“MANY OF THE BUSINESSES IN [THE] ALLIANCE GO ON TO DO INCREDIBLE THINGS, AND ARE VERY SUCCESSFUL.”
—JOYCE CLARK-HENRY
Paige Curtis: What made you want to get involved with the Community Standards Committee?
Joyce Clark-Henry: I felt joining the committee was a good way for me to give back in the form of resourcing new businesses. I ran for the committee on a platform of healthcare, so it felt important to let business owners know that there were people there with various abilities and resources to share with them, so that they could be successful in their business.
Which one of the Community Standards most resonates with you?
I’ll always gravitate most towards the environmental health-related standards, given my background in public health. One of our standards involves avoiding the use of toxic cleaning chemicals, and making sure employees have access to health insurance. Working with those standards also gave me an opportunity to kind of sit back and think about what chemicals I’m using in my own house. So now I use greener products when cleaning at home like vinegar and water.
I also find the standards around employee access to voting to be very important. I want businesses to let their employees go and vote, knowing how important that practice is.
What is the most common point of feedback you hear from businesses about Ujima’s Community Standards?
Applicants really appreciate the transparency around the application process. I’ve never heard anyone say, “There's so many questions to answer.” If anything, people appreciate the opportunity to have thought about some of these workplace questions after being prompted by the application.
If businesses don’t have something like an employee handbook, the committee offers assistance with building foundations like that. It’s really a learning process, I think, for many of them. We want all of the businesses we work with to succeed, so even if they fall short of the standards, there are still ways we can collaborate and offer resources.
Can you share a major win you experienced while working with the CSC?
For me the most rewarding wins happen when we interview Good Business Alliance applicants. Live interviews give you a feel for what people are talking about in their application and their deeper intentions for their business. It’s really great to hear more about how people built their businesses and what values are important to them. It takes a lot of intention to complete the application, so we want to honor that by providing more space to speak about their business goals.
What is your dream for the future of the Good Business Alliance and the Community Standards Committee?
I think there are certainly ways we can streamline the Business Alliance application in the future. I would also like to see more members on the committee, to expand the scope of our work – there is a lot of exciting work to be done!
I know the committee will always stay true to Ujima’s values and mission. Many of the businesses in Ujima’s alliance go on to do incredible things, and are very successful. That’s why we choose the businesses that we choose: because you see something in them and you know, they're going to succeed. ♡
Joyce Clark-Henry is the Research Program Coordinator for the Center of Clinical Investigation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Clark-Henry’s community leadership experience works to promote, protect and maintain the health of urban communities. She advocates for equal access to health education, care, treatment and research for all people of color, while sponsoring health-related activities such as health forums, fairs and workshops highlighting issues of importance to people of color. Clark-Henry’s is also a practicing Doula since 1998 and continues to support women’s maternal health outcomes. Clark-Henry is a founding member of the Boston Ujima Project, and was elected to sit on the Community Standards Committee in April 2018.