Our JEDI Communities of Practice provide brave spaces for ENGO staff to share experiences, resources, and best practices to foster BIPOC-welcoming and affirming workplaces. In Fall 2024, members of the ENGO sector can choose from one of two streams: BIPOC Inclusion Cafe: Laying the Foundations, or BIPOC Inclusion Lab: Fostering Transformational Change. Each stream consists of six two-hour sessions held bi-weekly via Zoom.
To provide an intimate experience that fosters meaningful engagement, each stream is limited to a maximum of 15 participants. These streams are not passive experiences. Expect to actively lean in and participate by sharing your organizational experiences and resources with your peers in a collegial environment devoted to unlearning and grounded in empathy.
Our JEDI Communities of Practice offer ENGO staff the opportunity to:
This initial session is focussed on building trust and safety in the group and getting to know each other. We will introduce the concept of psychological safety, discuss why it is essential to organizational BIPOC inclusion initiatives, and explore how colonization factors in. We will practice identifying and coming to terms with our own privileges, and how those relate to psychological safety.
Before diving into BIPOC inclusion initiatives, many organizations don’t stop to assess what staff time and financial resources they can realistically devote to such initiatives. We will explore your organization’s BIPOC inclusion “why”, and how to set your organization up for success by setting realistic goals based on resource capacity.
Forming an official JEDI Committee can take your organization’s BIPOC inclusion efforts to the next level. We will discuss considerations for committee membership, guidelines and scope options, and how the committee can best communicate with and integrate the work of other areas of the organization.
While ENGOs often start with external-facing JEDI statements, true change comes from within. We will discuss considerations for creating internal JEDI plans, how they may inform external JEDI statements, and why to consider documenting your organization’s journey.
Creating BIPOC inclusion foundations also means making the case to your colleagues, leadership, and Board for why BIPOC inclusion is important. We will discuss organizational benefits, effective strategies, and how to counter common arguments against implementing BIPOC inclusion initiatives.
In the final session, we bring everything together with a solid work plan designed to set you up for success to take your foundational learnings back to your organization, and discuss potential organizational changes to lay or strengthen your foundation for BIPOC inclusion.
Registrants will be granted access to course materials and recordings for 60 days after each session.
This initial session is focussed on building trust and safety in the group and getting to know each other. We will take an in-depth look at the concept of psychological safety, discuss why it is essential to organizational BIPOC inclusion initiatives, and explore how intersectionality factors in.
Colonization has created a world in which White/European people hold the most privilege. This has significant impacts on BIPOC inclusion in the workplace. We will explore how White privilege can lead to guilt and fragility, as well as identifying and coming to terms with our own privileges across a range of dimensions.
BIPOC inclusion isn’t only about diversifying staff – it's also about fostering workplaces where BIPOC staff have real power. We will discuss how to map power flows, how power is shared (and with who), and explore best practices for democratizing power in your organization.
Mentorship may get all the attention, but it can only do so much on its own. We will discuss the differences between these three terms, best mentorship practices, and the many benefits of allyship and sponsorship to BIPOC staff, and the whole organization.
In ENGO workplace culture, staff are typically expected to go above and beyond due to their dedication to “the cause”. This approach increases the risk of burnout for everyone, but has special impacts on BIPOC staff. We will discuss the concept of organizational cultures of care, explore different caring strategies and impacts, and identify how to integrate care into all aspects of organizational culture.
In the final session, we bring everything together with a solid work plan designed to set you up for success to take your learnings back to your organization, and discuss how to drive transformative change via BIPOC inclusion.
Registrants will be granted access to course materials and recordings for 60 days after each session.
Viewing JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) through the lens of empathy, her decolonized, intersectional approach has helped organizations build capacity by implementing JEDI-focused training, events, communities of practice, peer networks, and advocacy campaigns. By centering underserved communities including BIPOC, youth, and 2SLGBTQIA+, she helps organizations understand how colonial structures impact organizational health
To provide the best peer-sharing and relationship-building experience, each stream is limited to 15-20 people. We are currently accepting applications until August 30, or until we reach capacity.
Please contact Anna-Liza Badaloo (anna-liza@sustainabilitynetwork.ca) for any questions.
Session 1: Settler Colonialism 101
Introduce ENGO representatives to the fact that colonization is a structure and not an event. Identifies key ways that colonialism moves through individuals and organizations.
Session 2: Positionality
ENGO representatives learn how to articulate their social location within a settler colonial state, and in relation to potential Indigenous partners.
Session 3: Inherent Indigenous Governance 101
Introduce the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues. Examples provided.
Session 4: Building Better Relations
ENGO representatives will road test ways they can implement previous workshop key points to re-imagine partnerships with Indigenous nations.
Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
Session 1: Diagnosing Settler Colonialism in the Enviro Sector
Participants will be asked to share ways in which they have diagnosed and traced power in social justice movements and/or in the ENGO sector. This workshop will make space for discomfort as part of promoting decolonization.
Session 2: Inherent Indigenous Governance
A mix of advanced and introductory theory, this workshop delves into legal and political pluralism, naming the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues.
Session 3: The Nonprofit Industrial Complex
ENGO participants are introduced to theories and examples describing the Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the “Shadow State.” Purpose is to show how settler colonialism structures civil society.
Session 4: Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships
This workshop delves deep into how ENGOs can partner with Indigenous nations beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex while promoting deference to inherent Indigenous political leaders.
Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
The Indigenous only space will be collaborative in nature but critical in approach. This track is a space for Indigenous folks within the ENGO sector to come together to discuss their experiences and work, with an eye to taking a position on what the sector might need to do in order to promote decolonization. Participants will use the first session to define our goals for the remaining three meetings. Therefore, session topics named here are proposals only.
Session 1: Naming the Cannibal: Settler Colonialism in the ENGO Sector
Session 2: Proposed topic: Reflections on working in the ENGO Sector
Session 3: Proposed topic: Centering Indigenous Thought in the ENGO Sector
Session 4: Proposed topic: Visioning a Decolonial Environmental Sector
Cost: Free
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