State of Inclusion

Join me as we talk with Darryl Heller, the chair of the South Bend Reparatory Justice Commission. We will discuss how the commission is bringing a restorative justice lens to its approach to reparations in South Bend, Indiana. This conversation offers practical and insightful ways to consider the very important and complex subject of reparations at a local level.  Find a full transcript and show notes HERE.Sign up for our newsletter and join us at The Inclusive Community to discover conversations, insights, and practices to encourage and support each of us working to build a more inclusive and equitable community.If you would like to help continue and grow our work please visit our Support Us page.  

We believe in the transformative power of art. It's a potent tool that can be used to touch hearts and open minds and contribute to the creation of a more inclusive and equitable community. Over the years, we've talked with artists, but this conversation is different. It is about street art, or what I might call guerilla art. Work that lives at the intersection of art and activism. It's about a troupe of artists who engage in activism, support other activists, and use their art to, as they say, "surprise you out of your normal routine." Find a full transcript and show notes HERE.Sign up for our newsletter and join us at The Inclusive Community to discover conversations, insights, and practices to encourage and support each of us working to build a more inclusive and equitable community.If you would like to help continue and grow our work please visit our Support Us page. 

Today, the richest 10% of households own 70% of the country's wealth, including 90% of the wealth from business ownership. We know this wealth gap is felt most acutely by everyday workers and people of color. So, how do we fix this very deep, widespread, systemic problem? In this episode, we hear about tangible and practical ways that communities and businesses can contribute to closing that wealth gap. Find a full transcript and show notes HERE.Sign up for our newsletter and join us at The Inclusive Community to discover conversations, insights, and practices to encourage and support each of us working to build a more inclusive and equitable community.If you would like to help continue and grow our work please visit our Support Us page. 

For those of you who are already doing advocacy and coalition work in your communities, this episode is for you. If you are trying to find a way to ensure your community’s needs are respected in the face of significant building and development, this episode is for you. We’ll hear how to use coalitions to build power and how neighborhoods and communities of color can come together to advocate for what they need. Join us as we welcome Joo Hee Pomplun, the executive director of The Alliance, a coalition of community based organizations working in the Minnesota Twin Cities region and beyond.Find a full transcript and show notes HERE.Sign up for our newsletter and join us at The Inclusive Community to discover conversations, insights, and practices to encourage and support each of us working to build a more inclusive and equitable community.If you would like to help continue and grow our work please visit our Support Us page. 

Our work of Equity and Inclusion requires us to think multi-dimensionally, to think about ourselves, but also about those with whom we interact and about the structures in our environment, whether those are systems or physical spaces. My guest, Lori Weitzner, helps us explore the importance of our physical spaces on both a personal and a group level. Lori shares how we can use color and a multi-sensory approach to the design of our spaces and events to help make people feel more welcome, more included, and more grounded. Lori will also discuss how each of us can use color and design in our personal spaces to help us recharge, recenter, and energize for the work ahead. While we're going to talk a lot about color, Lori and I will not talk about colorism. That is an important subject, a separate and significant subject, but one for another day.Find a full transcript and show notes HERE.Sign up for our newsletter and join us at The Inclusive Community to discover conversations, insights, and practices to encourage and support each of us working to build a more inclusive and equitable community.If you would like to help continue and grow our work please visit our Support Us page. 

This conversation reminds us that the current systems that keep us from achieving equity and inclusion weren’t just an accident of evolution. They were designed—intentionally designed. These past designs and their artifacts also persist in our everyday lives, even when we have stopped many of the harmful practices. Today's guest, Braden Cooks of Designing the We, will share how we can undesign our current systems of inequity and separation and imagine new ways for our communities to design and build a more equitable future.Find a full transcript and show notes HERE.Sign up for our newsletter and join us at The Inclusive Community to discover conversations, insights, and practices to encourage and support each of us working to build a more inclusive and equitable community.If you would like to help continue and grow our work please visit our Support Us page. 

Today's guest is Tawanna Black, founder of the Center for Economic Inclusion. Tawanna makes a clear and compelling case for community leaders to work together with a focus on building a thriving, growing economy that works for everyone in their community. Tawanna also shares how her team has worked directly with communities to help inform, guide, and facilitate that kind of broad cross-sector collaboration. You'll hear her describe how their work gives businesses and governments the tools to do drastically different work, get drastically different results, and do so in shared accountability. If you feel your community could benefit from this kind of cross-sector collaboration, this episode is for you. Find a full transcript and show notes HERE.Sign up for our newsletter and join us at The Inclusive Community to discover conversations, insights, and practices to encourage and support each of us working to build a more inclusive and equitable community.If you would like to help continue and grow our work please visit our Support Us page.     

In this episode, we take a moment to reflect on the State of Inclusion Podcast for 2023 and look ahead to 2024. While DEI may be under assault on many fronts, I'll share why I remain optimistic about this work of equity and inclusion. We'll also listen to and reflect on a few pearls of wisdom from our 2023 interviews.See full transcript HERE.Sign up for our newsletter and join us at The Inclusive Community to discover conversations, insights, and practices to encourage and support each of us working to build a more inclusive and equitable community.

Our guest, Nick Cotter, has dedicated his life to educating others on the causes and reality of persistent racial and economic segregation and working to address its consequences in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While Nick's work is clearly focused on Pittsburgh, the insights and lessons reach much farther. In our discussion with Nick, we'll come to understand that many of the keys to building a more inclusive and equitable community can be found in our neighborhoods.Access the full transcript and show notes HERESign up for our newsletter and join us at The Inclusive Community to discover conversations, insights, and practices to encourage and support each of us working to build a more inclusive and equitable community. 

If you want to discover how to become a better listener and learn techniques to help you listen with greater respect and love, this episode is for you. In this episode, Victoria Chance and Mary Anne Inglis of My Neighbor's Voice offer an approach to strengthen our listening skills and, at the same time, build community with our neighbors. Access the full transcript and show notes HERESign up for our newsletter and join us at The Inclusive Community, to discover conversations, insights, and practices to encourage and support each of us working to build a more inclusive and equitable community.Newsletter GIVEAWAY ALERT!!  Anyone who is signed up for our newsletter on or before November 30, 2023, will be entered for a chance to win a free book.  A winner will be randomly selected from all subscribers and will win one book of their choice from our State of Inclusion bookshop.Current subscribers are already entered.   

As part of this work of equity and inclusion, we are each on our own journey of growth. Sometimes, a moment of growth is structured and intentional, but sometimes, it catches us completely unaware. After it happens, we’re never the same. In today’s episode, I asked three more of my previous guests to share about a moment they grew in their own journey of equity and inclusion. We hear from Paul McCormack, Director of the South Carolina State Parks System, Janeen Bryant, Executive Director of the Community Building Initiative, and Chris Sparrow, adaptive athlete, disability advocate, and Program Director with the Barbara Stone Foundation. Listening to their responses can inspire a moment of growth and learning for us all. I really want you to be able to hear each guest as they speak from their heart. As a result, you'll hear me refer to this as "our unplugged series." Their responses are only lightly edited. You’ll hear more pauses and ums, and the sound may not be quite as polished. These episodes will be shorter as well to give you a little more room to sit with and reflect on each of the stories you hear.Link to Full Transcript and Show NotesSignup for The Inclusive Community Newsletter 

As part of this work of equity and inclusion, we are each on our own journey of growth. Sometimes, a moment of growth is structured and intentional, but sometimes, it catches us completely unaware. After it happens, we’re never the same.In today’s episode, I asked three of my previous guests to share about a moment they grew in their own journey of equity and inclusion. We hear from Rose Lane of Conserving Carolina, Jerry Hawkins from Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation, and Dr. Kathleen Yang-Clayton from the University of Illinois-Chicago. Listening to their responses can inspire a moment of growth and learning for us all.I really want you to be able to hear each guest as they speak from their heart. As a result, you'll hear me refer to this as "our unplugged series." Their responses are only lightly edited. You’ll hear more pauses and ums, and the sound may not be quite as polished. These episodes will be shorter as well to give you a little more room to sit with and reflect on each of the stories you hear. Link to Full Transcript and Show NotesSignup for The Inclusive Community Newsletter 

In this episode we learn about using the power of community truth-telling as a springboard for systemic change and equity in Cincinnati, Ohio. We talk with Kim Rodgers from the Center for Community Resilience at George Washington University and learn how they provide on-the-ground support to communities, like Cincinnati, to advance progress toward resilience and equity.Link to Full Transcript and Show NotesSignup for The Inclusive Community Newsletter 

In this episode, we hear from an organization that has come to realize equity and inclusion are integral to its mission. As we talk with Rose Lane of Conserving Carolina, she shares how her organization adapted its strategic plan and value statements and how they formally ensure social justice, equity, and inclusion are part of their everyday work. As Rose tells us, "Conservation is part of social justice, and social justice is a part of preservation." Link to Full Transcript and Show NotesSignup for The Inclusive Community Newsletter  

Join us as Jerry Hawkins shares what it means to imagine a radically inclusive Dallas and Fort Worth. Along the way, Jerry also talks about how his organization delivers on its mission of truth, racial healing, and transformation for the communities it serves.Book Giveaway AlertWe love books on community, equity, and inclusion. We think you might too! We're running a book giveaway promotion this week. Anyone who is signed up for our newsletter, The Inclusive Community, on or before September 4, 2023, will be entered for a chance to win.  A winner will be randomly selected from all subscribers and will win one book of their choice from the State of Inclusion bookshop.Please sign up and join us at The Inclusive Community.Find show notes and full transcript HERE.

Hear from Paul McCormack, the South Carolina State Parks Director, as we talk about the actions he and his team are taking to make South Carolina's parks more accessible and inclusive. Along the way, Paul shares a little about what drives his commitment to inclusion and how he came to love the outdoors. This interview with Paul grew out of our 10-week Inclusive Community Outdoor Challenge. Head over to theinclusivecommunity.com to learn more about the challenge and join in.Link to Full Transcript and Show NotesSignup for The Inclusive Community Newsletter 

Join me as we hear from adaptive athlete and disability activist, Chris Sparrow. Chris will share what it has meant for him to get outdoors and re-engage with the sports he loves following a spinal cord injury. Along the way, he'll challenge us all to open our minds to what is possible and step up to help build a more inclusive outdoors. This episode was also part of our 10-week Inclusive Community Outdoor Challenge.Find detailed show notes and the full transcript for this episode HERE. 

Real and lasting community change is about broad community engagement, commitment, and change. That doesn’t just happen. It has to be cultivated. Join us in this episode as your co-hosts, Emma Winiski and Ame Sanders, talk about the practice we call GroundWork. It’s about reaching across the community and preparing the community soil for the seeds of equity and inclusion to germinate, take root, and grow. This is the third episode in the series: The Practice of Building a More Inclusive Community.Find detailed show notes and full transcript HERE. 

Sign up for our newsletter, The Inclusive Community, and join us for the 10-week Inclusive Community Outdoor Challenge. The outdoors has a diversity problem. It is time we noticed and did something about it. Journey along with me, Ame Sanders, as I complete each week's challenge in my own life and community. Together, we'll get outside more, have some fun, experience our public spaces, and do a little Self Work together.The challenge is now complete, but you can explore all ten weeks and related shownotes HERE.Signup for The Inclusive Community Newsletter  

Many communities undertake a coordinated program of actions and initiatives to strengthen inclusion and reduce disparities. If you want to see that type of results-focused action in your community or are already part of such a program, this episode is for you. This episode is part of our series of discussions where my colleague, Emma Winiski, and I discuss the Practice of Building a More Inclusive Community. We've identified six practice areas. In this episode, we focus on the practice of Program Work.Link to Full Transcript and Show NotesSignup for The Inclusive Community Newsletter