Internal Work
“Before any one of us can step into a school, before we can speak about equity or of a better tomorrow, we must do — and continue to do — the work of addressing the acculturated, unconscious, and treacherous biases that are at the core of our society and ourselves.”
– Shokry Eldaly, Founder
BIPOC Representation
Our work as an organization began with a recognition that educational institutions are, too often, at the root of inequity. For this reason, the question we ask ourselves at the end of each day is, “How are we closer to our mission of equity?”
Upon surveying organizations with a similar core objective of improving the learning and teaching environments within schools, we identified three note-worthy points.
- First, the majority of consultants hired by said organizations are white, or white-presenting.
- Second, the leaders and administrators of the schools with which consultants work are overwhelmingly white, or white-presenting.
- Third, the majority of children and young people in the classrooms attending these schools are non-white or non-white presenting.
In allowing this dynamic to persist, an organization reifies the message to both students and teachers that the ideas and decisions of a privileged few are what matters.
At Grow Society, we know that the need to respond to and disrupt this narrative is imperative. For this reason, we have sought to recruit BIPOC-identifying consultants, with attention to their support and retention.
Knowing that diversity without empowerment is insufficient, we continue to work to build a community of collaboration without competition. As part of our commitment, we:
- Have instituted a transparent salary scale and policy by which all consultants are paid equally in accordance with an assignment length or type.
- Support the development of our consultants’ intellectual property by ensuring consultants retain ownership rights over original products or materials they develop or create.
- Have ensured that at least 75% of our consultants are members of BIPOC communities in our first two years, increasing to at least 80% thereafter.
Our commitment to representation extends beyond the fieldwork done by consultants and includes our Executive Board and leadership roles. We are dedicated to ensuring that at least 80% of these roles are held by BIPOC-identifying individuals within three years, with attention to diverse gender-expression across all positions.
Internal Training
In line with these commitments, we recognize that diverse representation of racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual expression does not mean that we are free of biases or less likely to misstep. In fact, we recognize that, by being drawn to this work, we may hold more firmly to certain ideas or approaches because they “worked for us.”
Establishing a team whose work in schools is rooted in an anti-bias/anti-racist (ABAR) lens does not happen simply because we will it to. We recognize that we must begin this work as a team – with one another and with ourselves – in order to execute it with fidelity in our work, as a constant guiding force.
To this end, each of our consultants and team members must:
- Complete anti-bias/anti-racist training upon hire to further critical cultural competency and understandings of systemic racism;
- Demonstrate understanding and use of common language to navigate internalized racist oppression and internalized biases of white supremacy;
- Participate in quarterly professional development and reflection sessions grounded in a shared, core text and/or led by an external facilitator.