Consultation
Racism and implicit bias continue to negatively impact our communities and are creating increasingly wide disparities. At the same time, the social sector can, and should, be a place where diverse populations gain meaningful employment, feel valued in and contribute to inclusive workplace cultures, have opportunities for advancement to leadership roles, and create programs and practices that reflect program participants and respect community values and cultures.
The Alliance is committed to make this vision a reality and to that end provide a comprehensive array of innovative and fully customizable strategic consulting and advisory solutions, including technical assistance and training, to build, strengthen and advance your organizational excellence in equity, diversity, and inclusion.
The Alliance works with many organizations and leaders across the country who provide a variety of trainings on equity, diversity, and inclusion. If you have a topic of interest, let us know. The offerings outlined below are not exhaustive; we welcome the opportunity to customize deliverables to meet and exceed your needs.
Consultation Engagement Options
Strategy Development. A major challenge many organizations face is where, and how, to get started. We will meet with key leaders, review related plans, and facilitate conversations that lead to decisions and a plan of action.
Task Force Support. A staff working group is a critical component for implementing equity, diversity, and inclusion objectives. From outlining the need, to navigating the processes and action items of implementation, we can support a team in becoming effective in advancing their goals, along with ensuring integration with aligned priorities and lines of authority.
Plan Development. To be effective, task forces and leaders should have a thorough plan with timelines and outcomes. Our training includes an in-depth look at components of equitable and inclusive organizational cultures and a facilitated process for creating a results-based plan.
Board Engagement. Boards of directors represent the top level of leadership in an organization and the body responsible for selecting the chief executive. We can work with organizational and board leaders to design an engagement process that accounts for the board’s critical role and busy lives. This may include an introductory presentation and facilitated discussion; training; and facilitation of the development of a board policy, learning calendar, or results-based plan.
Technical Assistance and Support Check-Ins. Once the plan is put into action, there are likely to be challenges, questions, and decisions to be made. We will review and provide feedback on the plan, make strategy recommendations for getting stakeholder buy-in and implementation, and provide other technical assistance as needed.
Data analysis and Survey Tool Support. Collecting and assessing data on where an organization currently is in its equity journey can help organizations pinpoint the critical areas for action. We will work with staff to analyze existing data and survey responses, develop metrics for future monitoring of goals, and integrate data collection into current processes.
Staff Training
The Alliance provides a series of organizational development trainings around equity, diversity, and inclusion. Below is a list of trainings delivered by Alliance staff and network leaders. We also welcome the opportunity to customize a new training to your address an organization’s specific requirements.
Fundamentals of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion/How to Build an Equitable Organizational Culture and Workforce. This introductory workshop helps attendees understand how equity, diversity, and inclusion are incorporated into the workplace. Beginning with an exploration of the national and local data that highlight the need for advancing equity, the session will cover the challenges of increasing diversity in the workplace, and the benefits and structure of a diverse and equitable workplace culture.
(Three Hours)
Implicit Bias. Organizations and staff working to advance equity within their respective organizations require more than just the knowledge and will to act. This training explores the historical context of discrimination, non-inclusive behaviors, actions, and culture, and their role in creating an unjust society. Through learning, discussion, and interaction, the session helps staff to understand their own biases; be intentional about employing strategies to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion; and develop cultural competence that allows for differences.
(Four Hours with Pre-Work)
Trauma-Informed Care and Equity. Delivered by an Alliance member, this session takes a deep look at historical trauma for underrepresented groups, both in exploration of the history as well as how an epidemic of trauma is generational and passed from one generation to the next. It includes review of an in-depth equity journey case study, which included the creation of a diversity committee, exploration of trauma-informed care, and the development of an equity council. The second part of the session helps attendees identify where their organizations sit within the four stages of organizational development.
(Three Hours)
Supplier Side Diversity. This session is delivered by an Alliance member whose strategic commitment to its community extends beyond programs and into building the local business economy. With their campus relocation project, this organization became intentional in supplier diversity and has become the sixth largest employer in its community. This session shares their story and engages attendees in thinking about and planning for supplier diversity in their own organizations.
(Three Hours)
Understanding Differences. This session is delivered by Alliance partner Sheryl White, vice president of innovation at Neighborhood House Association in San Diego*. The session engages participants in thinking about differences in the workplace and throughout daily experiences and offers strategies and new ways of thinking for how to acknowledge, work with and appreciate differences.
(Eight Hours)
Having Difficult Conversations about Race. This program focuses on racial healing training and its emphasis on starting difficult conversations related to race to address the generational harm racism has imposed on this nation. We focus on giving communities a place to start conversations about individual’s unique experiences. This program was originally created for better inclusion among children and schools but grew to impact the adults and their communities at large.
(Three Hours)
Community Workshop
With extensive experience in bringing together community-based organizations, their board members, and other diverse community stakeholders, including from public and corporate sectors, the Alliance is the ideal partner to facilitate a community workshop on advancing equity.
During a 1.5-day session, participants will explore their relationships with implicit bias, racism, diversity, and equity in a safe environment and create individual and/or collective action plans to advance equity. Presenters will help participants understand their own biases as well as the role of historical discrimination, non-inclusive behavioral actions, and culture in creating an unjust society.
The workshop will include learning, facilitated discussion, and dedicated planning time. In addition to learning about core concepts, participants will put ideas into action with a hands-on, facilitated planning session. Unlike many other trainings, participants will immediately be able to apply their learning by working on action plans for advancing their organizational goals.
Generative Governance Model Consultation
Change is ever present; however, today, change is increasingly complex and occurs more rapidly than ever before. To achieve big, long-term impact, nonprofit organizations must be increasingly future-oriented and adaptive in the way they think and act. In large part, boards of directors are responsible for contributing to the current and future success and impact of the organization.
The Alliance itself has fully transitioned to generative governance and has established a process to help other organizations do the same. Using the Generative Governance Model, the Alliance engages with boards to ensure they go beyond focusing on day-to-day operations and evolve into more visionary systems thinkers, always viewing their work through an equity lens. To ensure your board is the advocate you need for your mission, organization, and community, we’ll improve members’ knowledge of equity, diversity, and inclusion and teach them best practices for embedding equity in all aspects of governance.
Together, we will develop a keen insight into your organization, including the principles, and values that ground you; identify your goals and opportunities within trends; and the competencies that will be needed to meet your objectives. And then we provide the roadmap.