Strategies for Creating Space for Conversations on Racial Equity

November 29, 2017 1 Comment

Increasingly, social sector organizations are applying collaborative change frameworks and tools to engage in racial equity transformation. In a pattern reflective of the broader movement for racial justice, employees, often women of color in particular, are challenging organizational commitment to racial equity internally and programmatically. Often people who are ready to take action want to know what they can do to create space for the conversations needed to catalyze racial equity transformation.

The list of strategies below was generated by Marlon Williams, Ratna Gill, Madeline Burke and Kimberly Dumont, during our Fundamentals of Facilitation for Racial Justice Work workshop held in NYC earlier this month.

  1. Data: Use data to identify and initiate a conversation about inequities
  2. Training: Invest resources in training to staff to learn about racial equity and create the space for them to bring insights back to the organization
  3. Elevate Voices: Look for expertise throughout the organization’s hierarchy and give power to those with the capacity to lead, regardless of position.
  4. Personal Capital: Leadership and those with significant person capital can use if in service of prioritizing conversations about equity.
  5. Crisis: Incidents in the news that highlight the impact of our racial disparities can serve as a call to action.
  6. Personal Ownership: A commitment to racial equity should be owned by specific individuals throughout the organization’s structure.
  7. Outside Voices: Bring in outside voices to validate the need and urgency for having a focus on racial equity.
  8. Highlight the Loss: Identify the the risks or potential loss of not having a focus on racial equity.

Have you tried any of these strategies? Is your organization embarking on a journey of racial equity transformation? We can help.

 

1 Comment

  • Miriam Messinger says:

    I love the sourcing from the really smart and experienced people in our workshops. Yesterday, talking with a leader of a school who wants to do more equity outcomes work, I was reminded of the importance of #4, Personal Capital. He was struggling with the how–I care and how can I get others to care when I think there might be resistance.

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