Frequently Asked Questions

These are questions we have received from firms.

If your question(s) have not been answered here, feel free to email us at nomapdxcta@gmail.com.

My firm is small (5-10 people) and the commitments seem to be geared towards larger offices. Is it still possible to participate?

Absolutely! We invite and encourage all firms of all sizes to participate. The NOMA PDX CTA committee is currently working on making the commitments more accessible to all sizes of firms. These are a few things that we are currently working on and will be available in the upcoming months:

  • AIAO/NOMA PDX joint cultural competency trainings/interviews for leadership and firmwide

  • NOMA PDX Mentorship program for emerging professionals and mid-career professionals.

  • Programming for resource sharing and support, including firm roundtables at each reporting period

Is there a cost for joining?

There is no cost for the first class* signing up for the CTA in 2024, however each participating firm must have the primary contact as a member and/or a sponsor of our chapter. This may be subject to change in future years and classes.

*A class is a collection of firms who have committed to the Call-To-Action together during a shared set of four reporting periods that take place over two 12-month years.

Definition of “cultural competency interview” would be helpful. We get the gist but we’d like to ensure that we are meeting the intent and can clearly articulate it to the facilitators that we are hiring. Same thing on firm - wide cultural competency workshops – a definition would be helpful to ensure consistency across firms.

This is a great resource for understanding cultural competency. 

The cultural competency interview should be conducted to gauge where your firm stands in their cultural competency at the leadership level and firm-wide. This is imperative to setting your firm benchmark – it is essentially your firm’s starting point. Every firm will have a different starting point, and this is expected. It is important to start with firm leaders first. They create/adopt policies and set the framework for how your firm operates. Once firms know where they stand, they can work with the cultural competency facilitator to design training specific to your firm's needs.

If firms, organizations, or individuals are attending the cultural competency trainings held by AIAO, you will get exposure to a range of topics.

Mentorship programs are notoriously difficult for any size firm but particularly for small firms. I loved the idea in a recent NOMA membership meeting of having AFO or an AIA/NOMA partnership be an aggregator to pair people up outside of their firms.

The NOMA PDX CTA committee is working on creating an external mentorship program for emerging professionals (0 years to 7 years) and mid-career (8 years to 20 years). This program will be made available for any BIPOC professionals who are seeking mentorship. Stay tuned – details will be made available in Q2 of 2024.

Engaging at the state and local level on policy is awesome and we try but this is sometimes difficult to scale for a small firm when the leadership also has substantial project responsibilities.

This commitment can be completed by anyone at the firm. We encourage everyone to get involved! The goal is to give individuals firm support in these engagements.

Example protocols for addressing microaggressions and implicit bias would be super helpful.

These topics will be addressed by the cultural competency trainer or facilitator. These topics are very common for cultural competency training and will already be incorporated into the curriculum.

Foundational commitment related to relationships with HBCUs, etc. are challenging without being larger scale / having the ability and stability to project out multiple years to do that level of planning.

While we encourage firms to reach out to HBCUs and MSIs, Foundational Commitment 5 and Ongoing Commitment 5 allow for firms to reach out to local institutions (ex. Portland Community College), if it is not possible to connect with HBCUs and MSIs. If your firm is unable to develop a collaborative partnership immediately, describe your plan to address this: when you will be able to do so and how you will go about it. We encourage firms to at least start an intentional relationship and pave the way for a future collaborative partnership.

I’m afraid of failure and because of that, feel discouraged to sign on.

We are not expecting firms to achieve perfection on the commitments. It is expected that most commitments will be in progress, and complete for others. This is the start of a journey. We also understand that there are economic uncertainties. With this in mind, we still encourage all firms to sign on and start the work. This is a unique opportunity for firms to take advantage of the program and have the guidance of NOMA PDX. We want to normalize JEDI work in our industry, similar to sustainability. Think of the 2-year program as training wheels and then your firm will have the framework to continue the work independently. The more work you put into it, the more you benefit.

How many people should be leading the charge on this?

This is completely up to you and your firm. NOMA NW found that it worked best when one person (oftentimes, leadership, HR or a JEDI committee member) took the lead with the support of a JEDI/DEI team. We also encourage firms to set up a project number so the work is paid and tracked. Treat this work like you would treat your sustainability work, or any other project with a scope, schedule and budget so you can actively manage involvement at a level that works for your business.

When we sign the pledge, do we need to provide submission materials for the prerequisites or do we have until the first reporting period to provide those materials?

No, please provide all reporting materials and responses at the bi-annual reporting dates.

Do you have information on what the reporting process will look like? (Just so we can better plan ahead for how to gather and submit information.)

An online form will be available for firms to fill out closer to the first reporting date. The information on how NOMA PDX will be assessing the information will be made available in the welcome package that will be sent to signatory firms in February 2024.

How is information shared between the CTA pledge participants? (We are excited to have the opportunity to learn from others!)

Members of our CTA Committee will be setting up events and resource sharing opportunities over the next few months. Stay tuned!