Over one year ago, the Equity department launched our biggest project yet - Growing for Change. It was a huge undertaking to facilitate two-day equity workshops for over 650 staff and 150 volunteer leaders at Sierra Club. We learned a ton from the workshops (more on that to follow) and we want to share what we learned so that other organizations and communities in the movement can build on our work to create dialogue and foster learning on equity.
For an inside view into what Growing for Change was like, and how it has impacted us an organization, check out our mini-documentary on the workshops and share it on social media. Getting to participate in facilitated dialogue and learning with the brilliant folks at Partners for Collaborative Change was a gift, and we want to share that gift with the world.
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But of course our journey didn’t end with Growing for Change. We took all the data that was collected at the workshops, from survey responses, interactive exercises and observations by the facilitators to better understand how our workshops impacted people. We’ll use that data to inform our future learning opportunities so they can be more effective and powerful, and are currently building out our strategy for the next three years of equity, inclusion and justice work at Sierra Club based on our findings.
Here are some of the lessons that we’re taking away from Growing for Change, that you can apply to change work in your own organization or community:
- Follow-up: Participants in Growing for Change had a strong desire for ongoing engagement around equity, and didn’t want to see equity work siloed off into a single workshop. We recommend that all organizations pursuing these kind of workshops plan for ongoing engagement with the same groups of folks who participated in the original workshop, and build in structures of accountability and support to ensure those dialogues continue.
- Tools: We heard a strong desire for applicable tools for addressing oppression and toxic behavior, often tailored to particular issues that departments, regions, or groups face. We recommend creating these tools and sharing them in advance of a workshop.
- Margins to Center: Folks in our community are in different places on their equity journey. People with marginalized identities or a lived experience of oppression experienced unintended impacts from being in challenging, honest spaces with folks who hold unexamined and even harmful views about race and identity. We recommend that every step possible be taken to center the needs of people with marginalized identities in any learning setting around equity.
If there is one lesson we want to share most from our experience with Growing for Change, it is this: don’t be afraid of the conversation. This is challenging, intense work that requires considerable resources and will never be complete. But it’s also just people sitting in a room talking about their experiences and learning from each other. We hope by sharing our experiences we’ll inspire more people to seek out equity education, and create space for dialogue in your own communities. Don’t forget to share our video on social media to offer your friends and family an inside view of what it’s like to struggle together for collective liberation.