Diversity and Inclusion Workshops
Diversity and Inclusion Workshops
Workshop One: Race and Environmental Justice
Lead by Benjamin Echevarria, The Welcome Project
What will you learn?
Understanding of how Environmental Justice and negatively impact Racial Justice.
Strategies for how to ensure justice happens for everyone
Building Bridges into the POC community
Workshop Description:
It is well documented the more of an environmental disaster and area is the more likely people of color will live there. However, once an area is remunerated the neighborhood changes. This has led to tension between the minority community and the environmental justice workers. This workshop will examine this tension and look at ways to relieve it.
Speaker Bio:
Benjamin Echevarria am the Executive Director of The Welcome Project, a nonprofit that builds the collective power of immigrants to be part of community decisions. Ben is a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and a Coast Guard Certified Auxiliary Prevention Outreach Specialist, whose duties are to teach marine environmental safety courses. He have been an activist and community organizer for over 10 years.
Lead by Benjamin Echevarria, The Welcome Project
What will you learn?
Understanding of how Environmental Justice and negatively impact Racial Justice.
Strategies for how to ensure justice happens for everyone
Building Bridges into the POC community
Workshop Description:
It is well documented the more of an environmental disaster and area is the more likely people of color will live there. However, once an area is remunerated the neighborhood changes. This has led to tension between the minority community and the environmental justice workers. This workshop will examine this tension and look at ways to relieve it.
Speaker Bio:
Benjamin Echevarria am the Executive Director of The Welcome Project, a nonprofit that builds the collective power of immigrants to be part of community decisions. Ben is a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and a Coast Guard Certified Auxiliary Prevention Outreach Specialist, whose duties are to teach marine environmental safety courses. He have been an activist and community organizer for over 10 years.
Workshop Two: Climate Resilience and Social Equity
Lead by Andrea Atkinson (One Square World), Jesus Holguin, and Holly Jacobson (Linnean Solutions)
What will you learn?
Resilience planning requires building both physical and social capacity;
Resilience planning offers a way to advance social equity;
Organizing offers a critical opportunity for changing the way we plan infrastructure.
Workshop Description:
There is a tendency to think of resilience planning as purely “bolstering our infrastructure”—building sea walls and reinforcing our power grid, for example—and that that entails coordination between government agencies and engineering technical experts. Furthermore, we tend to hear the phrase “climate change will have the greatest impact on our most vulnerable populations,” those who are affected by poverty, poor health, and/or social marginalization. The irony of this statement is the premise that the city needs to build infrastructure in order to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities, who are ultimately vulnerable because of the decisions that were made decades and even centuries ago that determined how infrastructural, social, and economic systems continue to enhance systems of oppression. This workshop therefore seeks to bring together organizers and thought leaders to rethink planning processes: to understand how resilience is both a social and a physical attribute, to build the notion that community organizing needs to be a part of the resilience planning process in order to truly reduce vulnerability, and to co-develop strategies and tools for developing resilience planning solutions that are devised by and advised by the communities themselves. Along with small group breakout sessions, the workshop uses a case study in a local city, where collaboration between the City and a group of stakeholders representing communities of color are rethinking ways to improve dialogue between the City and communities to build a new model for equity in climate action.
Speaker Bio:
Andrea Atkinson: Andrea is a Latina regenerative development professional working at the intersection of sustainability and social justice for the past eight years. She is the Executive Director of One Square World, a non-profit supporting the creation of just and sustainable communities by activating collaborative community conversations and action. Andrea has a degree in International Relations with a focus on sustainable development from Boston University and a graduate certificate in environmental management from Tufts University.
Jesus Holguin has been a leader in Providence social justice movements since they were a sophomore in high school many years ago, and has been an organizer in many different capacities. They work with the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island, most recently serving as the Youth Leadership Director, educating and mobilizing youth to fight toxic infrastructure in their communities. Jesus identifies as a Cisgender Queer Afro-Latino Youth. Their main areas of activism are issues of LGBT Rights, Gender Justice, Environmental Racism, Food Justice, and Immigration Rights.
Holly Jacobson: Holly is a project manager at Linnean Solutions. Over the past six years, at Linnean, through graduate research, and through prior work at a nonprofit architecture firm, she has focused on how the built environment and resilience planning processes can be designed to better advance social equity. Holly has master’s in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s in biology from Bowdoin College. She loves to hike, paint, and dance to any type of music.
Lead by Andrea Atkinson (One Square World), Jesus Holguin, and Holly Jacobson (Linnean Solutions)
What will you learn?
Resilience planning requires building both physical and social capacity;
Resilience planning offers a way to advance social equity;
Organizing offers a critical opportunity for changing the way we plan infrastructure.
Workshop Description:
There is a tendency to think of resilience planning as purely “bolstering our infrastructure”—building sea walls and reinforcing our power grid, for example—and that that entails coordination between government agencies and engineering technical experts. Furthermore, we tend to hear the phrase “climate change will have the greatest impact on our most vulnerable populations,” those who are affected by poverty, poor health, and/or social marginalization. The irony of this statement is the premise that the city needs to build infrastructure in order to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities, who are ultimately vulnerable because of the decisions that were made decades and even centuries ago that determined how infrastructural, social, and economic systems continue to enhance systems of oppression. This workshop therefore seeks to bring together organizers and thought leaders to rethink planning processes: to understand how resilience is both a social and a physical attribute, to build the notion that community organizing needs to be a part of the resilience planning process in order to truly reduce vulnerability, and to co-develop strategies and tools for developing resilience planning solutions that are devised by and advised by the communities themselves. Along with small group breakout sessions, the workshop uses a case study in a local city, where collaboration between the City and a group of stakeholders representing communities of color are rethinking ways to improve dialogue between the City and communities to build a new model for equity in climate action.
Speaker Bio:
Andrea Atkinson: Andrea is a Latina regenerative development professional working at the intersection of sustainability and social justice for the past eight years. She is the Executive Director of One Square World, a non-profit supporting the creation of just and sustainable communities by activating collaborative community conversations and action. Andrea has a degree in International Relations with a focus on sustainable development from Boston University and a graduate certificate in environmental management from Tufts University.
Jesus Holguin has been a leader in Providence social justice movements since they were a sophomore in high school many years ago, and has been an organizer in many different capacities. They work with the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island, most recently serving as the Youth Leadership Director, educating and mobilizing youth to fight toxic infrastructure in their communities. Jesus identifies as a Cisgender Queer Afro-Latino Youth. Their main areas of activism are issues of LGBT Rights, Gender Justice, Environmental Racism, Food Justice, and Immigration Rights.
Holly Jacobson: Holly is a project manager at Linnean Solutions. Over the past six years, at Linnean, through graduate research, and through prior work at a nonprofit architecture firm, she has focused on how the built environment and resilience planning processes can be designed to better advance social equity. Holly has master’s in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s in biology from Bowdoin College. She loves to hike, paint, and dance to any type of music.
Workshop Three: Where We At?
Lead by Ahmad Abojaradeh
What will you learn?
Participants will have an understanding of Safe Spaces, Intersectionality, and Belonging.
Participants will gain tools to transform their work to be more inclusive and support co-creation.
Participants will gain tools to transform their spaces into safe spaces to promote inclusion and co-creation.
Workshop Description:
We're constantly talking about centering the voices of minorities and the marginalized, but how do we actually do that? How do we transform not only our organizations into safe spaces, but also how do we transform our work to be intersectional in a way that creates spaces of belonging for everyone regardless of their collective identities. It's not just about celebrating diversity, it's transforming our work to actually matter for everyone. This workshop will not only address race and gender, but it will also go into disability, mental illness, class, orientation, and many other areas that we rarely discuss.
Speaker Bio:Ahmad Abojaradeh is the Founder and Executive Director of Life in My Days, a non-profit dedicated to starting difficult conversations around Mental Health and Disabilities, Abuse and Trauma, and Social Justice. He is an Engineer, a world traveler, a Peer Support Specialist, and a Novelist. He hopes to spread awareness of living a life of wellness through his writing, workshops and speaker events. Follow Ahmad on twitter, instagram or facebook.
Lead by Ahmad Abojaradeh
What will you learn?
Participants will have an understanding of Safe Spaces, Intersectionality, and Belonging.
Participants will gain tools to transform their work to be more inclusive and support co-creation.
Participants will gain tools to transform their spaces into safe spaces to promote inclusion and co-creation.
Workshop Description:
We're constantly talking about centering the voices of minorities and the marginalized, but how do we actually do that? How do we transform not only our organizations into safe spaces, but also how do we transform our work to be intersectional in a way that creates spaces of belonging for everyone regardless of their collective identities. It's not just about celebrating diversity, it's transforming our work to actually matter for everyone. This workshop will not only address race and gender, but it will also go into disability, mental illness, class, orientation, and many other areas that we rarely discuss.
Speaker Bio:Ahmad Abojaradeh is the Founder and Executive Director of Life in My Days, a non-profit dedicated to starting difficult conversations around Mental Health and Disabilities, Abuse and Trauma, and Social Justice. He is an Engineer, a world traveler, a Peer Support Specialist, and a Novelist. He hopes to spread awareness of living a life of wellness through his writing, workshops and speaker events. Follow Ahmad on twitter, instagram or facebook.
Workshop Four: Training for Transformation: Leadership Development in Communities of Color
Lead by Equity Leaders Fellows
What will you learn?
What is unique about leadership programs for Communities of Color
Understand how to support leadership development in Communities of Color
Learn how different models meet different need in Communities of Color.
Workshop Description:
This workshop will explore the role of different models of leadership development in Communities of Color and why they are necessary. It will also explain how individuals and institutions in the dominant culture can be allies, co-conspirators and accomplices. Attendees will leave with deeper insight into the process of creating relationship marked by reciprocity and respect that lead to community transformation.
Speaker Bio:
Woullard Lett; Northeastern Illinois University, BA-Community Law and Inner City Studies; Southern New Hampshire University, MS-Community Economic Development. Mr. Lett is an experienced community organizer and social justice advocate. He is the immediate past president of the Manchester National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Northeast Region Representative for the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA) and active on several local and national boards.
Lead by Equity Leaders Fellows
What will you learn?
What is unique about leadership programs for Communities of Color
Understand how to support leadership development in Communities of Color
Learn how different models meet different need in Communities of Color.
Workshop Description:
This workshop will explore the role of different models of leadership development in Communities of Color and why they are necessary. It will also explain how individuals and institutions in the dominant culture can be allies, co-conspirators and accomplices. Attendees will leave with deeper insight into the process of creating relationship marked by reciprocity and respect that lead to community transformation.
Speaker Bio:
Woullard Lett; Northeastern Illinois University, BA-Community Law and Inner City Studies; Southern New Hampshire University, MS-Community Economic Development. Mr. Lett is an experienced community organizer and social justice advocate. He is the immediate past president of the Manchester National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Northeast Region Representative for the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA) and active on several local and national boards.