The Justice Walk Travelog - January 2022

Leadership coaching rooted in equity and justice

bell hooks

This Month's Walking...

bell hooks and her legacy have been top of mind for many of us lately.  A quote about her from john a powell has stuck with me: "One of the things I loved about bell is she critiqued these systems without confusing them with the people," he said in a piece by KQED honoring bell hooks in the days after her death in December.I love this idea of not confusing systems with people.  Not because I want to avoid holding individuals responsible (or being held responsible myself) for unacceptable words or actions, but because the work is so much bigger than that.  When we view individuals', or our own, screw-ups and mistakes around equity, justice, and belonging, in a way that prioritizes doing better without undermining their, and our own, humanity, we move forward instead of stopping any momentum in its tracks. We also acknowledge that the "isms" based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, etc. are baked into structures, institutions, and systems.  Individuals act within those systems and can either make them worse/keep them going or band together to change, transform, or completely re-imagine them.  But, addressing one individual's behavior is not a substitute for systemic work.As a fairly textbook Enneagram 1, I fall back on being "critically judgmental" when I'm tired, stressed, and not my best self.  Over the past several months I've been working on noting, catching, and interrupting that pattern.  It's unhealthy for me and others when I'm judgmental.  john a powell, in another article, expanded on not confusing systems and people by describing it as learning to be "hard and critical on structures, but soft on people." That's how I'm trying to walk these days - not confusing individuals with systems so that I'm hard on structures, but soft on people.  It's how I hope others interact with me; the least I can do is lean into offering them the same.Walk on!

Abby

 P.S. Reminder that you can view my website here!

iForum panel from December 2022 - how equity can be infused into work to end homelessness

In December I was on a panel as part of the IForum 2021:Pathways To Achieving Race Equity In Housing And Homelessness, hosted by the Partnership for Strong Communities alongside some amazing colleagues;• Peggy Bailey, Senior Advisor, Rental Assistance, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development• Susan Thomas, President, Melville Charitable Trust• Amanda Andere, Chief Executive Officer, Funders Together to End Homelessness• Jenita Hayes, Equity Manager, Supportive Housing Works/Co-Founder of the CT Race Equity Network• Abby Anderson, Founder, The Justice Walk, LLC• Steven Hernandez, Executive Director, Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity & Opportunity, Connecticut General AssemblyWe had an enjoyable, wide-ranging conversation, challenging ourselves, our organizations, and our fields to go further, speak louder, and act more boldly to make housing and housing advocacy equitable. Check it out!

Rebel Talent: Why it Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life, by Francesca Gino, explores those who "defy the status quo."  The status quo was, of course, designed and built by those who are primarily white, male, and wealthy.  Equity, justice, and belonging work requires us to rebel.  Gino created a quick test on her website that allows you to discover your "rebel talent" personality (we all have one).  Figure out yours here!

Helpful ResourcesOne current area of focus is improving my knowledge and practices to ensure my documents, presentations, websites, (newsletters), etc. are accessible to those with disabilities.  In reality, we all owe a large amount of the convenience of our daily lives to the disability advocacy community.  It's not surprising then, that accessibility tools are easily available and easy to use, once those of us who don't need them take a couple minutes to look and learn.(The fact that these easy-to-find and use tools are not prominently displayed as default features we have to "opt out" of rather than educate ourselves to find is something that companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Apple, etc. should change.)Some simple steps we can take to make our work more accessible include:

• Clicking and filling out Alt Text boxes for images so that those who use screen readers get all of information and context the image conveys;

• Ensuring closed captioning is on for any presentations or videos we present. 

Here are a few links to help get you started:

• Google Workspace user guide to accessibility;

• Blog post on making G Suite documents, and other features, more accessible to those with disabilities;

• Microsoft Office applications (word, excel, powerpoint) have an Accessibility Checker feature - similar to spell check - that we can all use to find and address elements of our documents, spreadsheets, or presentations that may be hard or impossible for those with disabilities to access.