Approach & Outcomes

Challenging Racism facilitates these difficult conversations differently than others working on racial equity and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Our priority is to ensure that conversations are safe enough to take risks yet uncomfortable enough to explore racism and its disguises.

Our Approach

Our outcomes rest on these unique practices:

Time for Growth: Time is critical for behavior change. While others rely primarily on lectures in a short time frame; we are interactive and require the investment of time and self-reflection needed to build deep knowledge and to normalize and practice conversations on race.

Cohort Size: Our cohorts are led by professional facilitators in groups of 8-80 participants. Interaction is critical for building relationships and for the effective practice of having difficult conversations.

Our Curriculum: We support participants through a comprehensive anti-racist journey exploring three fundamental components: Systemic Racism, Interpersonal Relations, and Skills & Tools for Disruption and Action and our curriculum has always centered BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) voices and experiences.

Instructional Method: Our curriculum is based on the best practices of adult education to connect with all types of learners: timely and localized content, interactive discussion, personal storytelling, and diverse teaching methods. No lecture is more than 5 minutes.

Our Facilitators: Each group is facilitated by at least one facilitator of color and another white-skinned facilitator to ensure a safe and supported environment.

Our Materials: To ensure the integrity of our teaching and to maximize support of participants, we publish workbooks as well as a detailed facilitator handbook, including resources and reflection questions for post-workshop action planning.

Our Outcomes

Challenging Racism is known for these unique outcomes for racial equity:

  • SKILLS - We teach skills and provide practice to conduct difficult conversations on race. Most training focuses only on content, leaving participants without the skills to be effective change agents.
  • ACTION - Change happens when alumni acquire the tools and courage to act against racism. With Challenging Racism, participants develop their own anti-racist plan to use in their own sphere of influence.
  • CAPACITY BUILDING - We are one of the only organizations to offer specialized training and a practicum track for facilitators of racial equity workshops, Learning to Lead. Our Partner Program provides the licenses and builds the in-house capacity of new organizations to facilitate racial equity programs for years to come.