Community Building
Each one of us – individuals, non-profits and businesses alike – bring value to our communities, and we all have the power to create an equitable culture within those communities.
CultureValue partners with people on the ground to build and activate a shared analysis. We facilitate group discussions, provide inspirational and informative keynote presentations, and organize workshops through the Racial Equity Institute. REI’s three-hour Groundwater workshop and the deeper two-day Phase 1 moves members of communities away from a focus on personal bigotry and bias towards a better understanding of how each of us can work for change in our own spheres of influence.
Serving the Community
This is the most fulfilling part of my work. Partnering with and working in collaboration with others to create change is the work of equity. It’s not always easy, but it is always necessary. CultureValue helps organize and host the very popular REI (Racial Equity Institute) workshops in local communities in Western North Carolina and central Florida so that individual community members can come together outside of their professional organizations to develop a shared analysis. These workshops can be in-person or virtual, allowing people to participate from anywhere in the country.
“The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.” — Ijeoma Oluo
The Western North Carolina Racial Equity Collective has grown out of a couple of people who first worked to offer the workshop in Asheville back in 2015. From there, we can thank people like Miss Bettie Council, Miss Joanne Edgerton, Marta Alcala, and Carol Rogoff-Halstrom for countless hours put in to make the workshops happen. Today, volunteers step in to support the efforts at their own capacity levels and we manage to offer the workshops several times a year. Since the workshops have gone virtual due to COVID, community members across the country have joined us, prompting the potential for similar community efforts. If you’d like to be among the first to receive notice of the next REI Phase 1 workshop* in our area, you can get on the waitlist.
*An important note for full transparency: NONE of the money collected for these workshops profits or goes in any way to CultureValue, LLC. This is a service in support of community organizers’ efforts to create change.
Are you ready to create a more equitable community?
We have nothing to lose but our chains. – Assata Shakur
Another part of building equitable communities is less about the geographical space we occupy and more about our professional industries. For those of us who are DEI professionals (in all its forms), there is a tendency to fall into the trap of scarcity belief and practices. The reality is that there is no shortage of inequity. And I, frankly, look forward to the day when there is.
Until then, there is more than enough work to go around and I seek to model that expansive and inclusive vision by bringing in independent consultants to projects. This serves my colleagues in the work, as well as the countless and varied organizations that are seeking consultants who fit their industries and areas of expertise and focus.
Danaé is solutions-oriented, focused on the goals of racial equity and liberation and committed to staying the course and doing what’s necessary to support individuals and groups moving forward. She recognizes that amidst the complexity of shifting culture, there is a role for everyone. Each individual has value to offer. Danaé’s approach to this work is to lean towards colleagues and collaborators as she is clear that competition does nothing to serve our shared goals.
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