Reigniting Empowerment: Redesigning staff diversity training to prevent harm

Aqsa Khan and Diana Wu talk about the journey to re-imagine and redesign CARE's Reflections on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (REDI) training after getting feedback that the previous version was harming staff with marginalized identities. Even with the best intentions, diversity trainings can do more harm than good. So we had to redesign ours. Change only happens when you commit to doing the work. Staff have to reflect, to change, and commit to grow. Some of the other key lessons they shared: senior leadership commitment is critical, we need to focus more on accountability, not just awareness, and budgets and resources are crucial to getting things done.

This is work none of us do alone. We had a lot to learn from people who are doing this work. Here are some of the key resources CARE drew inspiration from for the REDI training.

• AORTA, Continuum of becoming a transformative anti-oppression organization.
• We Don’t Want to be Stars
• Vo Vo
• Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective/ Mia Mingus – Accountability Lab
• Community Accountability Videos from Barnard