Stop for a moment and look around your workplace, your school, your community… maybe even your family. On the surface, these places may look like the picture of diversity and inclusion, but when you go a bit deeper, too often, there’s something missing. There’s a good chance a lot of people are gritting their teeth and bearing it. They don’t feel seen, valued, or safe to be themselves. They’re not invested.
This isn’t the picture of equity. It’s the picture of tolerance.
And the fact is, tolerance isn’t working. After all, who wants to be tolerated?
Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity work has been theory-focused for a long time. We had to wrap our heads around it. And now it’s time to go deeper. We need to wrap our whole selves around it.
- To internalize it
- To be curious.
- To challenge our perspectives.
- To have human experiences.
- To take risks.
- To make mistakes.
- To work for repair.
- To ask for grace.
- To learn to see each other, value each other, and offer each other safety… even––or especially––when we disagree.
- To go from understanding it on paper to knowing it in our bones.
Communities of Belonging takes an experiential, inside-out approach to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work, filling it with heart, soul, and humanity.
Remember that missing something we mentioned before? It’s belonging. And it’s the difference between clocking in and showing up.