The Leadership Development in Interethnic Relations (LDIR) program has been training leaders for social change since the early 1990s, when it was founded by a multiracial coalition of organizations led by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. The program's curriculum prioritizes the growth of participants' analyses around race, gender, class, ability, and more, alongside the development of effective facilitation and communication skills. This presentation will provide insight into the rationale and values behind LDIR's pedagogy, challenges seen and lessons learned over time, and brief examples of how we currently get participants thinking and acting on race, gender, class, privilege, and other facets of identity in an intersectional, allied way.

1. Developing
Social Change
Leaders:
Practices and Perspectives on
Fostering an Intersectional
Approach
Tuesday, August 6, 2013 11am-12pm PDT

2. Our Story
• Founded in the early 1990s by
a multiracial coalition of
organizations uniting to
respond to growing intergroup
tensions and violence
• First LDIR cohort graduated
from a 9-month program in
1992, a few weeks after the
Los Angeles 1992 civil unrest

3. Values and Practices

4. From the beginning…
• Early research informed the program’s paradigm around social
change leadership
• Sought to provide what others weren’t: a space for building
analysis and skills, combined with the opportunity to
practically apply both
• Program curriculum was designed to support relationship
building, dialogue, sharing of personal stories
• Facilitation approach honored the knowledge in the group,
supported a participatory growth process

5. Defining social change leadership
• Committed to social justice
• Emphasizes collaboration and
relationship building—
understands leadership as a
collective process
• Engages holistic and systemic
strategies

6. Expanding our lens
• A singular focus on race/ethnicity undermined the work
• Supporting leadership from a social justice perspective
required an intersectional approach to identity
• Curriculum had to emphasize how privilege and power pivot
around not only race/ethnicity, but also class, gender, sexual
orientation, ability, nation of citizenship/immigration status,
and religion

7. Dominant
Group

8. Keeping best practices
• Dedicate enough time and attention to preparation with facilitators,
tailoring of curriculum, and participant demographics and dynamics
• Recruit a diverse group of people to support a process of learning
from one another’s lived experiences of privilege and oppression. If
an identity is not represented, encourage the group to note how that
may influence conversations
• Facilitate in diverse teams—with different identities, communication
styles, leadership styles
• Create affinity spaces, with facilitators to support them
• Emphasize discussion guidelines, allowing participants to brainstorm
their own if time allows, or bringing preset guidelines

9. Keeping best practices
• Start by building trust to pave the way for deeper processing around
identity, privilege, power, and agency
• Never assume prior understanding of the vocabulary used—build a
shared understanding of concepts such as privilege, ally, cisgender,
etc.
• Expect and embrace conflict, supporting participants in using conflict
as an opportunity to learn
• Maintain flexibility, checking in with facilitation team throughout
sessions to make changes to a curriculum per group needs
• Always allow participants sufficient time to reflect and absorb, both
individually and collectively, silently and aloud

10. Ways we work
• Intensive series
• Capacity-building
• Consulting services and
customized workshops
• Public workshops

11. Intensive Series
• Facilitation for
Social Change
• LDIRs in Health
• Leadership for
Social Change
• Healing for Social
Change

12. Central Valley Leadership for
Social Change

13. Resource Highlight: Allyship
1. Self-awareness
2. Self-education
3. Creating and open
and supportive
environment
4. Taking action
Allies understand the many layers of
oppression, can identify positions of
privilege they hold, and actively work to
rectify inequity. They are committed to:

14. Healing for Social Change

15. Resource Highlight:
Isms at Work
A liberatory space is one that is free from
racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia,
heterosexism, classism, citizenship privilege,
religious privilege, ageism and other –isms
that affect our access to resources and our
general safety in this society.
We live in a context where all of the –isms
are alive and well, which means the –isms
are literally at work with us.

16. Capacity Building
• Philadelphia, PA
• Flint, MI
• Central Valley, CA
• Solano Coalition
for Better Health
• Gender Justice LA

17. Consulting Services
• LA Public Health
Department
• Center for
Nonprofit
Management
• Riverside Human
Relations
Commission

18. Public Workshops
• Facilitating
Intergroup
Dialogue
• Strategies to
Manage Conflict
• Supervising to
Empower

19. Q&A

20. Thank you
Keep in touch!
ldir.org
facebook.com/ldirprogram
twitter @leaders4action
activistsoul.tumblr.com
linkedin.com/company/ldir