Creating Just Futures: The Chronicles of Community Action
March 4 marked the third gathering of the Creating Just Futures working group, a branch of the Anti-Racism and Decolonization Learning and Action Team (AR&D LAT). For those new to our community, the AR&D LAT offers a very unique space in Calgary for individuals committed to their communities to learn, engage in discussions, and collaboratively address challenges on the journey to anti-racism and decolonization. By the way, if you're in Calgary, we'd love for you to join us!
Creating Just Futures emerged from the AR&D LAT, and focuses on creating capacity-building resources alongside and in partnership with community members.
This reflection post marks the beginning of a series where we share the ups and downs of our journey, hoping to offer insights into what it looks like or feels like to begin anti-racism and decolonization, whether it's in your community or workplace.
This year, we started by imagining what our work could look like and then worked backward. Our goals included creating:
An accessible curriculum designed to support community members
Amplifying 30 stories from community members, each connected to anti-racism and decolonization
Engaging in Systems Mapping
With these goals in mind, we planned out our meetings for the year which provides a roadmap in guiding our work. For instance, our February gathering centered on aligning our visions, while March was dedicated to grounding ourselves in story collection. Next on our agenda is systems mapping, followed by curriculum development, with each meeting designed with a specific focus and a call to action.
In our journey of anti-racism and decolonization, transparency is a core value. While it may sometimes be uncomfortable and leaves us feeling a bit naked, it's crucial for offering insights into the realities of this work. With that, a specific area of reflection emerged following our March meeting: framing collective action and mobilization. We know that meaningful collaboration cannot take place without an understanding of how one should show up and contribute. I mean, can you expect someone to help you with grocery shopping if you don't share the grocery list? Not really. Without clear instructions, the person helping you might grab orange juice with pulp instead of without, simply due to a lack of direction or instruction.
And as it relates to our work, the challenge is that we need everyone's insights, skills, perspectives, and connections to move this work forward together. But how do we communicate this in a way that inspires ownership and involvement without overwhelming or burdening anyone with extra tasks. After all, we’re all busy people!
We’d LOVE to hear your perspectives or insights. Have you navigated something similar? If so, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to send us a message or join our next AR&D to discuss!
Written by: Denyelle Fraser