We believe the diversity of our community is one of Alexandria’s greatest assets. ACT for Alexandria is embarking on a journey with our colleagues across the City to achieve a future when race no longer predicts one’s outcomes in life; when everyone has what they need to thrive, no matter what neighborhood they live in, the color of their skin, their gender, or where they were born.
As Alexandria’s community foundation, this vision of a vibrant community is core to our work. In order to move this vision forward, we asked 250 nonprofit, civic and business leaders at the recent IMPACT 2019: Racial Equity Forum what they need. Here’s what they said:
- Training for board and staff members
- Resources to learn more about racial equity
- Convening people in a safe space to have conversations to learn with and from one another
- Developing leaders and creating a pipeline of people to serve on boards and commissions
- Funding for organizations to get started or continue this work
To address these needs, we are kicking off a Racial Equity Capacity Building Initiative. It includes:
- Workshops that address what it means to be an ally for racial equity and build bridges to ensure equity, opportunity and inclusion for everyone. These one-day workshops will be open to everyone in the community. Sponsored by Kaiser Permanente and The Bruhn-Morris Family Foundation.
- A Design Lab with participants from the workshops to capture feedback about their desired continued learnings around racial equity with the goal of creating a peer cohort group, which began in October 2019.
- A six-month Learning Lab to equip leaders in effective racial equity implementation in their organizations.
- Community conversations that bring people together for dialogue to build deeper understanding and surface new ideas and solutions.
- Capacity-building grants that help nonprofits build know-how and knowledge about racial equity with their staff, board and constituents.
Participate in Our Racial Equity Capacity Building Initiative Events:
Allyship workshops, presented by Whitney Parnell of Service Never Sleeps. The Allyship training will equip you with tools to be an active ally for racial justice through methods of centering people of color, influencing others, and continuing your own self-work journey. You’ll leave this intensive fast-paced workshop feeling committed to the Allyship lifestyle, and prepared to facilitate change in your own work place. ACT hosted seven sold-out Allyship workshops in 2019 and will host a six workshops in 2020. The confirmed dates include: January 29, March 24 (for Board members only), and May 14. Additional dates will be announced. The cost is $75. Meals will be provided and scholarships are available. Please contact Brandi Yee at brandi.yee@actforalexandria.
Community Conversation. Join ACT for Alexandria & the Meyer Foundation on Tuesday, February 18 from 3-5pm for a conversation among nonprofit leaders and others who are dedicated to advancing racial equity in the City of Alexandria. This informal conversation will be an open exchange of ideas, challenges, solutions and hopefulness among those who gather. We want to hear more about emerging issues among your members/clients/constituents/stakeholders. There is no formal structure or agenda, you can stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole 2 hours to join the conversation. We encourage you to share your thoughts about our community’s current strengths and challenges, as well as how we can all work together to build a more equitable Alexandria for the future. ACT & Meyer Foundation will answer any questions about our foundations’ goals and priorities for 2020. Please share this message with others and invite them to stop by for coffee and conversation anytime between 3-5pm at ACT’s new offices at ALX Community Waterfront, 201 N. Union Street, Suite 110. RSVP to brandi.yee@actforalexandria.org.
Racial Equity Capacity Building Initiative is sponsored by:
Resources
- To Our White Friends, Empathy is Not Enough, Whitney Parnell
- Opening to the Question of Belonging , john a. powell
- The Roots of Implicit Bias, Daniel Yudkin and Jay Van Bavel
- Yes You Have Implicit Biases Too, David Gooblar
- The Groundwater Approach; Building a Practical Understanding of Structural Racism
- Putting Racism on the Table: Robin DiAngelo on White Privilege
- Shifting Philanthropy from Charity to Justice , Dorian Burton and Brian Barnes
- What Does it Look Like for a Community to Own its Future , Meghan Hafner and Elizabeth Ramaccia
- We are also exploring Alexandria's own history. Check out this video about our community's schools - The Secret Seven: Integrating Alexandria's Schools.