One of the groups that I support is VISIONS, an organization that provides training and consultancy to support diversity. Read below for more.
Who we are: VISIONS Inc. is a women- and people of color-led nonprofit organization that has provided training and consultancy in diversity, equity, inclusion, and multiculturalism since 1984. We are proud to have developed a broad client base in the public and private sector, with extensive experience working with nonprofit and higher education organizations and foundations. For more information see: http://visions-inc.org/who-we-serve/.
VISIONS helps to create mindsets, practices, and systems that can navigate similarities and differences in a culturally sensitive and effective manner. Our process teaches people how to make sustainable change. It equips individuals and organizations with the knowledge, tools and confidence to recognize, understand, appreciate, and leverage differences. In accordance with our mission, we facilitate and support individuals and organizations as they create collaborative working environments that promote creativity, innovation, productivity, and equity.
Our racially and culturally diverse consultants come from a variety of professional, educational, and community work experiences. We work with “the head and the heart” in a non-threatening and supportive manner to examine and appreciate one’s own culture and that of others in order to build enhanced coalitions, cooperation, and teamwork.
Our approach: Informed by years of diversity, inclusion, and social change facilitation and practice, VISIONS’ model is built upon its understanding that change to any system must occur at multiple levels (personal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural) and address multiple variables of difference. We recognize that it is not enough to open the door to diversity at the institutional level alone. We have come to know that organizations must also address barriers to inclusion at the personal, interpersonal, and cultural levels. This approach reveals the attitudes, unconscious biases, and behaviors that prevent people from succeeding in organizations. VISIONS’ work is underscored by its unique, research-based, and copyrighted Multicultural Process of Change and Four Levels of Analysis and Change model and framework. More information on this process is available at our website: www.visions-inc.org.
David J. Smith Consulting, LLC 