Resources
Below you will find helpful links and resources pertaining to our business and the services we offer, as well as a copy of your submitted responses.
HOW DO CLIENTS WORK WITH JUSTICE INFORMED TO LAUNCH, RE-ENVISION, OR LEAD THEIR DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION (DEI) STRATEGY?
Our methodology starts with understanding and ends with accountability. Justice Informed provides services along a spectrum of engagement. Many organizations are new to being aware of or accountable to the practices, values, and urgency of DEI, or looking for new ways to catalyze existing investments in DEI. They may come to Justice Informed with a fully staffed, funded, and entrenched DEI plan. Alternatively, they may come with hope for creating a conversation to introduce DEI to their company/ organization. They may need support with issues within their executive team, due to a lack of familiarity with or outright resistance to DEI.
Know that DEI is a new type of work for many people and organizations, but like all work, it must be engaged thoughtfully, urgently, and accountably. Our years of experience has shown us that there are three major areas that organizations must engage to truly be impactful in DEI, and there are services within each area of work. These areas are Understanding DEI, Rooting DEI, and orienting DEI work to show Accountability to those with marginalized or minoritized identities.
1. UNDERSTANDING
The spectrum starts with establishing understanding. This area of work is where the focus is to grow consensus within an organization about WHY DEI is important, HOW it impacts their world and organizational performance, and WHAT drives the need for DEI internally and in the world. The purpose of Understanding is to grow organizational capacity for DEI.
It does not, however, guarantee it. In that, the work of growing understanding is important, but insufficient and cannot be considered as an ultimate goal or realization of impact by a client organization. Understanding is about the “talk,” not the “walk,” but is still vitally important in bringing along those new to DEI who may hinder inclusion, or deny the value of DEI.
2. ROOTING DEI
This is where much of “doing the work” happens. Rooting work is where DEI becomes about infrastructure, not initiatives. Once clients can show sufficient evidence that their organization and team has sufficient understanding of DEI principles, language, and importance, they move along the spectrum to ROOTING DEI into their organization’s structure and leadership capacities. Engagements in this area focus upon changing organizational policies and practices. Rooting is where we look at shifting how power is shared, and infrastructure for equity is established into the foundation of the operations, financial model, vision, and strategic plan for years to come. The purpose of Rooting is to increase the probability of equity through DEI.
3. ACCOUNTABILITY
Once clients can show sufficient evidence that their DEI strategy is enriched, they move into ACCOUNTABILITY. The goal of accountability is to ensure longevity of equity created through Rooting. Accountability is where we look at shifting how power is shared and infrastructure for equity is laid for years to come. Accountability is about restoring harm, while ensuring actions that redistribute power such that it is shared in a way that reduces the probability of future harm. Accountability requires that the organization sees itself as a member of a local and global community of people, as inheritors of traditions and resources that must center the marginalized, and as potential leaders for exciting work that joins humanity and institutions in mutually prosperous actions to grow our communities and societies.
CONSIDERATIONS
If your organization has never undergone an Assessment/Roadmap development, you will need to make time for that prior to engaging in trainings or implementation. Even our trainings require an initial digital evaluation. As our founder, Xavier Ramey, often says: “Diagnosis comes before the surgery, not after.” Justice Informed does not “skip steps.” If a client does not have adequate evidence that their staff, leaders, or stakeholders have a demonstrated understanding of DEI, we know that there will be resistance to deeper actions when we attempt actions that root DEI into the organization. Similarly, should an organization not have already established itself as rooted in DEI, it will not be able to shift the dynamics of power and access within the organization to ensure accountability to the Black, Latino/a/x, Asian, LGBTQIA, dis/abled, indigenous, ethnic minority, or other types of identity groups that need a robust DEI strategy and impact for the preservation of their organizational and societal opportunities the most.
RESOURCES
You are hiring a team of experts to come in and do work that is intellectually nuanced, psychologically rigorous, emotionally taxing, and physically demanding. They are bringing in decades of experience, networks, and experience to accelerate your work toward an inclusive operational model that drives higher revenues, diverse employee recruitment and retention, and reputational currency throughout the world. There are few schools that teach what we do. Justice Informed works only with client teams that are 100% committed to the work and have organized the time, permission, and budget to successfully move through and along this spectrum of activity. We do not accept every request, as DEI is not about actions it is about impact. Our company vision is to work with organizations that see themselves as future models of equity that those who do not believe, understand in, or accept the important work of making space for those marginalized and minoritized persons who have historically been excluded from social, economic, and legal opportunities and rights can see as evidence of the importance of DEI. Our goal is not to have 1000 clients who “check the DEI box.” Our goal is to work to build 100 examples of equity in a world still struggling to understand or accept the roots of inequality. Our work is urgent, and stems from the urgency of the identities of Justice Informed team members—people who need DEI to be real in a world and organizational traditions that have excluded our thoughts, families, hopes, and returns to labor. As a team comprised of primarily Black, LGBTQIA, women, and/or dis/abled persons, we need our clients to be successful, for our sakes and theirs, so that we can all live in a world that not only sees us, but also includes us in its growth.
GET IN TOUCH
All service requests must be completed through our online web form. Contact us to begin your Justice Informed DEI journey by filling out a detailed description of the opportunities for DEI, and the services that your organization is seeking, by visiting our website at www.justiceinformed.com/ contact. If you have a general question, please contactus at info@justiceinformed.com.