Foundational Workshops
Foundational workshops are introductory sessions that teach the core ideas behind Crossroads’ work. Anyone can attend – no prior experience or knowledge is required. These workshops are designed for people who are new to this work, people who want a refresher on Crossroads’ approach, and groups who want to build a common understanding together. If you’re new to Crossroads, we recommend starting with Understanding Antiracism.
Critical Cultural Competency
Overview:
Most of us believe we are good people. And that belief may be exactly what’s getting in the way. Psychologist Dolly Chugh argues that our need to see ourselves as good can actually blind us to the harm we cause — making it harder, not easier, to recognize bias and take responsibility for it. This workshop invites an honest look at the cultural narratives that shape how we see the world and everyone in it. At the center is a deceptively simple question: What happens when well-meaning people assume their way of living is the right way — and never stop to examine how that assumption lands on others? And then the harder question: What becomes possible — in our lives, our communities, our organizations — when we care less about being seen as good, and more about doing the ongoing work of justice together?
Workshop Outcomes:
Participants in Crossroads’ Cultural Competency workshop will deepen their capacity to:
- Frame Critical Cultural Competency and what it demands of us
- See how dominant cultural narratives get weaponized to divide communities
- Reflect honestly on how their own cultural shaping influences the way they move through the world
- Discover what opens up when we commit to growth over self-protection
Workshop Delivery:
This workshop can be delivered in two ways: online (via Zoom) or in person.
It is interactive and uses several different ways of learning to keep participants engaged.
Meetings with your institution
The workshop includes a meeting before the session and a meeting after, so we can plan with your institution and follow up afterward.
Time commitment
When delivered in full, the workshop takes six hours total:
4.75 hours of facilitation and participant interaction
1.25 hours for breaks and lunch (non-contact time)
Flexible scheduling for online sessions
If delivered online, the workshop can be split into two sessions held on two consecutive days. For example: two morning sessions of about 3.5 hours each.
Workshop Fee:
Crossroads’ workshop fees are on a sliding scale, based on an organization’s budget. Here are the rates for the Critical Cultural Competency workshop:
Equity Rate: $3,000
(Annual budget less than $400,000)
Sustainer Rate: $4,500
(Annual budget between $400,000 and $2 million)
Supporter Rate: $6,000
(Annual budget between $2 million and $16.5 million)
Builder Rate: $7,500
(Annual budget over $16.5 million)
Understanding Antiracism
Overview:
Legal scholar Meera E. Deo argues that language shapes understanding — the words we choose frame how a topic is perceived, and that framing carries even greater weight when the subject involves race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity (Why Language Matters for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Law School Admission Council). The language of equity work is evolving quickly, and terms like diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism are often used interchangeably — a slippage that blurs meaning and undermines effective action.
Understanding Antiracism cuts through that ambiguity. This foundational workshop introduces antiracism as a distinct, active practice — one that moves beyond individual attitudes to confront the systems, policies, and norms that produce and sustain racial inequity. Participants will come away understanding why antiracist work demands more than awareness or good intentions: it requires institutional transformation.
Foundational workshops are designed to teach the core ideas behind Crossroads’ work. These workshops are designed for people who are new to this work, people who want a refresher on Crossroads approach, and groups who want to build a common understanding together. Anyone can attend – no prior experience or knowledge is required.
Workshop Outcomes:
Participants in Crossroads’ Understanding Antiracism workshop will deepen their capacity to:
Develop a foundational understanding of antiracism
Understand what moves antiracism from a passive stance to an active, ongoing practice
Workshop Delivery:
This workshop combines group discussion, individual reflection, and hands-on practice with the frameworks introduced. This mix gives participants both knowledge and real experience applying it.
The workshop includes a meeting before the session and a meeting after, so we can plan with your institution and follow up afterward.
After the workshop, Crossroads offers additional opportunities to continue building on the themes and frameworks introduced here.
Workshop Fee:
Crossroads’ workshop fees are on a sliding scale, based on an organization’s budget. Here are the rates for the Understanding Racism workshop:
Equity Rate: $3,000
(Annual budget less than $400,000)
Sustainer Rate: $4,500
(Annual budget between $400,000 and $2 million)
Supporter Rate: $6,000
(Annual budget between $2 million and $16.5 million)
Builder Rate: $7,500
(Annual budget over $16.5 million)
Foundations of Antiracism
Overview:
Most organizations want to be inclusive. Most fall short — not from lack of commitment, but because they never confront what’s running the institution. Researchers Sarah Woulfin and Maxwell Yurkofsky put it plainly: institutional logics are shaped by dominant racial frames whether leaders intend it or not. The result is that whiteness gets upheld — quietly, consistently, and often by people who genuinely want the opposite. This is where antiracism parts ways with diversity, multicultural, and intercultural approaches. It doesn’t stop at awareness or welcome. It targets the logics themselves — disrupting the values and practices that make inequity the default and cultivating the ways of being that make real transformation possible. Good intentions don’t change institutions. Disrupting their logic does. This workshop invites participants into an honest conversation about what that disruption requires — of them personally, and of the institutions they lead and serve.
This is a Foundational workshop designed to teach the core ideas behind Crossroads’ work. These workshops are designed for people who are new to this work, people who want a refresher on Crossroads’ approach, and groups who want to build a common understanding together. Anyone can attend – no prior experience or knowledge is required.
Workshop Outcomes:
Participants in Crossroads’ Foundations of Antiracism workshop will deepen their capacity to:
Introduce a framework for understanding antiracism and what it demands of institutions and their leaders.
Deepen participants’ understanding of systemic racism.
Explore how systemic racism benefits dominant groups — particularly white people — and harms disadvantaged groups — especially people of color — as the product of a socio-political arrangement we’re all conditioned to accept.
Reflect on how they have been conditioned to accept and uphold this arrangement, regardless of intent.
Articulate initial strategies for dismantling systemic racism in institutions and society.
Workshop Delivery:
This workshop combines group discussion, individual reflection, and hands-on practice with the frameworks introduced. This mix gives participants both knowledge and real experience applying it.
It can be delivered in two ways: online (via Zoom) or in person.
It is interactive and uses several different ways of learning to keep participants engaged.
Meetings with your institution
The workshop includes a meeting before the session and a meeting after, so we can plan with your institution and follow up afterward.
Time commitment
When delivered in full, the workshop takes 8 hours total:
6.5 hours of facilitation and participant interaction
1.5 hours for breaks and lunch (non-contact time)
Flexible scheduling for online sessions
If delivered online, the workshop can be split into two sessions held on two consecutive days. For example: two morning sessions of about 4.25 hours each.
After the workshop, Crossroads offers additional opportunities to continue building on the themes and frameworks introduced here.
Workshop Fee:
Crossroads’ workshop fees are on a sliding scale, based on an organization’s budget. Here are the rates for the Foundations of Antiracism workshop:
Equity Rate: $3,000
(Annual budget less than $400,000)
Sustainer Rate: $4,500
(Annual budget between $400,000 and $2 million)
Supporter Rate: $6,000
(Annual budget between $2 million and $16.5 million)
Builder Rate: $7,500
(Annual budget over $16.5 million)
Click here to learn more about our fees and sliding scale.
Foundations of Antiracism was previously known as Animating Antiracist Ways of Being, Introduction to Systemic Racism or Introduction to Antiracism
The Values Gap: Moving from Symbolic Gestures to Lasting Transformation
Overview:
Declaring your organization diverse, welcoming, and just is the easy part. The real test comes when that commitment faces pressure, conflict, or crisis. Crossroads learned this the hard way. Good intentions weren’t enough. Symbolic gestures weren’t enough. What we needed was an honest examination of the values actually shaping our culture — because values don’t just sit in mission statements. They show up in how we handle conflict, who gets heard, and whether relationships across difference hold or fracture when things get hard. This workshop shares what we learned from our own reckoning and gives participants practical tools to do the same. You’ll learn to distinguish between values that look good on paper and values that can actually sustain your commitment when it’s tested — and identify which values in your organization are quietly getting in the way. Because the gap between who we say we are and how we actually operate is where transformation either begins — or dies.
This is a Foundational workshop designed to teach the core ideas behind Crossroads’ work. These workshops are designed for people who are new to this work, people who want a refresher on Crossroads’ approach, and groups who want to build a common understanding together. Although no prior experience with Crossroads is required, participants who have attended one or more of the following workshops will gain deeper insights from this session.
Workshop Outcomes:
Participants in Crossroads’ Values Gap workshop will deepen their capacity to:
Identify values that actively hinder change and damage relationships
Distinguish values that facilitate sustainable transformation and relational repair
Assess how their organization’s values perform under pressure or conflict
Examine their own institutional practices through a values-based lens
Develop strategies for aligning stated commitments with lived values
Workshop Delivery:
This workshop can be delivered in two ways: online (via Zoom) or in person.
It is interactive and uses several different ways of learning to keep participants engaged.
Meetings with your institution
The workshop includes a meeting before the session and a meeting after, so we can plan with your institution and follow up afterward.
Time commitment
When delivered in full, the workshop takes six hours total:
- 4.75 hours of facilitation and participant interaction
- 1.25 hours for breaks and lunch (non-contact time)
Flexible scheduling for online sessions
If delivered online, the workshop can be split into two sessions held on two consecutive days. For example: two morning sessions of about 3.5 hours each.
Workshop Fee:
Crossroads’ workshop fees are on a sliding scale, based on an organization’s budget. Here are the rates for the Values Gap workshop:
Equity Rate: $3,000 per day
(Annual budget less than $400,000)
Sustainer Rate: $4,500 per day
(Annual budget between $400,000 and $2 million)
Supporter Rate: $6,000 per day
(Annual budget between $2 million and $16.5 million)
Builder Rate: $7,500 per day
(Annual budget over $16.5 million)
