Stepping Up: INELDA’s DEI Efforts
by Henry Fersko-Weiss and Jamie Eaddy
Last May our country was rocked by the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent protests that sprang up that spring and summer, even in the face of COVID-19. These events exposed an undercurrent of systemic and individual racism that has been a part of American life for over 500 years. The anguished, exhausted, and righteous demands for racial and social justice inspired us as an organization to face our Whiteness in a concerted way and to become more diverse, equity-based, and inclusive (DEI). This article is a progress report on our efforts so far.
Like many organizations we announced our support of Black Lives Matter and the work of eliminating bias in all its forms almost immediately after George Floyd’s murder. In multiple statements over the next months, we spoke out about the deplorable killing of Black men and women by police, the tremendous racial disparity in health care systems, and the emotional and psychological harm done to people of color by us as individuals and as a society. We went beyond statements by outlining concrete actions that we intend to take to explore our Whiteness, make our doula training more inclusive, and bring greater diversity to our hiring practices.
One of the first actions we took, starting at the end of August last year, was to bring in a consultant to help us explore our Whiteness individually and as an organization. The consultant delivered a workshop series that explored what an anti-racist framework would look like; the nature of oppression; how to identify and disrupt overt and covert White supremacy; the history of Whiteness; the nature of accountability, harm reduction, and repair; cultivating equitable frameworks; and moving from intention to implementation of our DEI goals. Every staff member, trainer, contractor, and member of the Board of Trustees took part in the workshop, which was conducted over a period of three months.
Between sessions we watched videos, read various materials, and wrestled with questions we needed to answer from both an individual perspective and as an organization. In the workshop sessions we openly explored our Whiteness, challenging each other to truly face our personal patterns of behavior that unconsciously maintain White privilege and oppression. These conversations were painful and enlightening at the same time. They helped us individually and as a group to more fully understand how we contribute to racism and what we need to do to begin the difficult work of dismantling that racism in our thinking and actions.
Another action we took was to create a Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Advisory Council that was open to INELDA-trained doulas. Through a process of applications and interviews, we invited 12 people to join that council. Everyone serving on the council is remunerated for their work. The Advisory Council created committees to assist in the oversight of our DEI work, make recommendations, and to get involved directly in our change efforts.
One of the committees reviewed our training materials as we moved onto Zoom in April 2020, their suggestions have been incorporated into the class presentation and manual. Another committee has been looking into how we advance end-of-life doula work in communities of color. Their research is ongoing; the committee and INELDA anticipate making concrete efforts in that direction in 2022. The third committee is dedicated to cultivating structural changes in the organization. We’ve begun that initiative by adding new, diverse members to our Board and staff.
We also hired six new trainers in June 2021. They come from diverse backgrounds, representing the Latinx, Black, and queer communities. One of our new trainers, Wilka (who you can read about below), lives and works in Mexico. She is the first of what we hope will be a corps of trainers from different parts of the world, helping us to broaden our perspective on doula work. In upcoming issues of Notes for the Journey, we will highlight our new trainers. You will also be able to directly meet our new trainers at this month’s webinar on September 29.
Another DEI effort has been the resurrection and expansion of our scholarship program, which gives people of color, LGBTQIA2S+, rural White Americans, and people with a disability who need financial support the ability to take our training and other offerings at a reduced rate. (Even at the full rate, our doula training and other classes are among the least expensive in the field because we want our offerings to be affordable.) Ten seats at each training go to scholarship candidates. That means 17% of the students in each class have a scholarship that allows them to take the training for an average of 70% less than the full cost. At the time of this writing, we have awarded 150 training scholarships. Recipients of those scholarships are also eligible to receive a discount on our business development class and certification program. With our scholarship program, we hope to bring many more people from underserved communities into the doula field and support them as they continue to learn with INELDA.
At the outset of our DEI efforts, we knew that no matter how committed we were, mistakes would happen and we would cause unintentional harm. This occurred in a March training class. Poor choices in how people were called on in the class, miscommunications, and off-balance instructor responses led to creating harm for the BIPOC students in the class.
We responded to that harm quickly. We set up a separate meeting of the BIPOC students to discuss the issues in the class with Jamie Eaddy, INELDA’s director of program development and an instructor who wasn’t initially involved in teaching that class. The instructors and the organization apologized and offered a full refund to those who wanted it, even though three of the eight class sessions had already occurred. If people wanted to leave but take the class with different instructors, we allowed that as well. And finally, for all those students who wanted to continue in the class—about two-thirds of the attendees—we offered a refund of half the fee they had paid, whether they had paid in full or in part as a scholarship student. The instructor who was mostly responsible for the issues in the class has since taken workshops and other steps to increase her awareness, learn more about how unintentional actions cause harm, and how to better handle harm when it comes up in a class. Through what she learned in those workshops, she has helped all of our instructors get better at addressing harm when it occurs.
The responses to the harm in this particular class didn’t end with apologies and reparation to the people who attended. Though we had already planned to revamp our training in 2021 with the assistance of the BIPOC Advisory Council, this experience informed further changes to the training material. Our goal was to update material, to add some new subjects, and to make sure the training spoke to the BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ participants we hope will come in greater numbers to end-of-life doula work. We were able to call upon our new trainers to help in this effort.
Since we felt it was important to make these changes for the sake of our students, we decided to halt teaching during July and August to give us time to rework the training. We have now finished that effort and we will start training again on September 9. We’re excited by how the new material has come together. But we also will pay close attention to feedback and will continue to adjust the training accordingly. We want our training to be the best in the field.
Our DEI work continues unabated. We have now hired another consultant to take us deeper into the individual and organizational goals of becoming more accountable and inclusive. The next part of our work will focus on cultural proficiency and accountability mechanisms for issues that might arise in a class or among our team in its daily operations. In addition to working with a consultant, our team has begun reading books together on topics related to bias. This quarter we are reading My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem. We expect to continue supporting new learning experiences for our team, so we continue to evolve our DEI work internally and externally.
We have also expanded our BIPOC Advisory Council and started a new LGBTQIA2S+ Advisory Council. Each council now has 15 members, all of whom are compensated for their efforts on our behalf. The LGBTQIA2S+ Council has just begun its work, so we don’t have a report yet on the group’s focus. As the council launches particular projects, we will announce that through the newsletter, social media, and special mailings.
We believe we have made important progress in creating a more diverse and inclusive organization. At times we’ve wished we could move faster, but we also understand that lasting change takes time. We know that we will still make more mistakes and that these mistakes may cause harm—although we hope to limit this as much as possible. Acknowledging the inevitable doesn’t excuse it when it happens. We will take corrective actions and will repair the harm the best we can. We also know that DEI work is never ending, and we intend to continue striving toward a more just future with the full energy and resources of INELDA and the people who work in and for it.