shadesofhumanity.ca

Municipal World Executive Editor Greg Crone chats with diversity, equity, and inclusion leader, and shadesofhumanity.ca founder, Joanne Kinya Baker, during an interview at the Western Cities HR Conference, in Calgary.

We are honoured to have been nominated for the 2023 Diversity and Inclusion Award from the CanadianSME Small Business Magazine National Business Awards.

Our team has been working hard this year and we are delighted to continue being your choice for IDEA consultants.

Thank you to everyone at Shades of Humanity for being you!

Here at Shades of Humanity, we treat every day as it was Black History Month. We strive to help organizations, people, and communities become anti-racist in all areas and believe in storytelling to help disrupt anti-black bias and racism✨



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Reposted from 🎂Gender inequality is a global, systemic issue which trickles into every layer of society. We’ve visualised the different layers as a trifle - what do you think?⁠
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We’ll happily answer any questions you might have in the comments.⁠
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Today is world disability day. A day that aims to promote the rights and well-being of disabled folks in all spheres of society and development.
How is your workplace ensuring equity for everyone? What barriers are preventing disabled folks from being colleagues or clients?




ID: a white background showing 4 illustrations of people marching with flags over a world map. Text reads “world disability day, December 3”

Reposted from

November 25th marked the start of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. ⁠
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To end violence against women and girls (VAWG), we must tackle it at every level of society. Learn more at www.equalityinstitute.org⁠
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Diagram based on the socio-ecological model of VAWG developed by Lori Heise (1998).

Repost from Explore these Calgary events and online learning opportunities to walk alongside one another on the path of reconciliation leading up to the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, 2022.
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Link in bio for a full list of community events on ckc.calgaryfoundation.org.

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What is Empathy? This description by Brene Brown is particularly accurate at the end and that is too often absent from how we communicate with one another now, especially when it comes to how we experience world events differently.

Nothing has amplified this more than social conditions such as Police brutality and community harassment of Black and Indigenous people, Covid19, and most recently the Queen passing. How we interpret the same things depends on our orientation to the issue and our points of reference. Our points of reference come from our history with something.

It's not that hard for people to sympathize, but empathy is a struggle for a lot of peoole because of the believability factor. We just find it hard to reconcile what we're hearing with our historical relation to the same facts.

We both know there is a sky above. That is a fact we can all agree on, but we see different shades of blue and don't believe what the other person sees because our experience looking at the same sky is different.

Sending off some lovely prizes to participants from our training sessions the last few months. Thank you for doing our little quizzes!



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Age bias affects our workplace and personal lives in many different ways. This type of bias looks at people’s ages through a myriad of stereotypes that can be both positive or negative. When someone is younger, there is perceived value in youthfulness and vibrancy, but are also seen as naive and inexperienced. Equating age with immaturity and inexperience is an example of age bias.

Middle age is often seen as a “sweet spot” in the workplace where people have influence and are portrayed in mainstream society as successful. For older adults and those embarking on a late-career change, age becomes a major bias to overcome. People are stereotyped as not being able to learn or grow with an organization, which is another example of age bias.

A study released by the Journal of Applied Psychology shows that diversity in age was seen as a positive. Showing increases organizational performance by cultivated resources such as social capital.

This week we would like you to reflect on your workplace and your inner-circle. Is there age diversity where you work? In your friend circle? How does your workplace treat those who fall within young/older adult ages? What ways can you increase age diversity in your life?

Image Description: A photo of six people of various ages and races work on a laptop together. They are looking at the laptop and are gathered around it as one older adult woman points to the screen. Above the image, text reads "Shades of Humanity Consulting, 52 Week Journal Project, Week 20, Age Bias" Below the image are two options that look like buttons. One reads "Decline", and the other is bolded and in green reading "Accept". Behind the main image is a blurred image of the people.

created this Rapid De-Escalation Model and we wanted to reshare!
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Rapid De-Escalation Model

Sometimes we need simple tools to navigate tough situations. Mindfulness, heartfulness, curiosity and compassion are powerful stances that can help us transform systems - but they can also take time that is hard to find in the fast-paced, capitalist dominant culture.

Recently, I've been working with a some organizations that need to provide their staff/volunteers with a simple protocol that can be used effectively in situations where they may be dealing with crowds full of strangers in very short interactions. How do you de-escalate a conflict sparked by the need to ask an event participant to change their behavior? What happens when managing a big group triggers someone's past experience of oppression or trauma?

The Rapid De-Escalation Model is a tool I've developed that can be used quickly and flexibly in a wide variety of contexts, especially where going "deep" may be difficult or inappropriate. I'm excited to see how this practice develops and it may evolve as we put it into practice!

EXAMPLE:

Assess: We're throwing a dance party and one of the attendees is rocking out pretty hard and bumping up against folks in a way that's starting to get triggering for some. How are we feeling? What support do we need?

Assert: "Hey, excuse me! Glad you're feeling the vibe, but I need to ask you to stop bumping up against folks if they haven't agreed to it."

Ask Questions: "Does that work for you?"

Affirm: "Thanks! I hope you have a great rest of the night."