by Natalie Spriggs, Director of Programs

Here at Peace Learning Center, the staff spend a lot of time discussing and analyzing equity.  If folks are talking about peace, equity must be part of the conversation AND the conversation has to be more than a check box of “we talked about it, now we are good.”

What does equity look like here at Peace Learning Center? This is the question staff at PLC continually ask.  One of the places PLC has landed is how to work from a place of consensus, where power is shared, especially in decision-making.  One example of how PLC moved to a place of consensus in decision-making is moving from administration team meetings to full staff meetings.  Before, large decisions were being made by those in power, administration, with no other staff “at the table”.  PLC now has full staff meetings in place of administration meetings where information and decision-making is shared between all staff.

Equity also looks like analyzing all that PLC does through an anti-racist lens.  For example, when looking at policies we analyze: Who wrote the policy? Who does this policy benefit? Is this policy fair? Why does this policy exist? etc.  PLC opened the policy discussion by starting out with the full staff reviewing the policy handbook. This was a long process, and is not done yet, but it ensures that everyone’s voice has a chance to be heard.

Peace Learning Center is on this long journey to ensure equity.  This will continuously change, week by week, year to year.  That is the thing about equity; it is more than a check box that a person participates in one workshop and it’s done.  It is a process that people must be committed and open to the work, people must be willing to do their own internal work, and an organization must be willing to be critically loved! This trifecta is the work Peace Learning Center is doing! This work is challenging but oh so rewarding!

What about you and your organization? Are you ready to look through a lens of equity? Please check out some of the workshops at www.PeaceLearningCenter.org/events or contact us for more information about the programs PLC does!