Unpacking Bias and Depolarizing Race and Class
Session Type(s): Training
Training Tag(s): Operations
Starts: Thursday, Aug. 13 4:00 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Thursday, Aug. 13 4:50 PM (Eastern)
Without blaming and shaming, we’ll work in small groups to realize how we demonstrate bias and examine the ways in which bias can negatively impact the decisions we make. Developed to examine the bias between law enforcement and community, this model has been used in tense and polarized environments with great success. It opens communication and helps to propose problems. We will analyze and discuss participant experiences and collectively examine situational examples. Join us and be open to unlearning judgements and thoughts about others you may not know you hold.
Trainers
Gianina Irlando
Gia Irlando is the Principal at Irlando Consulting, LLC. Having recently left the Denver Office of the Independent Monitor as the Community Relations Ombudsman, she is currently working with several jurisdictions in Colorado and California to enhance their oversight infrastructure with greater stakeholder collaboration for improved outcomes in police accountability.
For almost seven years with the Office of the Independent Monitor, Gia was responsible for outreach and engagement of Denver residents, elected officials, community leaders, and organizations. Hearing the community call for better relations between youth and law enforcement, she spearheaded the creation of the Youth Outreach Project, Bridging the Gap: Kids and Cops. She secured federal grant funding, oversaw the development of the curriculum and convened an expert advisory committee to guide the process. The project recently was evaluated and demonstrated effectiveness and a notable change in perceptions for youth and police to thwart the flow of youth into the juvenile justice system, and this programming is now considered evidence based. Officers receive training on disproportionate minority contact and adolescent development, and youth are trained on their constitutional rights and their responsibilities when in contact with law enforcement. Community members are trained to facilitate youth and officers during five-hour forums.
Gia is a 2014 fellow of the National Hispana Leadership Institute and a graduate of the Executive Leadership Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. Gia serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement and on the State Committee Colorado Working Families Party. She served as the Co-Chair of the Colorado Latino Forum and on various community boards, including the YESS Institute.
Gia attended the University of California, Berkeley and California State University, Hayward, focusing on politics, communications and ethnic studies. From a young age, she marched on picket lines for the United Farm Workers and participated in political campaigns as the child of union organizers. Gia has worked for numerous national non-profits, labor organizations and for many years increasing political representation for people of color in elected office throughout the Southwest. In Colorado, she seated the youngest Latino on the Denver City Council and the youngest Latina and the first Latina Speaker of the State House in the US. Gia has had the great opportunity to work for state, municipal and community leaders and is an innovator in politics for candidates and issues important to low-income communities of color.
Mira Weinstein
Mira is an organizing and political strategy consultant with a thirty-year history in campaigns. She’s directed successful organizing and mobilization campaigns with feminist activists, union members, teachers and gun violence prevention activists. She’s also directed regional field operations for two statewide ballot measures and many candidate campaigns.
She designed and facilitated organizing education programs for each campaign, ranging from a week-long deep dive into organizing tactics to short 15 minute drills to help canvassers move undecided voters.
Mira conceives of campaigns and training through the lenses of diversity, equity and inclusion, recognizing the wide variety of experiences that organizers and activists bring to the work. Her guiding principle is that we learn white supremacy culture and must actively work to disrupt it.