Opening Keynote
Opening Ceremonies & Tim Wise’s Keynote – It’s 2020 and Race is Still an Issue
With the Civil Rights movement, laws and policies were passed that helped to create positive changes, including making acts of discrimination illegal. However, despite progress in addressing explicit discrimination, racial inequities continue to exist across all indicators for success, including in education, criminal justice, jobs, housing, public infrastructure, and health, regardless of region. Without intentional intervention, institutions and structures will continue to perpetuate racial inequities. To make meaningful changes in racial inequities we must:
- deconstruct what is not working around racial equity;
- reconstruct and support what is working;
- shift the way we make decisions and think about this work; and,
- heal and transform our structures, our environments, and ourselves.
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Jane Elliot
One Race
Jane Elliott—internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, anti-racism activist, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education—exposes prejudice and bigotry for what it is: an irrational class system based upon purely arbitrary factors. And if you think this does not apply to you, you are in for a rude awakening.
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Panel Discussion: Health Care
Addressing Ethnic and Racial Disparities
Ethnic and Racial Health Disparities There are continuing disparities in the burden of illness and death experienced by African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Pacific Islanders, compared to the U.S. population as a whole. Eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care will require enhanced efforts at preventing disease, promoting health, and delivering appropriate care. Improving access to quality health care and delivery of preventive and treatment services will require closer work with these communities. The presenters will explore the ramifications and implications of racial disparities and what steps we can take as a community to address them.
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Panel Discussion: Education
Race, Status and Education Reform: Issues of Excellence & Equality
The current state of the educational systems in Florida, and Tallahassee is a microcosm of the nation's education reform movement. One important challenge in this movement is to ensure both educational excellence and equality for all students. This workshop will provide an overview of education reform issues as they pertain to the intersection of educational excellence and equality for minority children. The presenters will discuss a conceptual framework and strategies for change to ameliorate disparities in educational equality and excellence. The session will conclude with recommendations for practice, policy, and research, with an emphasis on what school-based professionals and reform advocates can do to improve the plight of ethnic and racial minorities in the current era of education reform.
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Tim Wise
Understanding White Privilege: What Is It, Who Has It and How Can It Be Unraveled?
"White privilege" is a term that is being thrown around a lot. Many of us who are white don't feel very powerful and certainly don't believe we have gotten anything we haven't worked for. Others of us don't even see ourselves as being members of a race. This workshop is designed to begin at the beginning: what is white privilege, how does it shape the systems and institutions of which we are all a part, and what can we do, particularly those of us who are white, to take it apart in order to create a more just world? This is not about guilt and blame; it is about taking responsibility for making institutional change.
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Joe Gerstandt
Understanding the Value of Diversity, Inclusion and Authenticity
Inclusion is not a state of mind, nor is it an intellectual endeavor. It is not a statement of commitment or someone else’s job. It is an active practice, and this session will introduce you to that practice. Anchored in a practical and logical model of what inclusion really is, Joe will introduce you to a set of commitments you can choose to make and a set of competencies you can choose to employ to ensure that your leadership is, in fact, inclusive. You will leave this session with work to do and tools to use, all of which you can take action on immediately. This is how you make it real.
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Dr. May Ritz
Mental Health – Prisms of Stigma and Historical Adversity
Research indicates that the Black Community, including children and teens, is 20% more likely to experience serious mental health problems. With an increased risk of sociocultural factors that relate to mental health, endeavors to combat racial and social injustices will remain incomplete unless the Community’s mental health outlook is also addressed. This workshop will bring a greater awareness of the mental health challenges in the Black Community by highlighting the causes and impacts of racism, stigma, and unmet treatment needs. Given that mental health disorders continue to be a generational threat, we will further seek to understand barriers to treatment services, disparities of access for emotionally disturbed youth, and most importantly, ways we can minimize the perpetuation of mental health problems in a systemic way.
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Yolanda Pourciau
Tallahassee’s 21 Day Race Relations Challenge: Building Bridges to Social Justice
Creating effective social justice habits, particularly those dealing with issues of race, privilege, power, and leadership, is like any lifestyle change. Setting goals and adjusting what we spend our time doing is essential. It’s all about building new habits. Many individuals and communities are experiencing great difficulties as we grapple with racial unrest, COVID- 19, and generalized uncertainty. This workshop is the kickoff to a 21 -Day Race Relations Challenge for those who are interested in creating effective social change habits. Participants will be given an opportunity to utilize tools that aid real lifestyle changes. Central to this workshop is participants’ commitment to adjust the way they spend their time. Over the next 21 days, participants will be asked to read, connect, engage, notice, watch, listen, and reflect to build new racial equity habits. This workshop is unique because we will check -in with each other to stay inspired. If you are serious about racial transformation, this is the workshop for you.
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TPD Command Staff
Law Enforcement – Connecting Public Dialogue to Action and Change
While progress has been made in policing in recent years, much work remains to be done. In this workshop, we will discuss the steps the City of Tallahassee Police Department has implemented to have a more positive impact on policing and enhancing the public’s trust and faith in the profession.
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Panel Discussion
A Place to Call Home
As part of the City of Tallahassee’s The current economic environment, strict lending standards, and tight credit present sobering challenges to would-be homeowners, particularly if they earn low incomes or belong to a racial or ethnic minority. By providing good information and guidance, housing counseling combats the unfamiliarity with homebuying and homeowning processes that make many low-income and minority borrowers eligible to own a home. In this workshop, participants will learn the dos and don’ts for first time homebuyers, information about down payment assistance, and the laws that protect fair housing rights.
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Dr. Kenneth Fowler
Health Care – Understanding the Effects of On-Going and Historical Racism
Have you ever found yourself holding your breath or jumping in your seat while watching a scary movie? This common phenomenon offers us a glimpse into how our bodies are wired for our protection, even when our mind clearly knows the threat is make-believe. Now, imagine how our bodies react to experiences with racism, no matter how subtle, unintended, personal or systemic. This workshop provides the participants with a new lens for understanding the effects of ongoing and historical racism on people of color on the one hand, and the etiology of personal and systemic racism on the other. The participants will also learn skills for self-care that employ the understanding of stress and healing in the body.
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Julya Denholm DeMaria
Making Good Trouble
JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE tells the story of Congressman John Lewis, an American hero, who spent his life fighting for voting rights and racial justice. He fought alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement and helped get the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965. After viewing the documentary, the audience will be given the opportunity to MAKE GOOD TROUBLE by registering to vote and discussing ways they can fight voter suppression and protect the right to vote.
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Jewels Smith
Finding and Writing Humor in 2020
As part of the City of Let's face it, 2020 isn't pulling any punches. This year has brought a global pandemic, the NBA playoffs with no live audience, a news cycle that mimics the Handmaid's Tale, the largest protests in US history, and the ultimate comeback of white supremacy—did it ever leave though? While it is the spring cleaning of years, 2020 may also give us fodder for our best writing. This workshop will focus on how to write comic strips to respond to some of the most difficult issues of the day—police violence, global warming, and banning TikTok. Jumpstart your humor writing career with hands-on activities designed to make the not-so-funny, funny.
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