What We Learned: Indianapolis Equity at Work Cohort 2021
“I have sought to diversify my team, ensure we are creating team level policies that encourage inclusion and keep equity as our goal. My team has designed and implemented a new protocol to ensure any project we begin is designed with equity at the forefront and not as a layered in afterthought. I have also advocated to move the organization from talking about DEI and doing largely personal reflection to taking action.”
In January 2021, Beloved Community launched their first Equity at Work cohort in Indianapolis, IN. By the time this cohort launched, Beloved had been exclusively offering their consulting and facilitated services virtually amidst the global pandemic. The dual pandemics of systemic racism and COVID-19 did not disrupt these organizations from fully committing to: (1) eight 4-hour virtual cohort sessions, (2) individualized organizational consultation, (3) participating in an organization-wide equity audit, and (4) drafting a 3-year Equity Work Plan.
In order to move people from knowledge to action to a sustainable culture of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), we design supports in the form of our cohort models that center people throughout their sustainable change journey. We have five different sociological theories that undergird our work: critical race theory, belongingness, habitus, organizing, and sustainable change management. Although theoretical frameworks tend to be situated within academia, cohort participants engage in an intensive cohort experience that connects theory to practice in a way that feels relevant and authentic to their lived experiences.
In this lessons learned reflection, our Associate Director for Equity at Work, Kevin Lewis (he/him), will share some data and learnings from working with the Indianapolis cohort.
What did cohort participants do this year?
Content Sessions
At Beloved, we like to say that Equity is a head and heart issue. It touches every part of our work life: governance, finance, operations, program, and culture. In this cohort, we worked with education nonprofits, community-based nonprofits, youth serving nonprofits, and higher education organizations who all shared a dedication to operationalizing diversity, equity and inclusion into their organizational policies and practices. Regardless of the organization’s primary mission, our engagements focused on deepening their commitments via a culminating Equity Work Plan. Below are the sessions intentionally sequenced to move participants along in operationalizing their equity commitments:
Session 1: Foundations of Racial Equity
Session 2: Understanding Your Equity Audit
Session 3: Belongingness: What is it, and Why does it matter for our success?
Session 4: Power: How to Cede it, How to Share it
Session 5: Authentic Community Engagement: Shared Voice, Shared Power
Session 6: De-biasing Talent Practices
Session 7: Inclusive & Intercultural Leadership
Session 8: Putting it All Together: Equity Work Plan
Individualized organizational consultation
Leaders are supported with their ongoing learning and change management by participating in five consulting calls with Beloved team members. Each organization is partnered with a Beloved team member who supports them for the entirety of their cohort experience and deeply understands their specific pain points as it relates to DEI implementation. During these calls, leaders provide context about their organization’s previous DEI efforts, examine their successes and challenges, and receive customized information, resources, and thought partnership from their Beloved consultant.
Equity Tools
The Beloved Community Equity Audit is an organization-wide self-assessment that each organization participates in before cohort sessions begin. The Equity Audit provides participating organizations with baseline data that acts as a launching point for how to approach adjusting policies and practices that are causing inequities. Results of the Equity Audit are pivotal as they help inform an organization’s Equity Work Plan process. Organizations also meet with a Beloved team member to debrief their results and make meaningful recommendations on how to move forward.
The Beloved Community Equity Lens Map (ELM) assessment is a companion to the Equity Audit. It is an individual self-assessment designed to help organizations build effective, differentiated talent practices for team members at every level of the organization to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Equity Work Plan
In this cohort, we worked with organization leaders who expressed a dedication to leading with equity at the forefront of their policies and practices. Organizations joined the cohort with curiosity and excitement with how to turn their sincere passion for equity into sustainable actions. After completing the content sessions, organizational teams took these commitments and operationalized them into individual Equity Work Plans. The Beloved Community Equity Work Plan is a three-year equity road map designed to support organizations in leveraging their equity data to turn their commitments into action.
EAW INDIANAPOLIS COHORT DEMOGRAPHICS
6 organizations participated in our inaugural Indianapolis cohort. Roles of the participants varied from CEOs, managers, human resources professionals, to community liaisons and program directors. These are the 6 participating organizations: Girls, Inc. of Greater Indianapolis, Teach for America Indianapolis, The Mind Trust, Relay Graduate School of Education (Indianapolis), Stand for Children, and Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana. Cohort members included Executive Officers/CEOs, COOs, Directors and Program Managers, Vice Presidents, Community Liaisons, and Board Members.
EAW INDIANAPOLIS EQUITY WORK PLAN & LEARNINGS
Based on the Equity Audit results, and after completing the content sessions, the organizations were tasked with drafting their three-year Equity Work Plans. Organizations were guided through the following process to operationalize DEI practices: define 3-5 foundational priorities, link those priorities to progress metrics or goals, connect goals to research-based strategies and key actions learned from the cohort, and finally attach data practices and metrics to those components for accountability.
According to the drafts and notes that organizations took in their equity work planning process, here are some of the high level priorities that these organizations were wrestling with:
Be a more inclusive organization by leveraging more shared voice, shared power to drive our work (Inclusion Standard)
Invest in the growth and professional development of our internal staff (Equity Standard)
Foster an organization that promotes belongingness and authentic relationships (Inclusion Standard)
Staff and volunteers across all of our programs represent the demographics of the community we serve (Diversity Standard)
Ensure performance management systems are aligned with the impact our organization wishes to make in the community (Equity Standard)
The priorities listed above clearly demonstrate that the organizations were considering both their lived experience and their equity audit data to drive the creation of their equity work plan priorities. As shown, the various priorities highlighted here fall within either the diversity, equity, or inclusion standard. Many cohort organizations already had strategic plans in place for the next 3-5 years and embedded their developed equity priorities into their existing strategic plans. Cohort members were allowed one equity work plan consulting call and one bonus consulting call at the end of their cohort experience. All but one of the bonus consulting call requests focused on refining their equity work plans.
BELOVED LEARNINGS
Our Beloved facilitators and project manager reflected on some learnings from this cohort:
Readiness still matters. At Beloved, we are clear from the beginning of the cohort series that we are unwavering in our principles as a Black, queer, womxn-led organization. Our values as an organization inform how we approach our work with clients and we have expectations for where organizations should be on their equity journey if they engage with our work. One of the key reasons that made this cohort a successful experience for both clients and facilitators is that these organizations were ready to have difficult conversations that forced them to turn a mirror on themselves; particularly in unpacking white supremacy culture, bias, and potentially inequitable talent practices in their organizations. Going through all eight of the cohort sessions requires organizational leaders to be personally and professionally invested in centering equity in their lives and work. We firmly believe that authentic equity work requires deep interrogation of your own identities and a commitment to continuing reflection after the cohort series is complete. We also know that when organizations invest dollars into their equity capacity building, the results fare much better. All of these organizations were willing to invest, which is a direct reflection of readiness.
Cross collaboration is critical to sustainable regional change. Our theory of change is grounded in the belief that when organizations across sectors come together to commit to equity, regional shifts that provide equitable access for all becomes a reality. During the cohort, we were intentional in the design of our sessions to leave time for organizations to connect with one another. They were able to discuss shared pain points, what is happening on the ground in Indianapolis, and how they can envision themselves partnering to drive toward a more equitable city. Based on direct feedback from participants after nearly every cohort session, the breakout spaces that placed different organizations together were very impactful. So much so, that some organizations partnered on initiatives outside of the cohort. This further exemplified the benefits of having organizational leaders in a shared cohort space and demonstrated that Beloved’s theory of change can be achievable through our model.
Final team time supports operationalizing DEI. While the importance of cross organization time is not lost on us, we also know that it is critical for organizations to have time with their own teams to focus on their own DEI efforts. Before the cohort series, several organizations mentioned that it was rare they had this much dedicated time to being strategic with their DEI efforts. Carving out time during our cohort sessions challenged organizations to move from ‘knowing’ conceptually what DEI is toward ‘operationalizing’ DEI in their specific context. As a result of the team time in session, many organizations were able to identify foundational priorities, take notes on policies they want to revise, and even form new DEI committees that will own their equity work moving forward. Because our facilitators were not on the ground in Indianapolis, it was important for teams to have time to further contextualize what was discussed in session to their Indianapolis landscape and specific organizational pain points. In future cohorts, a shift that we will continue to make as a team is encouraging organizational teams to prioritize their equity work planning during their team time as early on as Session 1. This makes it much easier to build their equity work plan by the time of Session 8.
Virtual format still works. A fully virtual cohort definitely comes with its own challenges for engagement and participation. Although we received positive feedback on our virtual sessions from this cohort, we know that many would still prefer to be in person since so many of them do the majority of their work on the Zoom platform. Nevertheless, we found that being virtual does not have to serve as a critical barrier to engagement and learning.
Our virtual spaces were productive for three reasons: 1) they offered Beloved a chance to be in multiple places at once, 2) we were able to attract a wider audience of decision makers (i.e. CEOs, Board Members, Program Managers) because they could tune in to our presentations without disengaging from their day-to-day responsibilities, 3) pushed all of us (organizations and Beloved) to think creatively about how to sustain a shared community of warmth and vulnerability even virtually. Being virtual has several benefits that allowed this cohort to still connect and have equitable access to our content (removing transportation barriers).
Additionally, we did not compromise our authentic Beloved culture of warmth and authenticity just because we were virtual. Incorporating our warm welcomes, music, facilitating through storytelling, and encouraging vulnerability is what helped build community for the cohort. As we learn to live with the ebb and flow of the pandemic, we’d like to consider how offering hybrid cohorts (synchronous in person and virtual facilitation) might positively impact future cohort engagement.
COHORT TESTIMONIALS
“Excellent experience - learned more here than in any book, podcast, or other engagement tools around DEI”
“Thank you for all the head & heart you've brought to make EAW Indy such a meaningful experience; I truly believe all orgs will be better for it, and ultimately our students and families we work alongside will be more likely to lead lives of their choosing as a result.”
“Thank you, Beloved Community, for sharing yourselves and your wisdom with us. Indianapolis is better for it.”
“I have personally reviewed our admission standards and advocated for a better selection process.”
“I have worked to ensure we remove barriers and biases in our hiring process, as well as keep DEI embedded into our annual plan.”
Below are highlights from the post-cohort survey data that demonstrate growth from pre-cohort to post-cohort. In response to this prompt: Please select all of the statements below that apply to your professional work as a result of participating in the Beloved Community sessions.
80% of respondents shared: “I am more likely to (or have considered new ways to) incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies into my work.”
100% of respondents shared: “I am more willing to relinquish my own power, control, and air time to contribute to a more equitable community.”
80% of respondents shared: “I am more likely to (or have expanded my understanding of what it means to) engage individuals who are resistant, struggling, and passive about diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
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