Movement x ROOT & SHOOT – Year 1 Report

Excerpt from the Movement x ROOT & SHOOT Year 1 Report.

In 2022, Movement Consulting began work with Root Out Oppression Together and SHare Our Outcomes Transparently (ROOT & SHOOT) to develop an interactive training program with the aim of “rooting out” systems of oppression both internally and within their network of organizations. In doing so, ROOT & SHOOT would advance its goals of:

• Implementing equitable and inclusive practices, including power and equity assessments.
• Providing sustainable, equitable, and inclusive anti-oppression leadership training.
• Creating safer conferences for the members of the different societies.

With these goals in mind, [Movement] collaborated to develop a program with unique features, which included:

• Small learning cohorts that promoted cross-institutional learning by intermixing individuals from different societies.
• Monthly workshops with a quarterly topic focus.
• Assigned work that enabled participants to practice and reflect both individually and as part of their learning cohorts.
• Monthly office hours to support community learning.
• A capstone project that allowed each society to identify a problem within their society and propose a way to uproot it.
• Strategic consulting hours that served as a space to learn more about different community’s needs.

Key results

Overall, we saw a positive shift post-training in areas including race & racism, leadership & professional societies, and confidence and self-efficacy in a range of tasks. This report highlights the most notable results of the program. For a full list of figures, please reference the Appendix.

Key results:

• Many of the respondents started the program with a desire to be effective change agents within their organizations.
• 62% of survey respondents reported that they achieved the personal goals set at the beginning of the program.
• Views on race and racism were generally progressive. Interestingly, sentiments around culture, immigrants, and race conversations showed a slight regression at the end of the program.
• Despite this slight negative, the majority of participants reported an overwhelmingly positive shift in their ability to support communities, identify needs, and engage in challenging conversations around social equity and justice.
• Respondents had generally positive feelings about and had a sense of belonging in their professional societies.
• Although it was recognized that leadership did not reflect societies’ demographics, their dedication to equity and social justice was acknowledged.
• By the end of the program, respondents felt more confident in navigating internal biases, reflecting on their social identities, and understanding their positionalities.
• Respondents reported improved confidence in addressing power, privilege, and DEI&J issues, including decentering dominant identities and fostering supportive cultural climates.
• There was an increase in confidence in speaking up on DEI&J issues, with the belief that leadership will take voiced concerns seriously.

To read the full report, click here.

This report was prepared by Isabel J. Rodriguez, M.S., CIPM, and Nicole Cabrera Salazar, Ph.D., in November 2023 on behalf of Movement Consulting for the ROOT & SHOOT RCN. 

Movement Consulting served as ROOT & SHOOT’s Equity Consultant from 2022-2023. They help socially conscious people build radically just workplace cultures through emotional, relational, and collective work. For more information on Movement’s work with ROOT & SHOOT, check out this blog post.