Purpose and Methodology
New Directions Consulting (NDC) knows that our trainings made a difference in the organizations we work with because we see it and they tell us about it. For example, after some of our deep listening and process-based work, clients have described the powerful impact of being able to both speak about and be heard about long-standing issues such that were both understood and began to be addressed. In a number of cases, it was those who sat the longest in organizational trauma – people of color, immigrants, refugees, and women - who benefited the most from being fully heard, believed, and responded to by the organizations they work in.
Along similar lines, we saw the benefits of an intersectionality training in the way the organization, especially the board, crafted a mission-aligned Anti-Oppression statement that honored the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation that were impacting the clients that they worked with.
In another setting, we brought a training framework on internalized oppression and intergenerational trauma to a Native community in a way that opened space for them to share the deep wounds of daily microaggressions and the fractures it created in their relationships with one another. Despite not being a member of the Native community, our shared experiences interacting with racist institutions, we were still able to frame and hold space for the dialogue for participants to move through the shared pain to remembering their deep connections to one another. They began to develop collective strategies to heal and to decolonize their mind-sets toward the outside world and within their community. Our relationship to that community through that process is a testament to the significance of that work.
Our trainings provide opportunities for professional growth and learning, rich dialogue, and brings a deeper understanding about the systemic/structural racism. This can only happen when people identify the patterns in their shared stories and experiences and their willingness to engage in difficult issues.
Along similar lines, we saw the benefits of an intersectionality training in the way the organization, especially the board, crafted a mission-aligned Anti-Oppression statement that honored the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation that were impacting the clients that they worked with.
In another setting, we brought a training framework on internalized oppression and intergenerational trauma to a Native community in a way that opened space for them to share the deep wounds of daily microaggressions and the fractures it created in their relationships with one another. Despite not being a member of the Native community, our shared experiences interacting with racist institutions, we were still able to frame and hold space for the dialogue for participants to move through the shared pain to remembering their deep connections to one another. They began to develop collective strategies to heal and to decolonize their mind-sets toward the outside world and within their community. Our relationship to that community through that process is a testament to the significance of that work.
Our trainings provide opportunities for professional growth and learning, rich dialogue, and brings a deeper understanding about the systemic/structural racism. This can only happen when people identify the patterns in their shared stories and experiences and their willingness to engage in difficult issues.
