How do we codify equitable engagement?
A praxis for getting all voices on board.
I’ve had a few enlightening experiences learning with and from my community on how to best engage them. After recently completing an equity survey campaign I began reflecting on what are the fundamentals of an equitable engagement design and how do they all fit together.
I want to first acknowledge that I learned this from my experience and continuous learning which in recent years has included the guidance of experts - Tammy Tsang, Matthew Tsang, Fancy C. Poitras, Wagella Hunt, Romila Barryman, Joanne Kinya Baker, and Anda Fabrig. Authors I have learned from include adrienne maree brown, Robert Livingston, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Leah Lahkshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. My perspective is grounded in anti-racist, queer and disability perspective of my lived experience. I am consistently surprised and enriched by the people I work with, walk by and share public transit with to the many people I don’t know the names of who have impacted this - thank you!
Finally, this is just my framing for how I look at this work and how it supports me and is one tool to support our collective equity work. In putting this out there, I welcome an ongoing dialogue that supports improving our work.
HEARD Theory
Heard Theory aims to frame how equitable engagement may occur to create a racially equitable, gender and identity inclusive community.
Harmony - the goal of bringing all voices to the table.
(Procedural) Equity - facilitating inclusion throughout the process with a focus on power and privilege. An important element in this is a strong understanding of safety - physical, psychological, and emotional to participate.
Amplifying- actively working to amplify the voices of the groups made marginalized by current systems.
Reciprocity - ensuring that exchanges of support and requests for engagement are reciprocal, meaningful and paired with accountability.
Dampening - reducing the influences of privileged voices and slowing processes down to support people to engage.
What does this mean?
When we are creating harmony we are creating a state where everyone can play a part in influencing the environment they operate in. This is the ultimate goal of an engagement to be able to hear from all perspectives and have those perspectives influence the final outcome, process and feeling that arises from working together. Harmony brings healing in the way it works to find ways for us to resonate with one another instead of clash. It allows space for people to be disagree (discord) while providing the space for peace (accord).
An equity engagement is a process so it primarily focuses on the way we DO an engagement and include each voice in the process. As well, the ways we address power imbalances that impact how each voice may have influence.
Amplifying is how we hear more from the voices who are currently made marginalized by the current state of approaches. This includes the following elements:
Frequency: This element frames how often, the methods and how loud the communication is
Impact: How a communication or engagement is impacting a group and how much decision making power they have in it. Communication should aim to amplify the needs of the group while not creating inequity for another group and authentically be co-written with that group.
Reciprocity: Look at how are groups able to benefit from and direct the process. Reciprocity in this sense is defined specifically through engaging with the audiences targeted by a communication and engagement and their voices should be seen as partners in directing the process.
Dampening is works to reduce the oppressive impacts of power and inequity in the process to ensure all voices are heard. This works through the following elements:
Minimizing decisions: decision making power amongst highly privileged and powerful persons is reduced and as well, decisions for equity deserving groups to engage are simple.
Accountability to Equity: there are a clear set of community-defined principles to guide the process so it is held to the context-specific equity needs. This ensures that persons most impacted by the engagement have a say at the fundamental ideation phase of an engagement .
Speed: The speed of a campaign must move at the readiness of relationships within the system. In other words - if equity deserving community members are not ready for it, ask why, and how to prepare them. The speed of an engagement is primarily determined by the needs of equity deserving communities and is focused on quality of experience over the outcome being achieved.
What are they roles and audiences in this theory?
Facilitator(s): They occupy the ‘translator’ or middle space between community and persons in positions of power. They create the environment for dialogue and are primarily responsible for leading amplification and dampening activities to create harmony.
Actors: Persons involved in the engagement who do not play an active role in reducing power inequity. They are not aware of their power and privilege or are actively using it to reduce the power of others.
Accomplices: Persons who are working in alignment with and in support of groups/identities that require equity supports to engage in a process.
Identities/groups requiring equity supports: Persons or groups that need specific types of safety, cultural, or ability supports to engage due to the ongoing impacts of colonialism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism and xenophobia.
Lets talk about it. What do you think?