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Professional Dimensions Community Affairs Committee
Race Relations Subcommittee
Brief Report & Presentation for Professional Dimensions Annual Meeting
May 28, 2008
Leaders: Mary Dowell, Patricia Gorence, Gwen Jackson
Co-facilitators: Kathie Kueht, Debra Crawford
Subcommittee: Tracey Carson, Sue Denzine, Patti Keating Kahn, Joan Kessler,
Kimberley Noon, Penny Podell, Tracey Sparrow, Beth Bauer
Background: Over the months from April 2007 to the present time, Professional Dimension’s self-identified subgroup led by Mary Dowell, Patricia Gorence and Gwen Jackson came together to explore the issue of race relations and how PD as an organization can take the lead in making a sustainable difference in our community. It is the conviction of this subgroup of the Community Action Committee that a successful outcome of our questions and process is one in which we engage PD members and align with identified African-American women’s groups.
As a group, we made some tough decisions after considerable discussion and thoughtful deliberation. We decided to focus our attention on understanding the barriers and issues that affect relations between African Americans and other racial groups in our community. We agreed that a more inclusive approach including people of color, especially the growing Latino (Hispanic) community, would be considered in the future. We believe that this is a time of transition for many of us experiencing the realities of racism and race relations. It is a time for reflection and community-building. It is time to lead with conviction and address the issues, especially at the local community level. A growing number of leaders, through the work of groups such as the
YWCA, Interfaith Conference, and the Mosaic Project, are exploring ways to bring people together to eliminate racism and to work through issues of race relations. In the process, people are finding that they have common concerns and that they can work together to address them — even on the very issues that are related to their differences.
As members of Professional Dimensions, we believe that this is a critical time to consider what we hold in common, what keeps us apart, and how we can work together to address race relations as women to build a stronger, better place for all of us. That conviction is the premise of our mission: We are women of Professional Dimensions who are working, in our space and time, to identify what we can do to bring about action and positive change around the issue of racism in our community.
Our purpose is to create productive, meaningful experiences for a diverse group of women to reflect, connect, and take action together to address racism and improve race relations as they impact African-Americans in our community. Building on this mission, we believe it is essential to offer people an opportunity to have honest, open, and transformative conversations that are at the heart of beginning to live and work together. It is our intention to take an active leadership role and reach out to select groups of women identified with the greater African-American community. We would seek to create a productive, action-oriented experience and process to work together on an issue to bring about a sustainable change in our community.
In all of our conversations, meetings, and interviews with others, it seemed like we struggled to find one or several clear, simple issues and solutions. With respect to the participants in the race relations subgroup and the overall membership in PD, we sought to find the right role we might assume in leading the way and sharing the challenge.
The Process: Our first meetings were facilitated and augmented by confidential one-on-one conversations with approximately twenty-six (26) African-American women. Some of them were considered well-known and recognized leaders while others were friends known to us. The conversations were prompted by the question: What do you see as the top three practical problems related to racism as it affects women in this community? And why do you think these are the most challenging? Members brought back their findings to the group to share and discuss.
Our second set of meetings was with seven (7) selected African-American women’s groups that evolved from our findings in the first set of conversations. We considered how our findings and recommendations to PD might be perceived given our predominantly white membership. We believe that to be more credible, we needed more insights and perspectives from African-American women representing these selected groups regarding their experiences. Meeting with these groups increased our knowledge of the groups’ missions and what issues and activities they were committed to and working on. This expanded our network to connect and align with other groups and gave us the opportunity to be more inclusive and effective.
As a consequence and part of this process from the beginning, each of us became more aware of our own stories and experiences. Some of our reflections were based on questions and exercises from study circles materials that focused on facing racism in a diverse nation. For each of us, this dimension of learning had some unanticipated benefits enhancing our conversations — developing new understanding, trust and relationships. These reflections and learnings are also essential ingredients for building a foundation for effective actions and sustainable change over time. As an outcome, we all learned something unexpected about ourselves and others. We recognize that PD members seek different levels of involvement with the group’s membership and community and that some members, due to constraints, are not able to participate in some of these experiences. Therefore, we would like to offer several opportunities to the PD membership to consider. We believe that if we broaden the scope of this endeavor and set some realistic boundaries for education and engagement, we will touch many more PD members in ways that are realistic and meaningful.
For Professional Dimensions, we will be offering an integrated approach to address what we heard from you, our PD members, and what we heard from representative individuals and African-American women’s membership groups. Our approach builds on a theme and process of REFLECTION•CONNECTION•ACTION. The three approaches offer different levels of awareness education (reflection), engagement (connection), and commitment to action.
The three levels of experience that represent an integrated plan are as follows:
■ World Café (for PD member program/community affairs meeting – annual offering)
■ Conversation Circles (for PD members – special interest group – potential inclusion
of women affiliated with other African-American women’s groups)
■ Connections Summit (PD sponsored gathering of leaders and contributors from
PD and aligned African-American women’s groups)
This comprehensive, integrated approach to bringing about action and positive change around the issue of racism and race relations in our community would be directed and monitored by a steering committee comprised primarily of PD members involved in the work of the race relations subcommittee.
For more information, or to get involved please contact:
Mary J. Dowell, Johnson Controls, Inc.
Mary.J.Dowell@jci.com
414.524.2924
Patricia Gorence, U.S. Magistrate Judge
patricia_gorence@wied.uscourts.gov
414.297.4165
1915 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., Milwaukee, WI 53212 ■ Phone (414) 374-3570 ■ Fax (414) 374-3477 ■ E-mail pd@ywcamilw.orgDIVERSITY