NINE-STEP ANTI-RACISM PLAN

1. Acknowledge We Need Help. Beginning in July, SPACE will engage the services of Project Inkblot, a Design For Diversity consultancy group, to help us identify our biases, co-design training for our team and help us create a roadmap to actively build leadership that better reflects our community moving forward. It’s time to bring in, engage and pay experts to help us operationalize racial equity by paving a new way forward and building explicit steps and tangible timelines by which this will occur. We pledge to publish our plan by October 1st, 2020.

2. Learn. White supremacy will only be ended when each and every one of us becomes actively anti-racist in our lives. The burden to teach, however, should not fall on the shoulders of BIPOC. There is no amount of trainings attended or books read that will dismantle the system without constant engagement and education by the white community. There are countless resources available for white people to engage with and we encourage our readers to do their own research. SPACE will provide our Staff and Board of Directors with access to the resources to become more actively anti-racist as a team. Friday morning, June 5th, 2020, we will watch Bryan Stevenson’s powerful TED Talk, We Need to Talk About an Injustice, virtually as a group. Beginning next week we will begin working through Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad. Non-white identifying Staff members will be given optional exemption so as not to place additional emotional burdens on them. Moveover, SPACE will provide funds for Staff who wish to purchase further reading (here is a great list to start). We encourage those of you wanting to do the work to purchase your books from a Black independently owned bookstore. Here is a list. 

3. Offer External Resources. Since COVID-19, SPACE has embarked on various virtual programming. Our July Book Club selection will be Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. We will convene virtually on Zoom on July 23rd at 6pm EST. Please sign up here to join the discussion. We will also be offering a webinar on Design for Diversity led by Project Inkblot as part of our Time and Space, Together Apart virtual programming later this summer.

4. Address Our Own Bias. In addition to learning, we must unlearn, as unconscious bias impacts us all. Moving forward we will ask members of our Staff, as well as program curators, to undergo unconscious bias training with BeMore, a company that trains professionals in science-based tools that measurably reduce bias.

5. Reenvision Our Fellowship Program. SPACE, and the nonprofit world as a whole, will only become more diverse when intentional pathways to leadership are created. Systems of oppression have led to the undeniable reality that BIPOC folks have been collectively held back from moving up the workforce ladder. We must do better to open the doors for all people to access entry level positions in the field of their choice. We follow the lead of Pay Our Interns which has illuminated that unpaid Internship programs lead to inequity and harm communities of color. Beginning in 2020 SPACE eradicated our unpaid Internship program and converted those positions into paid Fellowships. Additionally, knowing that filling out a long application is arduous for young people juggling jobs and family responsibilities on top of school, beginning in 2021, all interested applicants for SPACE’s Fellowship will only need to submit a resume - no cover letter required. 

6. Remove Unnecessary Barriers To Employment And Be More Transparent In Our Process. Requiring a college degree for one to even apply for a job is unnecessary and promotes the status quo. Beginning in January of 2020, under advisement from The Raben Group, we have removed all degree requirements in our job searches and will work to identify and remove other barriers to entry as this discourages underrepresented groups from applying for open positions. In addition we will continue to list salary ranges in our job postings as we know that a failure to do so directly harms communities of color. 

7. Amplify. As noted above, SPACE will and has continued to make mistakes. When engaging in Blackout Tuesday on June 2nd, 2020, one of SPACE's alumni, Nikki Vera, rightly pointed out to us, that making a dedicated effort to uplift Black voices for a 24 hour period is inadequate. SPACE has a platform and we need to be constantly using it to magnify diverse leaders across the board. Moving forward we will replace SPACE’s content with that of a BIPOC creator every Tuesday for the indefinite future. As Instagram stories are fleeting, we will also include these voices as static posts in our grid to ensure their voice stays permanent. If you’d like to nominate yourself or someone you know for inclusion in this initiative, please email SPACE’s Creative Director, Kate Eminger at kate@spaceonryderfarm.org. 

8. Hold SPACE: In May of 2021 SPACE will host our inaugural RESisTance Residency, giving time and space for activists on the front lines to utilize the resources Ryder Farm has to heal in whatever way they deem necessary for themselves. We see this as a way to continue to move forward in our work to intentionally support BIPOC artists and activists. We are undergoing the process of designing this residency now and will share our application process in Fall of 2020.

9. Donate. Finally, it is imperative that every white person opens their wallet and generously gives to Black led causes and organizations. We encourage you to give to grassroots organizations who may not be getting as much headline-support as larger institutions. At SPACE, each employee will have the ability for SPACE to make a $50 donation in their name to the Black-led organization of their choice. While we encourage you to do the work to find an organization that speaks to you, here is a list.  If you are unable to do so, you can email SPACE’s Chief Operating Officer, Allyson Davis at allyson@spaceonryderfarm.org, with a cause you care about and she can point you in the direction of a Black led group making change in that cause. We also want to highlight The Laundromat Project for the Arts, Soul Fire Farm for Agriculture and the Creative Reaction Lab for Activism; the three pillars of our work at SPACE.