients. Be in direct communication with them and hold Rainbow Health leadership accountable when staff report they are not being treated well. Be inclusive in the conversations had with your grantees/beneficiaries. Listen to BIPOC staff especially. Grantees should uphold and reflect the values of its funders, especially as they relate to equity. Continued support to an agency that commits harm and promotes inequity reflects on you as a supporter of the agency and puts your own commitment to values related to equity and anti-racism in question.
It is the right and the responsibility of an agency's stakeholders and supporters to be in communication with those doing the work, as well as to consider whether they can support an agency that fails to implement its mission. For Rainbow Health's community stakeholders and for those of us who have made a commitment to combat racism and white supremacy in the nonprofit sector and beyond: now is the time to take action!
Signed,
Allison Jones, Co-Author, former Education Specialist at Rainbow Health
Hannah McNamee, Co-Author, former Education Supervisor at Rainbow Health
Leora (Lior) Effinger-Weintraub, Supporter, former Psychotherapist at Rainbow Health
Sarah Krier, Supporter, former AIDSLine Manager at Rainbow Health
Tia Lauve, Supporter, former Communications Manager at Rainbow Health
Ex-Rainbow Health Collective
DETAILED TIMELINE OF EVENTS
The below summary of events outlines specific past and recent occurrences that have contributed to and demonstrate the toxic and white supremacist work culture and environment at Rainbow Health, spearheaded by either its most recent former CEO or current CEO Jeremy Hanson Willis, and supported by its Board of Directors. All of what is listed below are facts that are verifiable through either written or recorded evidence.
Under the leadership of the most recent former Minnesota AIDS Project CEO:
October 2017: BlaQue Alive, a safe space for Black and Brown same gender loving men, ages 18–29, launches. The program is staffed and run by four BIPOC-identifying individuals.
October 25, 2017: Workplace Cultural Inclusivity Committee (WCIC) presents a letter of asks related to updating staff conflict resolution policy, hiring practices, and expanding Human Resources to include conflict mediation, an onboarding process, and ongoing cultural inclusivity trainings.
February 5, 2018: MAP's CEO disbands the WCIC.
February 7, 2018 JustUs Health name (Rainbow Health's most recent name prior to its current one) is presented at an all staff meeting. Staff protest name because it was already in use by a peer support group of Black men living with HIV who met at Red Door Clinic in Minneapolis. Staff are also upset about the treatment of the WCIC and racial issues.
February 9, 2018: MAP CEO sends an All-Staff email sharing that MAP's executive leadership has concerns about the ability of the agency to be successful with the CDC grant agreement (BlaQue Alive program), and that they were exploring options regarding the future of the funding.
March 9, 2018–August 2, 2018: Four of the five BlaQue Alive staff resign from MAP.
June 27, 2018: Announcement is sent to All Staff that the BlaQue Alive program is ending early.
July 2018: MAP's CEO resigns.
October 2018: It is announced that an Interim Executive Director is hired with no mention of his racial equity experience.
Under the leadership of current Rainbow Health CEO Jeremy Hanson Willis:
April 8, 2019: Jeremy Hanson Willis starts as Chief Executive Officer of JustUs Health (previously the name of the agency).
April 2019–June 2020: CEO notes that community recognition of JustUs Health is low and begins planning to promote JustUs Health. Members of the staff consistently point out that the name is an issue in stakeholder communities and ask to address the name along with community recognition. It is only after the murder of George Floyd and the uprisings that the CEO finally announces it is time to address the problems with the name JustUs Health.
Early 2020: The CEO hires contractors to create an Education Business Plan and an agency Marketing Plan. Over the next two years, although the Education team uses this Business Plan to make strides toward generating more revenue, the CEO consistently offers little support, pressures the team to generate more revenue, and ultimately eliminates the entire department in January 2022.
January 2021: Director of Advancement and Director of Client Services resign.
March 2021: Hiring process for new Director of Client Services begins. The CEO fails to follow the recently adopted Racial Equity Hiring process which recommends including at least one POC staff member in the first and second interviews as well as having all members of the interview team complete a bias worksheet pre-interview and receive written and video guidance on equitable interviewing practices.
April 9, 2021: All staff are asked to take a survey about engagement conducted by an outside vendor. At the time, staff were barred from knowing that it was related to the Star Tribune's Best Places to Work survey. Although the response rate is 76% and suggests significant issues - 46% of staff are disengaged, only 10% of staff are enthusiastically engaged and the agency has lower scoring than similarly sized nonprofits - the CEO decides not to pay for the rest of the results and does not share the minimal results with the Management team until Oct 11, 2021. This is only after repeated requests by Managers for a report back.
April 19, 2021: New Director of Advancement starts at Rainbow Health.
May 3, 2021: New Director of Client Services starts at Rainbow Health.
August 13, 2021: Rainbow Health's Client Services Leadership Team sends a "letter of concerns" to the Senior Leadership Team, citing concerns built up over the last several months around lack of transparency regarding decisions made affecting the agency, silos within the agency, and several specific events, including:
Lack of action around unrestricted funds for BIPOC housing that was not utilized for eight months during a global pandemic. The CEO had asked staff to hold off on spending funds for potential creative uses, but failed to follow-up until funders asked for a progress report in May 2021. He then asked the newly hired Directors of Advancement and Client Services to resolve this despite the lack of context surrounding the funding.
The lack of preparation, transparency, and planning around a potential state shutdown beginning July 2021. Staff were alerted to the potential shutdown and furloughs at an All Staff meeting with a week's notice and without any prior conversations with management staff. This caused immeasurable confusion and panic amongst staff. There was no discussion of impact on or communication of the potential shutdown with clients despite the majority of client-facing services being impacted. When asked to hold himself accountable for these missteps, the CEO partially deflected responsibility by stating that staff could have sent him notices from funders regarding the situation and brought it up themselves.
A repeated inability to adequately recognize Black History Month despite many reminders and nudges from staff.
August 13–October 28, 2021: There is a rapid deterioration of trust between the CEO and the Client Services Leadership Team in addition to several senior leaders and Management Team members.
The initial discussion of the letter of concerns goes poorly and many identify the need for a consultant/mediator/facilitator to help the parties communicate effectively with one another.
Despite this and the request to work collaboratively to resolve issues facing the agency, the CEO refuses these requests and unilaterally chooses to move forward with a workgroup concept he developed. When questioned about his decision, the CEO tells management staff, "I am the CEO," that Rainbow Health is "a workplace, not a democracy," and that "if people don't like the decision I make, they can leave." The CEO also does not answer questions regarding demoralized staff or retaliation concerns.
Several senior leaders vocally oppose the CEO's decision, despite the CEO mandating that senior leaders support his plan publically. The CEO's decision does not change, and he states that conversations regarding these concerns have not been productive.
The CEO cancels senior leadership meetings weekly from September 27th through October 18th, and on October 22nd, announces his unilateral decision to put the senior leadership team on indefinite pause, leaving senior leaders without formal opportunity to collaborate and without peer support. When questioned about his decision at the subsequent management team meeting on October 25th, CEO states, "The Senior Leadership Team - who's on it, how often it meets, and what it does - has been something that has been under my authority as the CEO…Whether or not a group of Directors meet and how often they meet is not something that I would put up for discussion for a group like this." He also states that neither group is a decision making group and "won't be moving forward," and that he has not received "actionable requests" from the team.
During this timeframe, three staff resign and cite issues related to agency management and leadership, including a long-time Client Services frontline staff member, the Communications Manager, and the Director of Behavioral Health.
During this timeframe, both the former Director of Client Services and former Education & Prevention Senior Advisor are consistently vocal about their concern, dismay and disagreement with CEO's handling of the situation. They both offer advice on more inclusive ways to address staff concerns.
October 25, 2021: The MN Department of Human Services' (DHS) Request for Proposals (RFP) for HIV Services is released with a due date of January 10th, 2022. The CEO puts the former Director of Client Services entirely in charge of the proposal development.
November 3, 2021–January 12, 2022: On November 3rd, a group of management team members file a formal grievance against CEO Jeremy Hanson Willis to the Rainbow Health Board of Directors.
November 22, 2021: The board responds that after obtaining legal advice and speaking with the CEO to obtain his viewpoint, they remain supportive of the CEO's leadership of Rainbow Health and will not be providing further updates on the matter to staff.
December 27, 2021: The management team members respond stating that the Board's response failed to acknowledge the severity of the problems faced by the agency or address the requests set forth in the original grievance. They also request further action by the end of January 2022, including that the grievance be sent to the full Board of Directors, that the Board pursue a full investigation of the grievance, that the Board work with the management team to pursue mediation and select a mediator, and the Board take actual action to demonstrate the concerns raised are truly being addressed.
January 12, 2022: CEO Jeremy Hanson Willis sends a memo to management team members (as instructed by the Board of Directors Executive Committee) responding to their December 27th letter.
December 6, 2021: Management team meets. The CEO and CFO Brenda Clark present a draft budget for the 2022 fiscal year to the management team. The budget includes a $705,005 planned deficit. CFO states that the budget is close to the final draft, and that she intends to look at how to reduce general operating expenses not reimbursed by a contract to reduce the deficit. After being asked whether the deficit would result in staff cuts, the CEO does not provide a clear answer, stating that he cannot predict what changes would be made prior to the board vote. This is the only significant update regarding the 2022 budget shared with management staff prior to the layoffs/restructure announcement in January 2022.
December 7, 2021 to Feb 13, 2022: CEO does not schedule any meetings with the Management Team, despite staff expressing concern about the 2022 budget, the projected deficit and its potential impact. Management team (pre- and post-restructure) does not meet until February 14th.
December 14, 2021: CEO announces CFO Brenda Clark's resignation from Rainbow Health, effective December 22, 2021.
December 20, 2021: CEO announces Director of Education & Prevention's resignation from Rainbow Health, effective January 1, 2022.
January 8, 2022: The former Director of Client Services submits Rainbow Health's DHS Proposal for HIV Services after working on it for several months and putting in numerous hours outside regular work time to complete. The Director of Client Services had no prior knowledge of the proposed/planned budget and layoffs.
January 14, 2022: CEO and HR Manager hold layoff meetings with all impacted staff. Staff who were not given an option to stay (Director of Client Services and Education Specialist) have access to work documents and equipment removed within two hours of being eliminated and without warning. CEO announces Rainbow Health's 2022 budget and agency layoffs in a 15-minute afternoon meeting involving all staff. The layoffs include the elimination of all program Director positions and Education department positions. The CEO ends the meeting without giving staff any opportunity to ask questions, and states he will announce restructure plans after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
January 18, 2022: CEO announces details of restructure. Several staff express confusion, concern, and anger related to layoffs and CEO's flattening of the agency, especially his decision to supervise all managers and supervisors. Many explicitly ask why a grant funded position (Director of Client Services) was eliminated and raise concerns about this layoff being retaliatory in nature. Many also express concern about whether the CEO would be able to effectively supervise specialized staff without having the necessary knowledge/skills/qualifications to do so. The CEO is dismissive of and refuses to respond clearly to calls for further transparency related to the budgets proposed, layoffs, and restructure, but does state that he received confirmation that it was all legal. CEO also tone polices staff's emotionality and ends the meeting despite staff asking for more time to express the impact of the restructure.
January 27, 2022: The first All Staff meeting post-restructure takes place. All staff are placed on indefinite mute and can only submit questions via Q&A function that is seen only by the CEO. Three staff are muted in the middle of their program updates when expressing concerns about the restructure and agency climate. Part way through the meeting, the chat function is shut down so that staff cannot communicate with each other through the meeting chat.
February 2, 2022: Rainbow Health frontline staff announce intention to formally unionize, with a majority of eligible staff signing cards to support the unionization effort.
February 11, 2022: Rainbow Health Board of Directors announce decision to not unilaterally designate union as the staff's representative and forces union decision to vote. One board member, Abel Knochel, resigns immediately after the meeting.
February 11, 2022: CEO announces AIDSLine Program Manager's resignation, from Rainbow Health, effective February 17, 2022.
February 14, 2022: Five months after staff requests for mediation, the CEO brings in a facilitator chosen by him and briefed only by him to the first Program Partnership (revamped Management Team) meeting. During the meeting, one manager mentioned that the agency has been experiencing a lot of issues, and they found it hard to focus on the activity that the facilitator was leading. The facilitator replied with: "we cannot allow things that happened in the past to get in the way of us moving forward with the organization". This dynamic continued throughout the meeting, and at the end of the meeting, when managers were asked how they were feeling, some of the words that came up were: "terrified", "sad", "hopeless", "disappointed", and "stressed".
February 21–28, 2022: CEO announces the resignation of three additional staff: a behavioral health therapist, a behavioral health clinical supervisor, and a medical case manager.
March 7, 2022: It is our understanding that the DHS Proposal for HIV Services award is communicated to the agency, specifically that the agency's proposal has passed the evaluation stage and has moved into contract negotiations. In his communication about the award to staff, CEO fails to include the laid off Director of Client Services in his acknowledgements list, even though she had completed the vast majority of the work on the proposal in her last months at the agency.
March 11, 2022: CEO announces resignation of COVIDLine Supervisor, effective March 18, 2022.
March 25, 2022: CEO shares 2022 budget with all-staff after prompting from various staff members. Many staff find the budget provides very little insight on the financial impacts the restructure.
March 30, 2022: Rainbow Health Workers vote to form their union with 95% support in election ballots counted.