Crossroads also consults with institutions. We assist with internal audits, advise in short- and long-range strategic planning, and help develop tools for implementing changes in anti-racist ways that are accountable to People of Color.
Our experience, knowledge and insight is especially helpful when consulting with racially and culturally diverse groups around the conflict that is inherent with multicultural diversity. Key to this is the ability to work on Internalized Racist Oppression (IRO) with People of Color, and Internalized Racist Superiority (IRS) with white people. This is vital to being able to create systems of empowerment and support for those targeted by racism, create ways for those who benefit from racism to undo white supremacy thinking and action, and to develop strong systems of mutual anti-racist accountability which allow all people to work together as a team to transform their institution.
Your consultation will be tailored to meet the unique needs of your institution, and includes a detailed report with outcomes, observations and recommendations regarding best practices upon completion.
This workshop is an intensive 2.5-day training. A common definition of racism will be explored, and each manifestation of racism – individual, institutional, and cultural – will be examined, along with their effects on both communities of color and white communities. The issue of racism and the task of dismantling racism will be viewed from political, social, spiritual and ethical perspectives, with the goal of equipping people to combat racism within their institutions and in the larger society.
The workshop is conducted in an atmosphere of mutual respect, caring and safety, and is not based on confrontation, guilt and judgment.
The training is designed for all interested persons, especially institutional leaders who have responsibility for cultural diversity or social justice agendas in for-profit and non-profit institutions including: healthcare, public and private school systems, institutions of higher learning, governmental/municipal, financial, philanthropic, judicial, public safety, faith-based, and community-based organizations.
Click here for instructions on how to prepare for a 2.5 day workshop (link to Analysis set-up PDF)
CONTINUING OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEAM GROWTH
Workshops for Team Members Only
Team Renewal & Rejuvenation
Is your team in need of some extended time together to clarify your vision and organizing goals? This is especially helpful for teams that have recently undergone transition – such as leadership change or team expansion – and require a retreat to regroup and refocus. Making time to renew and reinvigorate your team is essential to its ability to work effectively together in making change happen in your institution. Additionally, revisiting organizing strategies, identifying new stakeholders, or clarifying your own team’s needs are all a part of maintaining the health of your team. Crossroads can help facilitate a retreat for you and assist your team in building stronger connections with one another and your work.
Length: 1 – 2 days (based on needs)
Creating and Contextualizing Your Team’s Introductory Model
Translating the Crossroads introductory training model into the language and culture of your own institution is one of the most important things a team can do. Is your team wondering how to translate the model even more effectively? Are you wondering how to extend a three-hour introductory training into a six-hour organizing opportunity? In this workshop team members will dig more deeply into creating a successful training model that advances transformational organizing in their institution.
Length: 1 day
Adding to the Organizer’s Toolbox: Expanding & Deepening Organizing Skills
Anti-racism organizing is fluid and ever changing, and transformation teams working inside of institutions often experience this reality. Crossroads can customize a workshop for teams that are experiencing specific organizing obstacles to help sharpen and deepen the skills needed to meet these challenges.
Length: 1 day
Organizing with Stakeholders
Creating excitement and identifying self-interest among stakeholders is critical to organizing. How do we help stakeholders name their needs, as well as understand the benefits of institutional transformation? And how do we strategize what approaches will be effective with different stakeholders? Teams will have the chance to identify who the stakeholders are, clarify their various needs, and create effective ways of organizing with them.
Length: 1½ – 2 days
Understanding the Role of Resistance in Anti-Racism Organizing
Resistance affects a team’s ability to build institutional relationships with stakeholders. Understanding resistance is critical to effective organizing. This general orientation to resistance looks at the specific team needs and helps create strategies around current organizing blocks.
Length: 1 day
CONTINUING OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEAM GROWTH
Workshops for Team Members and Stakeholders* who have completed a 2.5-day Analysis Workshop
*Stakeholders are those who have a vested interest in the transformation of the team’s institution.
Applying the Analysis to Your Institution
Does your team desire additional conversation about how racism shows up in your institution’s structure and culture? Are there stakeholders who have experienced two and a half day Analysis Training and are hungry for a fuller understanding of exactly how racism functions in your institution? Participants will apply the analysis to their institution by: looking at the institution’s history of racism and resistance; looking for individual, institutional, and cultural racism in your institution; and identifying Power1, Power2, and Power3 in their institution.
Length: 1 day
Understanding Caucusing & How to Caucus Effectively
Caucusing helps teams build the long-term relationships necessary for healthy anti-racist organizing. But how do we caucus properly? Has your team struggled with caucusing? Has your caucusing lost its sense of direction and organizing purpose? This workshop aids in sorting through the nuts and bolts of caucusing, teaches the pitfalls to avoid, and teaches teams the proper facilitation skills and outcomes of caucusing.
Length: 1 day
Exploring and Examining Identity Development: Understanding the Process of Internalization
Internalization of Racist Oppression and Internalization of Racist Superiority fundamentally shape identities of People of Color and Whites in a race-based society. How exactly does this happen? How do our respective behaviors reflect the ways we have all been socialized? And when we act out of our internalized identities, what happens to our anti-racism organizing? This workshop provides teams and stakeholders who have experienced two and half day Analysis Training the chance to explore this topic in greater depth, and to apply learnings to their every day realities.
Length: 1 ½ days
Learning and Living Accountability
Accountability to People and Communities of Color is a complex and sometimes difficult principle of creating genuine anti-racist multicultural diversity. In this workshop, teams will assess their work on accountability and have the chance to grapple with how to live out accountability both within the white institution and in the wider community.
Length: 1 day
Understanding & Using History as a Tool for Organizing
In order to make sense of contemporary racism, we must know how we as a society and nation became what we are today. Effective anti-racism work draws heavily on understanding our past and when we understand that U.S. history is fundamentally shaped by its inseparable relationship with white supremacy, we have the foundation for critical and thorough organizing. Participants will delve into U.S. history and identify the ways it applies to their organizing strategies. Participants in this workshop will be required to do some preparatory work.
Length: 1 day
Developing Anti-Racist/Anti-Bias Identities in Children & Youth
Nurturing the next generation of anti-racists requires us to start with the youth in our communities. This workshop will emphasize the development of prejudice and bias in children. Participants will gain insight into developing age appropriate ways to support children on these issues. Learn how the psychological and emotional health of children is affected by oppressive socialization, and what this means for your own team’s organizing. There is an intentional focus on the connection between Crossroads Power Analysis (racism’s 3 misuses of power: Power1, Power2 and Power3) and the 4 main Anti-Bias Curriculum Goals. (link to 4 goals on ABAR page)
Length: 2 days
