Anti-Racism Programs
Open Spirit considers anti-racism a key component of our mission and is working to continually add programming that supports this important work. Programs we have offered include anti-racism movie screenings and discussions, active bystander training, and a mindful anti-racism course.
Mindful Anti-Racism: A Call for Social Justice
This presentation was a workshop as part of Open Spirit Center’s Weekend of Spirit. Rooted in mindfulness, it addresses the question of why we avoid the important work of anti-racism and how we can take action.
Presenter: Danielle Rousseau, PhD LMCH is a professor, researcher, clinical therapist, and certified yoga teacher. Her focus is in both policy and practice. She considers herself to be a scholar activist and a justice educator. Both her research and teaching
are informed by her experience in the field of forensic psychology and trauma informed interventions. Dr. Rousseau’s professional focus has been in trauma services, gender advocacy, and advocating or equal access to justice. She is a social justice researcher and practitioner.
Mindful Anti-Racism: A Radical Exploration of Race & Resilience
This six-week virtual program encourages intentional anti-racism work through a multifaceted approach rooted in mindfulness, education, and action.
This program is rooted in the work of Ruth King’s work 'Mindful of Race'. Psychoeducational programming will address a variety of relevant topics including addressing how racism exists in systems (education, criminal justice) as well as how we can best equip ourselves to do the work of anti-racism in a way that is sustainable and impactful.
Educational components will address both theory and practice. All work will be rooted in self-inquiry, mindfulness practices, and embodied movement. This course will be led by Dr. Kelsey Evans-Amalu and Dr. Danielle Rousseau. Both bridge the worlds of academic teaching and research and mindfulness and embodied movement practices.
Due to popular demand we are excited to offer this course for a second time!
If you are interested in learning more or registering for our 6-week course Mindful Anti-racism, click here. Course begins in January 25, 2021.
Resources for Learning and Teaching about Race
Active Bystander Training
A bystander is a witness—someone who sees a harmful situation and has a choice to make: Do I do something? If so, what do I do?
Training Active Bystanders (TAB)… teaches how bystanders can interrupt harm doing and generate positive actions by others. We emphasize that active bystandership does not mean aggression against the harm doer. It means taking responsible action to help people in need, instead of remaining passive and becoming complicit. TAB gives bystanders the competencies they need when they witness something they feel is unfair, or wrong, or troubling. When people have the tools to create justice in the moment of need, it can transform those who take the training, the trainers, and the community.
TAB is taught by peer trainers to their communities, which makes the TAB message powerfully relevant and applicable across demographics. The lessons are interactive, using games, small group activities, group brainstorming, role plays and journal-writing. The power of TAB comes from those who engage in it—the peer teachers and the participants, the way the program becomes, through conversation, specifically relevant to their lives. Each group walks away from that experience with a changed and empowered vision of an individual’s role in creating a supportive and engaged community.
For more information or to be added to a wait list for our next training, please email Debbie Clark at debbie@openspiritcenter.org.
Mindfulness Practices that Support Race & Equity
Our Nourishing Teachers Project has created a series of mindfulness practices that support race and equity. These short recorded practices can help each of us to "transform racism from the inside out."
Dr. Danielle Rousseau and Dr. Kelsey Evans-Amalu, instructors of Open Spirit’s course based on Ruth King’s book and the work of others, have prepared the short videos to share key mindfulness practices. They have utilized a sampling of mindfulness practices from King’s work and from, “Stay Woke,” written by meditation teacher, Justin Michael Williams.