Creating an Environment to Advance Racial Equity Community

Creating an Environment to Advance Racial Equity Community of Practice October 22, 2013 ! G IN M D O O G N R O

Dr. Maya Angelou I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous or honest.

Every child has the right to a quality education.

This promise is far from reality for kids across the U. S.

National Equity Project Mission To dramatically improve educational experiences, outcomes and life options for students and families who have been historically underserved.

We support leaders to design creative and transformative solutions to their own equity challenges.

And implement their solutions in ways that empower and liberate their communities.

We believe people can solve their own problems.

Problems and solutions are technical AND relational Technical Relational Adopted from Dalmau Network Group

Morning Mixer Find someone and share. . . What brought you here today? What “problems” are you interested in solving?

Here’s what we are going for today. . . Connect with each other and with our ‘Racial Equity’ work Talk, share, reflect and learn together as a ‘Community of Practice’ Consider some ideas for practicing ‘transformative leadership’ in your context Practice – using each other – talking about and leading ‘equity work’ inside your organization

Community Agreements An invitation to try these on • Show up (or choose to be present) • Pay attention (to heart and meaning) • Tell the truth (without blame or judgment) • Be open to outcome (not attached to outcome) • ADDITION. . . Maintain confidentiality

YOUR ORGANIZATION is a ‘Living System’ Technical Relational Adopted from Dalmau Network Group

Human Systems Lens Living systems contain their own solutions. When they are suffering from declining performance – the solution is always to bring the system together so that it can learn more about itself from itself. Somewhere in the system there are people who have already figured out how to resolve this problem. They are already practicing what others think is impossible. To make a system healthier, we need to simply connect it to more of itself. It is crucial to remember that, in organizations, we are working with webs of relations, not with machines. Margaret Wheatley

INSANITY Doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.

REFRESH . . . Racial Equity Theory of Change PROCESS Ø Thrive is awarded a grant from the Kellogg Foundation Ø Seven Large Group Stakeholder convenings (150 people) over a year’s time to develop a Racial Equity Theory of Change (RETOC) Ø Work Group met in between to synthesize the work of the larger group Ø Community of Practice was an idea that originated during the development of the RETOC, participants needed a venue to develop skills, share lessons learned and PRACTICE taking leadership

REFRESH . . . Racial Equity Theory of Change MAP Step #1: What We Want – Defining our Racial Equity Outcome Step #2: What We Need – Identifying the Building Blocks for Change Step #3: What Helps or Stands in the Way – Identifying Policies, Practices, Cultural Representations Step #4: What We Must Know – Understanding the Politics of Change Step #5: What We Must Do – Gearing Up for Action

TABLE TALK When did YOU enter this work? What feels promising or exciting to you? What questions do you have?

1 - Equity 2 - Living, Complex Systems 3 - Systems of Advantage 3 - Opportunity Gap 4 - Structural Racialization 5 - Targeted Universalism

EQUITY doesn’t mean EQUAL © 2011 -2013 CTWorking. Moms. com

WHAT IS A SYSTEM? Events Effects Conscious Individual Subconscious / Unconscious Systems Lens Individuals and Groups Achievement Gap Patterns Underlying Structures Mental Models Cultural & Institutional Values Institutional and Inter-Institutional Opportunity Gap

A Systems Truism A system, any system, produces what it is designed to produce. from “Bridges, Tunnels, and School Reform: It’s the System Stupid: by Thomas Kelly Phi Delta Kappan, October 2007

1779 Thomas Jefferson proposes a two-track educational system, with different tracks in his words for "the laboring and the learned. " Scholarship would allow a very few of the laboring class to advance, Jefferson says, by "raking a few geniuses from the rubbish. "

Systems of Advantage White privilege is an invisible, weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks…an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day. Dr. Peggy Mc. Intosh

Systems of Advantage Some people ride the “up” escalator to reach opportunity john powell, Kirwan Institute Others have to run up the “Down” escalator to get there

opportunity and structures “success is not a random act. it arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities” Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers

Opportunity is defined as a fair chance to achieve one’s full potential.

Using a Lens of Racial Equity …allows us to uncover the policies practices and behaviors that sustains unequal outcomes for children and families Three levels of analysis • Individual • Institutional • Structural Individual Institutional Structural

From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U. S. Schools - Gloria Ladson-Billings We must use our imaginations to construct a set of images that illustrate the debt. The images should remind us that the cumulative effect of poor education, poor housing, poor health care, and poor government services create a bifurcated society that leaves more than its children behind.

structural inequality example: a Bird in a cage. – examining one wire cannot explain why a bird cannot fly. – but multiple wires, arranged in specific ways, reinforce each other and trap the bird.

Situatedness – we must consider how we each stand differently with respect to our opportunities for work, education, parenting, retirement… – we must understand the work our institutions do, not what we wished they would do in order to make them more equitable and fair

All on The Same Boat

All on the same boat…but not on the same deck

Opportunity is related to how we are situated… How is opportunity different depending on the “deck” one is on?

Targeted Universalism This approach supports the needs of the particular while reminding us that we are all part of the same social fabric • universal, yet captures how people are differently situated • inclusive, yet targets those who are most marginalized

Targeted Universalism Universal Programs Targeted Universalism

Sankofa “return & fetch” The Sankofa Bird looks backward with the egg of the future in her beak, constantly checking as she moves into the future. KIVA PANEL 1. What is your current understanding of what it means for you to do or lead ‘racial equity work’? 2. Where have you felt some strength, confidence or success? 1. What questions or challenges still remain for you?

LUNCH BREAK

Working through a CRITICAL INCIDENT Consider a “critical incident” to be a significant event, occurrence, or interaction that has impacted your leadership and work in some way. Ideally, this critical incident will be something that you personally observed and/or participated in, rather than something you heard about from someone else.

“Helping Trios” A structured process designed to help an individual/team think more expansively about a particular concrete problem or dilemma.

HELPING TRIOS Round 1 Partner ‘A’ (15 minutes) 4 minutes ‘A’ shares incident while ‘B’ & ‘C’ listen and take notes 2 minutes ‘B’ & ‘C’ ask clarifying questions 6 minutes ‘B’ & ‘C’ conversation- B & C talk about what they heard raise questions on behalf of their colleague, ‘A’ listens and takes notes 3 minutes ‘A’ responds to what he/she heard as desired— “What was helpful? ” Then have an open conversation. Round 2 & 3 Repeat for Partner ‘B’ & “C”

ACTION. . . What’s your next MOVE? 42

Taking it Forward GOING FORWARD “There’s never any guarantee of victory in history. Nevertheless, if we can commit to loving, serving, and understanding each other – recognizing that we are far more alike than we are different – we have a chance. ” Cornel West