Co-authored by members of the Black, Indigenous, and Racialized Community of Care for Equity Practitioners in Edmonton.
As we began our discussion on the importance of building equitable collaborations, a member of our community raised an important concern,
“It’s hard to engage in this discussion when my current workplace situation has me feeling stuck, exhausted, and ready to give up”
As a community, it felt more important to meaningfully respond to a community-raised wellbeing concern than stick to a pre-planned agenda about building equity into our collaborative work. In co-writing this blog, it also felt important that we begin by sharing our collective’s systems navigation strategies with the Black and Brown bodies we envision reading this blog. You might be reading as a non-racialized individual and also find our strategies helpful, or you might find it broadens your understanding of what your peers are experiencing, and that’s okay too. We encourage you to keep reading.
Black and Brown individuals are forced to navigate systems built on colonialism and therefore continue to uphold whiteness at the expense of their wellbeing. The struggle to find spaces of hope in such oppressive systems is daunting. It takes wisdom, it takes courage, it takes practice. Below are some examples of systems navigation strategies offered by members of Edmonton’s Community of Care, learnings that have helped us stay within and committed to the work of building just and caring systems.
With that, if you’re ready to engage with the topic of equitable collaborations, we invite you to keep reading, and we invite you to revisit our strategies as much as you need.
In a world that often upholds inequitable systems, the journey towards centring equity, anti-racism, belonging, reconciliation, and justice in our collaborations is both challenging and essential. Equity-denied individuals face numerous obstacles while striving to change the system from within. However, by developing a collaborative mindset that prioritizes the experiences and impacts of those with lived and living experiences of inequity, we can pave the way for more inclusive and just collaborations.
On an individual level, equitable collaborations require us to know, listen to, respect, and celebrate the contributions and gifts each person offers in service of the shared goal we’re working towards. Equitable collaboration asks us to show up with authenticity, not forcing anyone to codeswitch, or mask our emotions, or requiring us to question someone’s underlying motivations.
Shared agreements allow equity to be at the forefront of interactions and decisions made. For our community, these agreements include:
Agreements need to be developed and accepted by each member of the collaborative to work effectively. We encourage you to consider what we’ve included on our list, but the real work is in developing agreements for the specific context of your collaborative and community.
When collaborations aren't equitable, the consequences can be severe. By allowing equity to be sidelined, your collaborative members may begin to experience anger and frustration when actions don’t align with words, voices aren’t heard and promises are broken. When equity isn’t centred, it is easy to break trust, particularly for equity-denied communities engaged in the process. Collaboratives risk downloading emotional labour or failing to offer relational and gratitude compensation for those with lived and living experience of oppression.
Our community recognizes that it can be impossible to understand the impacts of inequity for those who don’t experience it, but we remain hopeful that by using our voices, we’re able to offer a glimpse into the realities of our experiences that we’ve faced to lessen the frequency of harm recurring for others.
Certain conditions perpetuate inequity in collaborations: individuals exercising power over others and failing to share power, extractive processes and relationships, the reality of operating within oppressive systems, lack of trust, fixed mindsets, competition, unclear goals, hierarchical structures, gatekeeping, and resource hoarding. These conditions are byproducts of the colonial legacy we live within. It is our responsibility to further our own learning on these topics to prevent them from creeping into collaborations.
To foster equitable collaborations, the following are essential: culturally responsive approaches, consistent training and application of equitable practices, shared power among collaborators, transparent communication and decision-making, opportunities for reflection, mutual respect and integrity, spaces for joy and celebration, representation and community voice, reciprocity and interdependence, taking time to be in relation with one another, building trust, working through mistrust, and understanding both historical and modern-day forms of oppression.
Reflective Questions for Designing Equitable Collaborations and Developing Shared Agreements
Despite the challenges, there's hope in imagining a new way forward. By centring equity, anti-racism, belonging, reconciliation, and justice, we can create collaborations that feel joyful, safe and productive. Collaboration requires every individual to feel heard, valued, and empowered to contribute to collective goals.
Together, we can disrupt existing systems and build new ones that reflect our shared commitment to a more equitable world.