Who we are
Community Conversations is an initiative of the Midland Area Cultural Awareness Coalition. Midland County’s We Hear You diversity, equity, and inclusion community assessment identified a need for greater visibility of local diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice efforts and noted strong support for local efforts such as the Community Conversations initiative.
Community Conversations is part of sustained and ongoing actions for greater inclusion, equity, and justice to help advance our community’s vision of “together, forward, bold: an exceptional place where everyone thrives.”
Events
Community Conversations is comprised of five two-hour, in-person sessions.
Sessions are held on the fourth Tuesday of the month at the Midland Area Community Foundation from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m.
One series will be offered in 2024. The dates are below:
April 23, May 28, June 25, July 23, and August 27, 2024
For more information, please email info@midlandfoundation.org
Outcomes
● Individual and collective learning. Participants will learn more about historical roots and contemporary manifestations of systemic oppression, inequity, and injustice; learn more about diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice; and build empathy, understanding, and relationships.
● Skill development. Participants will learn, develop, and practice important DEIJ skills.
● Actions. Participants will develop an action plan to apply their learning across personal and professional levels.
● Community Conversations will help develop and sustain an environment that embraces diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice where everyone is respected, welcomed, valued, and supported; where everyone belongs and can reach their full potential.
● Community Conversations will help develop a growing cohort or network of people to expand, spread, and extend DEIJ work and share their experiences and skills to additional organizations and communities.
Upon completing five sessions participants will be able to:
● Understand power, influence, and privilege along a personal/structural spectrum and construct an action plan to apply their learning to disrupt biased practices and systems of inequity and injustice along this spectrum, in their personal and professional roles, and within personal and professional networks and organizations.
● Sessions 1-4 will focus on content, reflection, and practice along personal to systemic/structural/institutional.
● Session 5 will focus on collaboration and application.
Continuing the Conversation Sessions
Participants from previous Community Conversations sessions, current Community Conversations participants, and trained Community Conversations facilitators are invited to participate in monthly, hour-long virtual ‘Continuing the Conversation’ Sessions. These virtual sessions are designed to review previous workshop content, provide a less formal opportunity for open discussion and reflection, sustain an environment that embraces diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging and provide opportunities to practice, reflect, and grow.
Sessions occur on the third Wednesday of the month, from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Please email info@midlandfoundation.org to request virtual meeting login.