New Strategies
for Stronger Connections
Aleese Moore-Orbih and Purvi Shah, Senior Consultants &
Activists, Women of Color Network
The Women of Color Network (WOCN), a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence
(NRCDV) is a national grassroots initiative dedicated to building the capacity of women of color advocates and
activists responding to violence against women in communities of color. Through trainings, technical assistance,
and advocacy, WOCN helps foster women of color in the advancement of their anti-violence work and
leadership. The mission of the Women of Color Network (WOCN) is to provide and enhance leadership capacity
and resources that promote the activities of women of color advocates and activists within the Sovereign
Nations, the United States and U.S. Territories to address the elimination of violence against women and families.
Introductions &
Aspirations
•Roll call of who’s in the
room
•One-word aspiration for
our workshop
Brainstorm &
Conversation
•How are you connected to the
movement to end gender
violence?
•What communities do you want
to connect to and support?
•How do you define being an ally?
Becoming an Aspiring
Ally
WOCN defines an ally as a member of a “majority”
group who works to end oppression through
support of and as an advocate for an oppressed
and/or marginalized population and who
examines their own privilege(s) or unearned
benefits and practices that reinforce oppression.
At WOCN, we coined the term “Aspiring Ally” as a
part of our National Call to Action Project as we
believe that everyone can aspire to be an ally, and
that the process of being an ally is always
developing as it is a lifelong process.
Becoming an Aspiring
Ally
As a number of sources have noted, including the
Student Allies for Equality at Western Washington
University, ally behavior looks like:
• Validation and support of people who are different from oneself;
• Questioning of personal privilege and using it to benefit people
who are oppressed and/or marginalized;
• Being an advocate when an oppressed group is absent by
challenging misconceptions; and,
• “Sharing the power, taking a risk, taking responsibility, opening
yourself up to the unknown, realizing that you are a part of the
solution, leveling the playing field, accepting differences, making
allowances and leading by action.”
Becoming an Aspiring
Ally
Reflection & Pooling Strategies
• Can you identify one moment where you
believe you could have been a stronger
ally? How did this feel?
• Can you identify one moment where you
succeeding in being an ally? How did this
feel?
Becoming an Aspiring
Ally
Barriers/Challenges
Being a stronger aspiring ally is a process but this evolution
can be limited or impeded by:
• Failure to acknowledge power and privilege as it can be
challenging to recognize;
• The propensity to decide what’s good for marginalized
communities;
• Feeling threatened when marginalized communities seek
their own spaces and places; and,
• Guilt that leads to paralysis and often transfers the
responsibility of attaining equality to marginalized
communities.
Becoming an Aspiring
Ally
Strategies for Being an Aspiring Ally
• Come up with concrete action plans to support survivors who are
Limited English Proficient;
• Fund marginalized communities directly;
• Continue to deepen the data and demographics to identify and
build relationships with marginalized communities;
• Attend meetings of direct services providers and coalitions to
listen, offer support, and shape planning;
• Review grants and offer constructive feedback and TA on how to
develop and improve grant applications; and,
• Utilize implementation plans to enable collaborations and
connecting with communities.
Becoming an Aspiring
Ally
Impact
• Rev. Dr. Andrea Ayvazian notes, “Many of us feel overwhelmed when we
consider the many forms of systemic oppression that are so pervasive in
American society today. We become immobilized, uncertain about what
actions we can take to interrupt the cycles of oppression and violence
that intrude on our everyday lives. One way to overcome this sense of
immobilization is to assume the role of an ally. Learning about this roleone that each and every one of us is capable of assuming- can offer us
new ways of behaving and a new source of hope.”
• Without support from aspiring allies, survivors from 3-Tier populations
will continue to face abuse, encounter barriers, and experience
innumerable hardships. Or aspiring allies can help leverage privilege in
ways that ensure justice and safety for all members of society. As Dr.
Martin Luther King said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and
cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
Aspiring allies utilize this call to action to enable support and further
equity for un-served, underserved, and inadequately served populations.
Becoming an Aspiring
Ally
Resources
• 1) Paul Kivel: Guidelines for Being Strong White Allies
• 2) Interrupting the Cycle of Oppression: The Role of
Allies as Agents of Change:
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/sites/default/files/diversi
ty/docs/interpretting_oppression.pdf
• 3) Oppression Assumptions:
http://cultivate.coop/coopwiki/images/f/f6/NASCO_Action_Camp_Reading_pack
et-final.pdf
Brainstorm &
Conversation
Reflection & Pooling Outreach
Strategies
• Can you identify one moment where you
believe you effectively reached a nonmajority group? How did this feel?
• Can you identify one moment where you
believe you did not effectively reach a
non-majority group? How did this feel?
Developing Outreach
Strategies
Barriers/Challenges
• Need for increased infrastructure and organizational capacities
for CBOs;
• A need to recruit and reach underrepresented groups but
difficulty in doing so during the planning, implementation, and/or
funding process;
• Financial and time constraints;
• Need for staff training and development;
• Acknowledging and addressing cultural and socio-economic
issues; and,
• Dealing with competing priorities in a difficult economic climate.
Developing Outreach
Strategies
Strategies for Strong Connections
• The use of intersectional approaches or working across social
justice movements to support survivors across their multiple
experiences and identities;
• Conducting community-based research and outreach to
incorporate an assets and strengths-based approach in advocacy;
• Establishing services that are accessible to the broadest range of
community members and working to ensure that basic needs
among diverse survivors are not perceived as “special” needs;
• Incorporating a focus on being strong aspiring allies; and,
• Connecting local needs across regional, national, and
international borders.
Developing Outreach
Strategies
Strategies for Strong Connections
• Innovation: Saying it! Mentioning that we want to reach these
populations;
• Encouraging use of inclusive language;
• Educating: learning about 3-Tier populations;
• Identifying resources for subgrantees/survivors;
• Using planning processes to get people together and be diverse in
racial, cultural, faith, everything – bringing everyone to the table and
having participants share promising practices;
• Consistently funding and supporting culturally-specific trainings;
• Increasing number of applicants of culturally-specific programs; and,
• Identifying all the groups we want to reach out to – and start
contacting!
Developing Outreach
Strategies
Resources
• 1) Asian Women’s Shelter Anti-Oppression Working Values:
http://www.sfaws.org/values/read-more-about-aws-anti-oppression-workingvalues.aspx
• 2) Community Outreach Strategies to Address Domestic Violence:
http://www.apiidv.org/files/Community.Outreach.Strategies-APIIDV-2011.pdf
• 3) Hmong Women’s Dialogues Project: Our Voices Create Our Future:
http://www.apiidv.org/files/Hmong.Womens.Dialogues.Proj-Rpt-APIIDV-2007.pdf
• 4) Building Partnerships: Key Considerations When Engaging Underserved
Communities Under the MHSA:
http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/MH/Documents/BP_Key_Considerations.pdf
• 5) Building Comprehensive Solutions to Domestic Violence: Outreach to Undeserved
Communities: http://vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/BCS_UnSer.pdf
Developing Outreach
Strategies
Impact
Building new and stronger relationships with representatives from underserved
populations will:
• Change some of your assumptions about who underserved communities are and why;
• Demystify demographic data of underserved populations and social contexts;
• Provide opportunity for personal and professional growth;
• Enable a better understanding of the systemic barriers that prevent or impede some
populations from receiving services;
• Invite new partners and collaborators to program funding, planning, and
implementation processes;
• Increase communications and collaboration with staff and other partners; and,
• Further trust from underserved populations in order to access services more
frequently and regularly.
Defining Next Steps
Creating an Action Plan
• What are 1-3 steps you can take to be an
aspiring ally?
• What are 1-3 steps you can take to
outreach to, engage, and support
diverse communities?
Closing Circle
Reflection and Commitment
• What is one learning you have
experienced and can name from our
workshop today?
• What is one commitment you can make
today to build stronger connections in
your work to end gender violence?
Thank You!
Contact Information
• Aleese Moore-Orbih:
[email protected]
• Purvi Shah: [email protected]
• Women of Color Network:
Tonya Lovelace: [email protected]
800-537-2238
http://womenofcolornetwork.org