Idea Exchange - Racism Dialogues

[On January 29, 2007 Texas Forums conducted an open house / idea exchange. We shared the upcoming events and volunteer opportunities, and asked participants to write ideas down on notecards. To read more ideas from this and other events, go to our Idea Exchange Category.]

Martha Koock Ward submitted this idea in response our report about the issue Facing Racism in a Diverse Nation. In partnership with Study Circles Resource Center, Texas Forums is offering an orientation / organizing clinic on February 21 at the LBJ Library from 10 - 3.

Austin Area Interreligious Ministries has been sponsoring InterRacial dialogues monthly ˆ 1st Sat at St. James Episcopal Church on East MLK from 9:oo a.m. - 11:30, all are welcome to attend. For info prior to the session, contact AAIM Board Member Mike Manor and put “BEAT” in the subject line.

Response from Taylor:

Martha - thanks for this lead. I’m on the AAIM mailing list so I was aware of these dialogues, but not the main contact. Glad to know about Mike and I will extend an invitation to him and to the AAIM Executive Director Emilee Whitehurst. Of course, we hope that you will be able to join us and urge your colleagues to register here! One of your board members has also been in contact with me about the Study Circles project, so I have high hopes that AAIM will be on board.

An advantage of working with SCRC - in addition to the excellent materials - is that they focus not only on the dialogues, but the changes that can come out of the racism dialogues. One condition they have identified as crucial to change is the intra-agency / organization dialogues. They emphasize community-wide dialogues and even provide free materials and technical assistance to those engaged in community dialogues. While it is important for organizations to have internal dialogues, real community change comes when we reach out across our normal . In addition, by pooling resources across agencies, we can share cost to train the discussion leaders. (In an earlier posting, I included training as a free service of SCRC, but I was mistaken. There is a small charge, but it is is not cost-prohibitive.)

We are excited about the work that AAIM is doing and hope that they will join organizations at this organizing clinic to discuss ways to leverage the various race dialogues into community action. Register here.

Thanks for your contribution!

Taylor

Technorati Tags: forums, LBJ Library, Texas Forums, racism, study circles,