A group alleging abuses spanning decades at Mennonite Central Committee launched a formal organization Sept. 5 to hold the relief, peace and development organization to account as the group announced the number of former workers with stories of abuse has doubled.

The new entity — MCC Abuse Sur­vivors Together, or MAST — includes signers of a June 11 open letter that alleged retributive termination for reporting concerns, sexual assault by MCC staff, exposure to physical danger, bullying from leadership and human resources staff, and psychological harassment.

MAST is seeking justice for survivors of alleged abuses, accountability for MCC and transparency for constituents. The group seeks to support those who have been impacted, offer a means of reporting and tracking cases confidentially, and offer space to share stories publicly.

Signers of the open letter outlined 21 cases of abuse. Since May, an additional 22 former MCC workers shared stories of painful experiences. A majority of the cases are from the last 25 years, with a few from the 1980s and ’90s.

“We have heard from salaried staff in Canada and the US as well as staff in international locations,” the MAST steering committee wrote in a Sept. 10 release. “Some of these cases involve events currently unfolding. We seek to support those who share their painful stories, often after years of thinking they were the only ones to experience something like this.”

In response to questions from Anabaptist World, MCC said in a statement that it laments a number of former employees feel harmed by the organization. MCC is exploring the creation of a “listening space” similar to the office of an ombudsperson to engage with people who have concerns.

“Through the open letter, online petition and now MAST, MCC has heard a plea for organizational change,” MCC stated. “Change has been happening and will continue to happen.”

MCC indicated it is planning an external review of its Speak Up system for reporting concerns, implementing a staff engagement survey, providing ongoing training for staff around protection from sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, increasing training for human resources staff working in international programming and continuing to involve third-party organizations to mediate and investigate concerns.

MCC added that it has started a conversation with other organizations on how Anabaptist theology and restorative justice processes must shape how organizations interact with personnel.

MAST criticized statements by MCC Canada and U.S. executive directors Rick Cober Bauman and Ann Graber Hershberger that MAST said implied a lack of distinction between workplace abuse and organizational conflict.

“While ‘abuse’ is a strong word, it is the appropriate term for what has been experienced,” wrote the MAST steering committee in its release. “Bullying, humiliating and psychologically harassing staff, firing staff while sick or in the midst of a mental health crisis, sexually assaulting staff, mishandling reports of sexual assault, offering money in exchange for silence, summarily firing staff for reporting concerns or refusing to collaborate with corrupt practice — these are serious actions that go far beyond simple workplace conflict. . . . No sector of MCC is exempt.”

MAST invites reports of abuse to be sent confidentially to stopmccabuse@proton.me and supporters to sign a change.org petition that calls for an external investigation. The petition had 1,439 signatures as of Sept. 17.