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Coming Together for Racial Understanding

To view the program page for Coming Together: https://srdc.msstate.edu/programs/coming-together

  • Leading the Way: The Importance of Leadership in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Work

    Mary Emery, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
    Marcia Ostrom, Washington State University
    Mike Stout, Oklahoma State University
    Raquel Taylor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
    Eric Walcott, Michigan State University
    Rachel Welborn, Southern Rural Development Center

     

    This issue brief addresses the role leaders play in supporting efforts to increase dialogues around racial understanding. Based on a survey of State Training Teams who participated in the inaugural Coming Together for Racial Understanding train-the-trainer event (2018), six variables related to leadership support were identified that team members felt were critical to success including actively communicating support, verbally encouraging me in the work, actively participating in dialog, demonstrating support in the face of dissension and risk, and trusting the team to lead the initiative. For this work to truly make a difference, this brief points to the importance of matching administrative leadership efforts with expectations for support, particularly regarding aligning resources and time-on-task to the vision for change.

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  • How Facilitating Dialogues on Race is Fostering Systemic Change in Cooperative Extension

    Eric Walcott, Michigan State University
    Marcia Ostrom, Washington State University Extension
    Dawn Burton, Prairie View A&M Extension
    David Kay, Cornell Cooperative Extension

     

    One of the unexpected outcomes of the Coming Together initiative has been the many ways in which it has contributed to institutional change within Cooperative Extension. While Coming Together was designed to help Extension be more responsive to community needs for dialogue around race and racism, early outcomes have shown that as Extension prepares to do this work in communities, these efforts are forcing self-examination leading to shifts towards becoming more supportive and inclusive institutions. As a result of Coming Together, Extension systems are increasing partnerships between 1862, 1890, and 1994 institutions; changing hiring practices; making diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work more visible across Extension programming; and building capacity to engage more deeply in this work.

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  • Coming Together and Ripple Mapping Effect: Are We Making a Difference?

    Mary Emery, University of Nebraska
    Grace Langford, Southern Rural Development Center
    Anuradha Choudhary, University of Nebraska
    Mike Stout, Oklahoma State University
    Marcia Ostrom, Washington State University
    Eric Walcott, Michigan State University

     

    Coming Together for Racial Understanding is a dialog-to-change process for communities seeking new pathways for working together across racial/ethnic lines that seeks to foster understanding and build trust to take informed collective action for meaningful change, unlike required DEI training alone which seldom seeks to develop trusting relationships among participants. Using a Ripple Effect Mapping process to inform a follow-up survey, we found evidence that the dialog-to-change process does create positive change in shifting individual mental models informing personal and interpersonal relationships. We also found evidence of emergent changes in institutional practices and culture.

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  • Coming Together and Ripple Mapping Effect: Emergent Impacts Infographic

    Mary Emery, University of Nebraska
    Grace Langford, Southern Rural Development Center
    Anuradha Choudhary, University of Nebraska

     

    When asked to identify overarching changes from Coming Together for Racial Understanding, participants identified the following emergent impacts across the four levels of change. Some impacts were identified through comments while others were provided through survey responses. Below are sample comments identifying emergent impacts at the Personal and Interpersonal levels followed by survey results identifying Interpersonal impacts from Coming Together for Racial Understanding.

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  • Coming Together and Ripple Mapping Effect: Personal Change Infographic

    Mary Emery, University of Nebraska
    Grace Langford, Southern Rural Development Center
    Anuradha Choudhary, University of Nebraska

     

    When asked if Coming Together for Racial Understanding caused participants to do anything differently in their personal lives, participants responded with comments describing these changes. Samples of these comments are provided below. These comments were also categorized, and a survey was created from them to distribute to a larger pool of participants. Survey responses to similar questions on personal change are depicted in the following graph.

     

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  • Coming Together and Ripple Mapping Effect: Interpersonal Change Infographic

    Mary Emery, University of Nebraska
    Grace Langford, Southern Rural Development Center
    Anuradha Choudhary, University of Nebraska

     

    When asked if Coming Together for Racial Understanding caused participants to do anything differently in their interpersonal lives, participants responded with comments describing these changes. Samples of these comments are provided below. These comments were categorized and used to create a survey which was distributed to a larger pool of participants. Survey responses to similar questions on interpersonal change are depicted in the following graph.

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  • Coming Together and Ripple Mapping Effect: Cultural Change Infographic

    Mary Emery, University of Nebraska
    Grace Langford, Southern Rural Development Center
    Anuradha Choudhary, University of Nebraska

     

    When asked if Coming Together for Racial Understanding caused participants to do anything differently in their culture, participants responded with comments describing these changes. Samples of these comments are provided below. These comments were categorized and used to create a survey which was distributed to a larger pool of participants.

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  • Coming Together and Ripple Mapping Effect: Institutional Infographic

    Mary Emery, University of Nebraska
    Grace Langford, Southern Rural Development Center
    Anuradha Choudhary, University of Nebraska

     

    When asked if Coming Together for Racial Understanding caused participants to do anything differently in their institutions, participants responded with comments describing these changes. Samples of these comments are provided below. These comments were categorized and used to create a survey which was distributed to a larger pool of participants. Survey responses to similar questions on institutional change are depicted in the following graphs.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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