Where are we now?

In the opening post, we shared the arc of CAN’s process for change: Awareness and Education → Application and Accountability → Increased Ability and Sustainable Growth. I want to be clear, these cycles of learning and improvement will be iterative and ongoing. We don’t feel that becoming a better organization is a destination but our continuing journey to be better every day, both as individuals and as a catalyst for change in our greater system.

CAN is currently in the Awareness and Education phase of the process. To build Awareness, we have started introducing you to different members of the CAN team. So far on CAN’s journey, you have been introduced to Melissa Perez and Nat Rosales. They shared aspects of their lives that elevated the beauty of their personal journeys and how their intersectionality informs and influences their work. We are offering these team member spotlights to showcase the diversity of our team and how the different lived and learned experiences of the team supports CAN’s work. And don’t worry, you will definitely get to meet the rest of the team as we continue this work of becoming an antiracist and liberatory organization. 

To continue our internal Education, team members have also participated, both as individuals and as teams, in several personal and professional development opportunities with the Center for Systems Awareness, National Equity Project, Equity Literacy Institute, and continued learning with our partners at Equity Meets Design. In this next phase, CAN will begin an exploration of Power and Privilege and how to acknowledge and mitigate that in the spaces in which CAN team members either convene or engage. A great deal of the team’s exploration is anchored in Tema Okun’s revisited work on White Supremacy Culture (which is in deep partnership and exploration with lots of great thinkers on the subject) and will be anchored in identifying and practicing restorative, regenerative, and liberatory practices that address white supremacy culture. Once we complete this cycle, we will share some of our learnings, resources, and tools that helped us throughout our learner journey.

So, as we end our calendar year, we want to again thank you for your participation in our journey. Your input, questions, and “call-outs” are all welcomed and appreciated. You are our accountability-buddies (credit of the term to Tiffany Knuckles, Fellow of the School of Leadership and Facilitation) in this work and for that we are grateful! Have an amazing December, celebrating the time off in ways that feel meaningful to you, helping restore and rejuvenate you to continue doing the work that changes students’ lives.

Resources:

• Tema Okum’s White Supremacy Culture website – https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/
• Qualities of Regenerative and Liberatory Culture Article – https://regenerative.medium.com/qualities-of-regenerative-and-liberating-culture-9d3809b30557
• Restoring Racial Justice IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/CV3ecShpsRo/

Your partner in this work,

Tiffany Gipson