Pre-Conference Workshops:

Pre-conference workshops will allow participants to explore a topic or build skills for either a half-day or whole-day. All pre-conference workshops will be held Thursday, March 15, at the Sheraton Columbus Hotel at Capitol Square (75 E. State Street in downtown Columbus), the conference site. The fee for each workshop is $35. Participants must pre-register for these workshops.

In the Body: Racism Trauma, Healing and Sustainable Activism (6 CEU’s)

Thea Lee and Tommy Lee Woon
(9:00-4:00 pm, Sheraton Hotel)

Have you ever found yourself holding the breath or jumping in your seat while watching a scary movie? This common phenomenon offers us a glimpse into how our bodies are wired to mobilize for our protection, even when our mind clearly knows the threat is make-believe. Then, imagine how our bodies react to experiences with racism, no matter how subtle, unintended, personal or systemic. This day-long workshop provides the participants with a new lens for understanding the effects of on-going and historical racism on people of color on the one hand, and the etiology of personal and systemic racism on the other. The participants will also learn skills for self-care that employ the understanding of stress and healing in the body. It is the presenters vision that the awareness of the role of the body and skills for regulating the bodys responses will be an integral feature of all race discourses by 2042. To ensure intimate, experiential and collaborative experiences for the participants, a limited number of slots are available for this workshop. Participants must commit to engaging in a preparatory process that includes introduction of participants via an online social media and completing a survey. For more information, please contact Thea M. Lee at lee.theam@gmail.com.

Social Media Training

Lara Kretler
Fahlgren Mortine Public Relations
(1:00-4:00 pm, Sheraton Hotel)

Lara Kretler, vice president and social media lead at Fahlgren Mortine Public Relations, is passionate about the strategic use of the social web. A career PR pro with both agency and corporate experience spanning more than 15 years, Lara brings over a decade of online community building and social media expertise to her speaking and training work. In this presentation, Lara will look at what other non-profits are doing in the social media realm – what’s working, what’s not – and highlight some new applications and best practices that can help you further your group’s cause and objectives.

Engaging Unconscious Bias in K-12 Education (3 CEU’s)

James Thrasher
California Teachers Association
(1:00-4:00 pm, Sheraton Hotel)

All of us have unconscious cognitive biases that influence how we perceive others.  This 3-hour training workshop raises awareness of unconscious bias and its powerful effects on student learning, parent empowerment and teacher/educator performance.  The training will touch on unconscious bias, categorization and stereotyping, power and privilege, and cultural competency, among other crucial themes. We will explore the perceptual shortcuts we make about people and our environment.  Participants will be required to: (1) be willing to learn, (2) stretch their thinking; and, (3) explore and respect diverse perspectives.  Information presented will challenge what we think we know, and subsequently open doors to self-discovery and hidden attitudes that exist outside our conscious awareness. Not only could this new knowledge enhance our existing skills, it could also ultimately serve as a catalyst to transform our public schools.

Advancing Equitable Policies by Assessing Racial Impacts

Jermaine Toney
Applied Research Center
(1:00-4:00 pm, Sheraton Hotel)

Public policies and budgetary decisions have enormous impact—positive and negative—on different racial groups. Instead of reacting to racial disparities on the back end, once discrimination has already occurred, promising new initiatives and practices are addressing racial impacts at the front end–-at the point of decision-making. In this workshop, we will review how organizations around the country are using innovative racial equity tools such as Legislative Report Cards on Racial Equity and Racial Equity Impact Assessments, as well as racial equity policy guides and budget analyses. When racial equity is explicitly and thoughtfully addressed, proposals can be improved to maximize positive impacts, while negative impacts can be predicted and prevented.

An Experiential Exploration of Belonging and Structural Racialization 

(4 CEU’s)

Terri Karas and Erika Thorne
(1:00-5:00 pm, Sheraton Hotel)

This experiential workshop, led by a social justice activist and a psychologist, offers participatory activities designed to make visible the interconnections between structural racialization, identities, and our human need for belonging. We will build on insights gained from these explorations to imagine outcomes that help us create a true democratic community. You will emerge from this four-hour pre-conference session with new experiential tools for addressing racial dynamics in education or training situations, and primed to creatively play with new ideas as you participate in Transforming Race 2012.  Everyone is welcome to this workshop!.

Facilitation Skills for Racial Justice Work  (3 CEU’s)

Cynthia Silva Parker, Curtis Ogden, Melinda Weekes
(1:00-4:00 pm, Sheraton Hotel)

Come to this workshop to explore strategies for facilitating conversations about racial justice lead to genuine understanding and solid agreements. We will practice skills and tools for designing and facilitating conversations and meetings about racial justice work that build understanding and agreement; dealing with challenging situations in meetings about racial justice work; making strategic choices about when to use process facilitation tools and when to introduce racial justice concepts to address challenging situations. The session will be short on presentations and long on group discussion and practice. In the session, we will discuss challenges we face in facilitating conversations, meetings and collaborative processes focused on racial justice; distinguish between the process and content of meetings and explore the implications for the facilitator’s roles and responsibilities; practice process facilitation skills and tools for working through challenging situations; and explore when to introduce racial justice concepts rather than use process interventions in challenging situations.