The lack of BIPOC DEI practitioners in Australia...
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One of the things I've noticed is how many practitioners in Australia are white, cis, straight women (no hate; simply real talk with love 👊🏾 ).
As a Person of Colour I've often felt like I need to work that much harder - so much so that pre-covid I was contemplating moving to LA as although things are not perfect in the US, there are more BIPOC DEI practitioners there. 🙋🏾♀️
In the last year, I've noticed a trend of Women of Colour and People of Colour who want to do this work and have therefore approached me for mentorship. People that have LIVED experience but need LEARNED experience and are struggling to enter this field. They see me doing this work full time over the past several years and wonder, 'how did Winitha get into D&I?', 'How does she get clients?', 'How does she manage to do this full-time? and/or 'How does she navigate this work as a WoC working with mostly white leadership teams and boards?'.
As a practitioner, I've felt that my edge in working with clients is that I am someone who not only understands social justice, but someone that understands business and corporate extremely well. In fact, business is my formal qualification and a passion I've had since I was 15yo. In mentoring PoC to do this work I've found this to be the most value to them. They get the social justice work, they have lived experience. It's the LEARNED experience that they need. The application of social justice in the corporate context; the understanding of business, organisations and corporate to then understand how to move the needle.
When I first started doing this work I thought "I have two options, I can complain, or I can try and do something about it". I choose to do something about it. 💭💭
And so after a year of going back and forth, I've decided to do the same now. I can complain about the lack of BIPOC DEI practitioners in Australia, or, I can do something about it. I'm choosing to do something about it.
Who is this program for?
People who;
Are struggling to get a job in D&I because of a lack of experience/qualifications (bias and systemic inequity)
Want to move into a D&I role/career but don't know where to start and are feeling unconfident and incapable (i.e how do you take social justice and lived experience and apply it to the corporate/business context (learned experience)?
Have just started a D&I role for the first time and are feeling frustrated, unsupported and overwhelmed (i.e project managers instead Vs impact makers)
Want to start their own D&I consultancy but don't know where to start or are struggling to make an income/get clients
Are doing D&I related work and want to be apart of a community of practice (i.e tired of being the only in their organisation).
This program is not suitable for everyone and I might cap it at 10 people due to my client load for 2023.
I also don't want to run something that people don't feel like they need 🙏🏾
So if you think this is for you, if you would like to learn about corporate inclusion and how to do this work - either as someone that wants to move into this career field, work for an organization as a D&I leader, or start their own business like me.
In case you missed it:
You can download your complimentary copy of the discussion paper, So you've done D&I training, now what?, to learn how to make D&I training effective and to discover other inclusion solutions that work.