Equity Pause Training
As a follow up to our CARAT Training we have been offering organizations a training to teach the skill of Equity Pauses.
Over hundreds of years the systems we live and work within have been structured to ensure and maintain inequities. When we identify problems within these systems, we ofter look to fix the issues without fixing the system, and sometimes, our solutions do not actually help those we are looking to support.
In order to do so we need to first recognize what biases, structures and assumptions are at play. We must learn to pause to recognize who may not be represented. Please contact us to schedule a training.
- An equity pause is literally a pause in planning, preparation, or observation to consider who is doing the work, in what way it empowers others from as many perspectives as possible, and how our identity influences our thinking.
- An equity pause should be part of all planning. It is designed to help us “see” issues of racial bias, of socio-economic bias, of gender bias, of family structure bias and make conscious decisions about how to address the biases once revealed.
- An equity pause is a series of prompts to help us understand more about our own identities and therefore the decisions we make and why we make them.
- An equity pause is something we do to consider who is being seen, by whom, and for what reason.
CARAT Training
In the Spring of 2021 WIDE offered a Community Anti-Racist Advocate Training (CARAT). Participation from 127 community members representing 49 organizations the Town of Lincoln on all levels means the almost every organization and individual encounters in town will be actively working toward enact its own Equity Action Plan. This will allow the Town to shift away from the deeply embedded structures of inequity towards Anti-racism, equity and justice. Town organizations will review policies, procedures, cultural norms and individual biases in order to make real, lasting change. WIDE is committed to supporting organizations long-term through Office Hours, targeted, individualized Technical Assistance, and Trainings.
CARAT was a three-session training open to members of all Lincoln organizations, boards and departments who were looking to deepen their knowledge and develop skills in the practice of anti-racism. This virtual series invited participants to explore individual biases, cultural messages, and institutional structures that hold racism in place. We discussed strategies for implementing sustainable change in their organization to support equity and inclusion. The sessions were run by Kathy Lopes of InKlusion Consulting. Thanks to the support of the Ogden Codman Trust, we offered this training for free, beginning this Spring 2021.
Each of the 49 Town Boards, Commissions, Departments and Organizations will be responsible for submitting their Action Plan and 6- and 12-month progress reports.
Participants
| Town Departments Town of Lincoln, Conservation Department | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, Council on Aging | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, Fire Department | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, Public Library | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, Parks and Recreation Department | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, Police Department | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, Public Schools | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, Select Board | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, Water Department | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, Administrator | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, Clerk’s Office | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, Finance Department | |||||||||||||
| Town of Lincoln, IT Department | |||||||||||||
Town of Lincoln, Planning Department Town Boards and Commissions
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| Organizations |
| First Parish in Lincoln |
| Garden Club |
| Girl Scouts |
| Goodnow Library |
| Lincoln Cultural Council |
| Lincoln Democratic Town Committee |
| Lincoln Family Association |
| Lincoln Nursery School |
| Lincoln School Foundation |
| Lincoln Woods |
| Lincoln Youth Soccer |
| Lovelane Special Needs Horseback Riding Program Inc. |
| Magic Garden Children’s Center |
| METCO Coordinating Committee |
| Mothers Out Front |
| PTO |
| Saint. Vincent. de Paul Lincoln Weston |
| The Commons |
| The Food Project |
| The Lincoln Foundation |
| The Walden Woods Project |
| WIDE |