Description: Training for Change offers this template for a Diversity Welcome. See how we adapted this for Calling In & Up in this session guide. More on the Diversity Welcome from Training for Change below:

"The intention of the diversity welcome is inclusion. It can be long or short. The more parts or aspects of what is present are named, the more the participants are likely to feel welcome in their diversity. It is a ritual, so don’t be bothered by the repetitive phrasing. Take your time with it!

You will want to add or subtract based on what margins are important for the group (for example, in a staff retreat naming all the roles in the room would be important). The common element is to inclusively name the range with a genuine “Welcome!” You might like to prepare notes to remind you of a few you don’t want to forget. Feel free to give up the script, take your time, use your own style, bring your own energy into it, and look at the participants as you continue your welcoming. It can be a surprisingly tender experience, for facilitators and participants. Enjoy!"

Description: Wherever we begin with a group, we want to make sure we understand where we are and connect to a lineage of leaders who have made the community more inclusive, vibrant, and just. Consider this as a starting place for forming your own welcome to the land. This welcome was adapted from Wenatchee Valley College’s Land Acknowledgement.

Description: This activity creatively brings the participants and facilitators into community. Because the poems bring out unobservable characteristics, they reveal aspects of each person’s unique story without focusing on economic, educational, or professional status. Give participants about 10 minutes to write, then have each person share all or part of their poem, making sure everyone offers something. They should hold onto it for the length of the program as it may be brought back into the practice.

Description: Setting/resetting your group’s container is one of the most important things you can do, but folks often want to skip this step because they worry more about what needs to get done instead of what it means to be in community with each other. You cannot call people in and up if you are not committed to defining how your group will be with each other. Taking the time to reset the container is time well spent.

By developing community commitments that honor what every person brings to the table, group members come to see equal value in their different identities and experiences. Through this activity, participants craft community agreements then explore the cultural, political and personal barriers to living up to them. Through this process, they 1) co-create a space that enables the surfacing of issues and identities that may be used for self-protection or to silence others and 2) develop shared commitment to how they will engage. This session should be facilitated the first time a group gathers as it lays the foundation for future learning and experiences.  It should be revisited each time a group reconvenes.

Process: about 90-120 minutes plus breaks with 16 people

Description: This practice is meant to establish one on one or small group relationships within your cohort among participants. By intentionally partnering participants with each other, an opportunity is offered for deeper connections to be made, a place for potential one on one or small group support, growth and learning and an accountability partner. Homies also help offer introverted participants a more comfortable environment to share their reflections and get curious. 

Women identified people of color face enormous leadership challenges as we navigate things like gender and race based oppression, institutional pressures, balancing work with family and self care and making big decisions. The homie practice helps to offer an individualized support system for leaders in a collective liberatory learning environment. The practice cultivates interdependence by inviting women of color leaders to talk through their personal leadership development, challenges they might be facing and sharing best practices - an approach that white dominant work environments often lead us to believe is not available to us.

Process: 7-15 minutes

Description: This activity supports participants to become aware of and identify actions they each can take to maximize their learning experience. While there are other factors that impact a learning experience, ultimately each of us is in control of the knowledge and experiences we take away. Sometimes we unconsciously take actions that limit our experiences or set up barriers to learning. By encouraging vulnerability, this activity asks participants to be honest with themselves and identify supports to maximize their learning. We recommend doing this at the beginning of a cohort/program.

Process: 45 minutes