The recent racial justice movement in our country gave particular light to injustices caused to black, brown and indigenous communities. This gave rise to organizations everywhere asking themselves – are we racially inclusive? Where do our workplace practices create disproportionate stress on my non-white staff? To help organizations reflect on these questions, we launched our Becoming an Antiracist Organization initiative.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work begins by acknowledging different types of diversity, and what causes the difference. Most of our Becoming an Antiracist Organization trainings begin with our trainers introducing ourselves by sharing a way that we have been perceived as “different” or “diverse” from the dominant culture.
At Be the Change, we have been iterating on our approach to training and consulting design. We ask ourselves: what does it take to go from an organization that sees itself as welcoming to an organization that fosters belonging.
It’s not surprising that white folks struggle with concepts in Robin Diangelo’s book, White Fragility. The internet (and perhaps other chat threads) are full of debate. But intellectual debate is not that interesting to me or the other trainers on my team. Here’s what is, and what I realize we need to acknowledge for our training participants.
Dominant culture, as created by those whose identities are most often centered, can be really hard to see or define. Like oxygen, it can become invisible even though we interact with it all the time.
Lisette Ostrander
Director of Education at Beyond Differences
Sarah Wan
Executive Director at CYC
Priscilla Parchia
Program Manager, Expanded Learning
Ay'Anna Moody
Director, Social Impact & Generation Thrive
Rodd Lee
Assistant General Manager, External Affairs
Erin Gutiérrez
Director of Learning & Development
Ariana Bayer
Manager of Family Programs
Pam Connie
Jill Nielsen
Felix Caraballo
P. Marcia Brown
Deanna Grant-Curtis
Carla Williams-Namboodiri
Profesora de Inglés y Humanidades, Escuela Bilingüe Internacional Middle School English and Humanities Teacher
Mei Ann Teo
Assoc Artistic Director, Director of New Work, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
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I am the Director of Education for Beyond Differences. I worked with Fong in the late summer/ fall of 2020. Fong coached me as I prepared to launch an educator cohort series in NYC and FL for close to 70 educators. My primary goals were to build an intentional learning community, support Read More
Lisette Ostrander
Director of Education at Beyond Differences
When developing capacity for my team of 100+ staff, Be the Change Consulting is our go-to organization. Whether I need guidance for our newly hired direct service staff or non-profit veterans from our leadership team, I trust in BTCC to offer the groundwork to address all our needs. They Read More
Sarah Wan
Executive Director at CYC
We have been using the Building Intentional Communities Curriculum for a decade now and continue to come back for more curriculum, more PD, and support. We have continued, renewed, and recommended BTCC’s services because they are exactly what our communities need. Thoughtful, communal, Read More
Priscilla Parchia
Program Manager, Expanded Learning
This year we were excited to partner with Be the Change Consulting, Hellman Foundation and the Walter & Elise Haas Senior Fund to launch a virtual training series just as the pandemic hit and the shelter in place order was announced. We wanted to offer relevant and responsive training and Read More
Ay'Anna Moody
Director, Social Impact & Generation Thrive
Dynamic…diverse…engaging…extraordinary…innovative…inclusive. Those are just a few terms that describe Be the Change Consulting.
Their team of highly skilled professionals, exceptionally led by Sangita Kumar, assisted BART with extensive outreach and in-depth engagement with Read More
Rodd Lee
Assistant General Manager, External Affairs
Be the Change Consulting has been a key partner over the years providing training and support that tends to both content expertise and humanizing processes. The workshops are engaging, thought-provoking, and grounded in the latest academic research, and I most appreciate that their facilitators Read More
Erin Gutiérrez
Director of Learning & Development
Participating in Be The Change Consulting’s Antiracism capacity building series has supported tremendous growth for me professionally through the development of an anti-racist perspective and actions, from big picture project goals and assessments all the way down to how our team opens Read More
Ariana Bayer
Manager of Family Programs
Excellent and I attend a LOT of these training sessions. Well organized. Clear and courageous content.
Pam Connie
I really appreciated the hands on skills at the end of the session.
Very engaging and extremely informed – presented material in an accessible and interesting manner.
I would recommend at least 3 hours for this training.
Jill Nielsen
It’s a different facilitation style that you have but I can see how it works. It’s a much more human experience, rather than a student teacher discussion. I’m impressed.
Great Job.
Felix Caraballo
Thank you for demonstrating your passion: Be The Change; was evident. I appreciate the copy of the PP.
P. Marcia Brown
I love this organization. Their curriculum is some of the best I’ve ever used! Tried and true.
Deanna Grant-Curtis
I adapted the Lemonade activity from your Ice Breakers and Team Builders to Build Social-Emotional Skills for my advisory yesterday. Used the watering pot like a spin the bottle. After saying something they wanted to wash away from the week, they sprinkled water onto the classroom plants. I ❤ Read More
Carla Williams-Namboodiri
Profesora de Inglés y Humanidades, Escuela Bilingüe Internacional Middle School English and Humanities Teacher
I am taking away the way that capitalism and racism are inextricable in causing our micro and macro aggressions against each other. I’m sitting deeply with how the sense of urgency stems from perfectionism and also how it perpetuates how we treat each other as cogs in the wheel instead of Read More
Mei Ann Teo
Assoc Artistic Director, Director of New Work, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Appreciate y’all Aminta & Thomas! I wish we could combine our collective superpowers in facilitating.
Anonymous
It was really helpful to have to say the actual words. Because it highlighted an issue that could have easily been glossed over- Thank you group.
Anonymous
Thank you all for an amazing learning experience.
Anonymous
Thank you so much. These strategies are really helpful and actionable!!
Anonymous
Thank you for this extremely enriching experience!
Anonymous
Thank you for a great session. This has been really informative and helpful.
Anonymous
Thanks y’all. I am leading a capacity building cohort of 49 orgs. I am definitely going to share your info with them and explore with the foundation partners funding options for this work. Thank you!!!!! Love all of it 🙂
Anonymous
Facilitating techniques are great. They are great!
Anonymous
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