Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership

In this training we will explore how the branding of critical race theory is being used to organize conflict. Contentious school committee meetings, oppressive legislation, and sensational media have had a chilling effect on some educators while emboldening others. We will explore some of the historical context of this polarizing strategy and ways to respond which increase our collective capacity to engage in productive conflict as a community.

This workshop addresses the elephant in the room…why are organizations still not able to find “qualified” diverse individuals to fill their upper-level positions? Whether people identify as millenials/Gen Zs, BIPOC, and/or LGBTQ+, somehow the glass ceiling has proven to exist across all oppressed identities. In this workshop, we will identify why the person who seems “unlikely” could be the best possible candidate. This workshop will provide tips and tools on how to source, retain and uplift key professionals. Let’s work on building workplace cultures that focus on mentorship, understanding and upward mobility for 2022 and beyond!

Every year for 28 years, a member of the U.S. Congress from Michigan, Representative John Conyers Jr., proposed creating the “Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act” and every year that proposal failed. Why should the U.S. pay reparations to the descendents of enslaved Blacks? In From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-first Century, writers William A. Darity and A. Kirsten Mullen “offer a detailed roadmap for an effective reparations program.” First published in hardback in 2020 (to be released in paperback on October 11 of this year), “this compelling and sharply argued book addresses economic injustices head-on and makes the most comprehensive case to date for economic reparations for U.S. descendants of slavery.” Please come to this interactive two-hour session to discuss your reactions to this book, currently considered the “bible” of reparations. (Participants are expected to read the book in advance of the class.).

Class participants for this workshop will gather at 6:00 PM at the Hub for a shared community dinner meal, which is free and open to all. Following the meal, class participants will begin the workshop with Strong Oak Lefebvre. On this day, the Winter Solstice, Strong Oak will guide the group through the basic tenets of Circle Practice. The class will focus on learning by doing. Under Strong Oak's gentle and skillful leadership, class participants will learn about the meaning of Circle Practice, the importance of the ritual, and the deep sharing that often emerges. All this will be evident as the group engages in a Circle with Strong Oak guiding and supporting each individual and the group as a whole. Come for the community dinner meal at the Hub, and stay for this open and meaningful sharing on the winter solstice in this moving Circle Practice Workshop. All welcome.