The Social Justice Primer is a brief introduction to key social justice theories and concepts including:

• Social identities such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and ability

• Privilege and oppression

• The four levels at which privilege, oppression, and change manifest

• Implicit bias

• Microaggressions

The workshop ends with concrete ideas for how you can show up in more inclusive and socially just ways in your life and work.

Suggested Time: 3 hours

Understanding Implicit Bias introduces participants to the concept of implicit or unconscious bias. Participants will:

• Reflect on their own implicit bias

• Learn where their bias come from

• Learn why implicit bias matters

• Learn how implicit bias affects how we treat others, specifically through microaggressions

• Learn how implicit bias affects or policies & practices

This workshop ends with concrete ideas for how participants can begin interrupting their implicit bias.

Note: This workshop can meet the requirements from the Michigan Bureau of Professional Licensing (LARA) for health care professionals. This training is required for initial licensure and license renewal. Our workshop covers all the requirements in the Public Health Code-General Rules R 338.7704 standards.

Suggested Time: 3 hours

Understanding Race and Racism introduces participants to the concepts of race, racism, and racial justice. Participants will:

• Learn what exactly race is and why we call it a “social construct”

• Learn the different racial groups in the United States and how/why these groupings have changed over time

• Reflect on their own racial identity and how it has shaped their life

• Learn what exactly racism is and how it manifests at the individual (implicit bias), interpersonal (microaggressions), institutional/systemic and cultural levels

• Learn how privilege and oppression manifest

This workshop ends with concrete ideas for how participants can begin working for racial justice and antiracism in their lives and work.

Suggested Time: 3 hours

Understanding Class and Classism introduces participants to the concepts of class, classism, and economic justice. Participants will:

• Learn exactly what class is and how income, wealth, education, and other factors shape our class positions

• Learn about the class landscape in the United Sates

• Reflect on their own class position and how it has shaped their life

• Learn about the relationships between race and class

• Learn what exactly classism is and how it manifests at the individual (implicit bias), interpersonal, institutional/systemic and cultural levels

• Learn how privilege and oppression manifest

This workshop ends with concrete ideas for how participants can begin working for economic justice in their lives and work.

Suggested Time: 3 hours

Understanding the LGBTQIA+ Landscape introduces participants to LGBTQIA+ identity. Participants will:

• Learn the meaning of sex assigned at birth, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and related terms (including unpacking the LGBTQ+ alphabet)

• Learn the importance of pronouns and consider how to best use them

• Reflect on their own sexual orientation and gender identity and how they have shaped their life

• Learn what cis-heterosexism is and how it manifests at the individual (implicit bias), interpersonal, institutional/systemic and cultural levels

• Learn how privilege and oppression manifest

This workshop ends with concrete ideas for how participants can begin working for LGBTQIA+ justice in their lives and work.

Suggested Time: 3 hours

Understanding Disability and Ableism introduces participants to the concepts of disability, ableism, and disability justice. Participants will:

• Learn about the medical v. social model of disability

• Learn about the diversity and prevalence of disabilities

• Learn about the relationships between disability and other social identities such as class and race

• Reflect on their own ability status and how it has shaped their life

• Learn what ableism is and how it manifests at the individual (implicit bias), interpersonal, institutional/systemic and cultural levels

• Learn how privilege and oppression manifest

This workshop ends with concrete ideas for how participants can begin working for disability justice in their lives and work.

Suggested Time: 3 hours

Understanding Gender and Sexism introduces participants to the gender, sexism, and gender equality. Participants will:

• Learn what gender is and why it is a “social construct”

• Learn about the binary gender system

• Reflect on their own gender and how it has shaped their life

• Learn what sexism is and how it manifests at the individual (implicit bias), interpersonal, institutional/systemic and cultural levels

• Learn how privilege and oppression manifest

This workshop ends with concrete ideas for how participants can begin working for gender equality in their lives and work.

Suggested Time: 3 hours

Our understanding of health and wellness have transformed tremendously. This workshop provides the most up to date scientific evidence that illuminates the harmful effects of health and physical education curriculum that unknowingly perpetuates sizeism, healthism and anti-fat bias.

The workshop addresses the common myths about fat, diet, exercise, and athletics, the history and harm of BMI, The American Academy of Pediatrics 2023 recommendations for children’s weight loss, and what we can do to create safe and inclusive spaces and experiences for all bodies.

Suggested Time: 3 hours

Do you remember being a young person? Do you remember what it was like to have little say over how you spent your time, where you went, what you learned, perhaps even what you wore? Do you recall feeling that the only emotion you were allowed to express was joy, positivity, or neutrality? Do you recall what it was like to not be allowed to have or express your own opinions or have any control over your own body or needs?

Understanding Adultism introduces participants to the idea that children and youth in our society experience significant oppression. Participants will learn what adultism is and how it manifests at the at the individual (implicit bias), interpersonal, institutional/systemic and cultural levels.

This workshop ends with concrete ideas for how participants can begin working to disrupt adultism in their lives and work.

Suggested Time: 3 hours

What is actual Critical Race Theory? What are the goals of the anti-CRT movement? How should justice-minded educators and school leaders respond to the pushback they are experiencing? This short workshop provides foundational understanding of the CRT backlash for educators to help them make sense of the current moment as they pursue equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice in their schools.

Suggested Time: 2 hours

An intensive seminar for individuals and organizations who seek to deepen their understanding of and commitment to equity, inclusion, diversity and social justice along lines of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and ability. Participants must be willing to reflect deeply in ways that may challenge previously held assumptions and worldviews.

Series includes email follow-up after each session and access to our online drive with homework readings, handouts, and other resources.

The Advanced Course is for people who have completed the Core Course and would like to continue learning and growing personally and professionally when it comes to issues of equity, inclusion and social justice. Participants will continue deepening their personal learning and reflection about racism, sexism, and classism and will use the Organization Justice Assessment and Transformation Tool (OJATT) to enhance their practice related to Knowledge, Biases & Beliefs; Relationships & Climate; Images, Celebrations & Events; Training & Professional Development; and/or Policies & Procedures. In addition, participants will improve their skills engaging in difficult conversations about social justice in formal and informal settings. Series includes email follow-up after each session and access to our online drive with homework readings, handouts, and other resources.

White People Working for Racial Justice is an affinity group space specifically designed for white people committed to racial justice to lean together, ask questions, make mistakes, work through defensiveness and guilt, and examine fears without burdening People of Color in the process. It invites white people to do the deep work required to claim and embody an anti-racist identity, understand the privilege they carry, and interrupt racism in their lives and work.

Series includes email follow-up after each session and access to our online drive with homework readings, handouts, and other resources.

Four 4-hour days. All four sessions required.

People of Color Working for Racial Justice is an affinity group space superficially designed for Black, Indigenous and other people of color committed to racial and social justice. Participants will learn the history of race and racism in the United States, explore their own internalized racism and bias toward other People of Color, understand how they can have privilege even as they experience racial oppression, and engage in practices to help in their personal growth and healing.

Series includes email follow-up after each session and access to our online drive with homework readings, handouts, and other resources.

Four 4-hour days. All four sessions required.

Description forthcoming

Interrupting Bias and Bigotry is an opportunity for participants to practice the skills of interrupting microaggressions and biased and bigoted comments. Participants increase comfort and skill in showing up for justice.

4 training hours (1 virtual day)

“Words Create Worlds!” As Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice movements move…so does language! Explore the current terminology that is best practice among those working for intersectional justice in our schools to create a more just world. Recognize how language does interpersonal harm, sustains institutional oppression, and shifts as culture learns more. Understand how your own terminology can be kept up-to-date, and move your language from violent idioms toward more compassionate and just expressions. Find out how learning new language actually re-writes our brains to use new patterns. Practice your skills and discover ways to interrogate how powerful your language can be as a tool to disrupt microaggressions and to lift up those who are historically made vulnerable by systems of oppression.

Suggested Time: 2 hours

Interrupting Bias and Bigotry is an opportunity for participants to practice the skills of interrupting microaggressions and biased and bigoted comments. Participants will also learn and practice the art of authentic apologies for the inevitable times we all make mistakes. Participants increase comfort and skill in showing up for justice.

4 training hours (1 virtual day)

So often the work of equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice is hindered as a result of toxic relationships and negative cultures within organizations. The “Ropes Course” helps you cultivate relationships of trust, honesty, and communal care within your organization so that we can get to the work of making the world a more just, inclusive, and equitable place. This workshop helps participants:

• Live into and utilize guidelines for justice

• Practice generous listening

• Engage in productive dialogue rather than contentious debate

• Cultivate empathy

• Identify and work through emotions

• Disrupt blame culture

• Accept and give feedback

• Apologize when harm occurs

• Build relationships of respect and collaboration with colleagues

training hours vary

Building Equity Teams & Justice Squads guides educators through the Equity Teams & Justice Squads Section of the  Education Justice Assessment & Transformation Tool (EJATT) so they have the knowledge, skill, and reflective practice  to form a successful team of Justice Leaders ready to take action in their school or district. We highly recommend that  participants come with a partner or team from their school or district. Note: The Core Course is a mandatory  prerequisite for all team participants.  

3 training hours

Sustaining Equity Teams & Justice Squads invites people who have participated in Building Equity Teams & Justice Squads to come back together to reflect on the progress they have made and get support from our facilitators and co-participants as they continue planning for change. We highly recommend that participants come with a partner or team from their school or district. Note: The Core Course is a mandatory prerequisite for all team participants.

3 training hours

Explore the “Hiring & Retention” section of the OJATT more deeply. What should job postings include? How do we diversify our applicant pool? Who should be on the hiring committee? What questions should we ask in the interview? How do we know if the answers to our questions are any good? How do we retain diverse staff committed to social justice one we hire them?

Description forthcoming