Who We Are, Why We Came Together & How We Show Up
A little over a year ago, a group of colleagues began convening regularly to learn with and from one another, and to support our collective vision and daily work to make progress toward race equity and collective liberation in partnership with leaders, organizations and networks. At the time, we could not have foreseen the historical course of 2020 and the exponential increase in demand for race equity training, capacity building and consulting in the wake the murders of countless Black and trans individuals— Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Michelle Michellyn Ramos Vargas and many others— sparking Black Lives Matter demonstrations nationwide.
We came together with a shared vision to hold space for ourselves and other colleagues – whether they identify as race equity practitioners or DEI consultants – interested in engaging a community focused on learning, peer support and movement-building for transformation of the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, and society. Our first collaborative project was to define our shared values as practitioners, and to outline how those values connect to who we are, why we came together and how we show up in our work to support one another and organizations. The resulting infographic is the first in a series of resources we plan to cocreate and curate as part of our emerging work together.
We will keep connecting, writing and sharing, and invite others to join us on the learning journey before each of us committed to race equity and social justice in the organizations we lead and support.
Our forthcoming infographic, to be released in early 2021, will focus on the “what” of race equity work, “how” change happens and “how” we know when organizational transformation in pursuit of race equity and collective liberation is being done well and contributes to movement building.
