Communities of Practice

Facilitating Collective Learning & Action

Equity work is best done in community: learning in public, holding ourselves and each other accountable, trying new approaches and working through complex challenges collectively. Together we can reimagine and create equitable systems and structures that challenge and disrupt the status quo. Addressing racial inequities is a complex problem, and with a complex problem, there are no easy answers or “best practices” that will “solve” the problem. Engaging in inquiry is an essential stance to take to make progress on racial equity, and a Community of Practice can be an effective structure for inquiry and collective action. 

There is increased courage and potential power in collectively acting toward shared outcomes. We can support you to develop meaningful relationships with others in a learning community, to contribute to the well-being and sustainability of people as they come together to do shared work, and to foster greater liberatory collaboration in developing partnerships with families and communities.

Outcomes & Impacts

Too often change initiatives only focus on taking action, not on learning and adjusting strategies based on the impact of the actions. Outcomes of an effective Community of Practice include not only the actions taken, but also what is learned about the equity problem you are trying to solve, what you learned from the actions you took, and what you would do differently or adjust given the impact you had.  

While specific goals and outcomes are context specific, some common aims for our Community of Practice facilitation include:

• Building shared language, understanding, and increased will, skill, and knowledge to identify, disrupt, and address inequities in participants’ efforts;

• Increased capacity of members to use a racial equity and systems thinking lens to complex organizational leadership and cross-institutional challenges;

• Influencing shifts in members’ respective approaches, intentions, communications, and/or goals related to equity

• Cultivate relationships, incorporate processes, and utilize frameworks to develop a meaningful, authentic and robust learning community in which a commitment to learning, being and doing are expected; 

• Make structural change by interrupting existing institutional dynamics/approaches through the formation of an intentional, change-centric community of practice.